Locating Fibre Cable

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#2813074 15-Nov-2021 11:42

A rotary hoe is pretty effective at finding buried fibre. Once you find the first section, it will quickly tell you where the endpoints were, and what route the newly found fibre used to take.

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#2813075 15-Nov-2021 11:43

I had a piece of cable on my desk that was dug up. the cable locator missed it. It was less than 100mm depth, black plastic armour diameter of a pen. Didn't seem strong, a garden spade would cut through it like a small root.

FineWine

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Nurse (R)

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#2813136 15-Nov-2021 12:00

When I had "instant-ready-lay" lawn installed their machine cut off the top 2" of the killed old lawn, then they tilled to a depth of 2" so 4".

BUT I also had blue-tooth timer pop-up irrigation installed and they trenched using a trolley mounted type of chain saw device that trenched to a depth of 12". During this process they sliced through the conduit (which I forgot was there) for a 12v cable that was buried about 9" to the pond . Easily fixed.

My point is you really should not have to go past 6" max depth for a new lawn and in theory the fibre cable should be buried deeper than that.

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

Bung

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#2813140 15-Nov-2021 12:04

networkn:
I believe it was in Conduit. They ran it in green conduit down my drive without burying it, then when it had to cross the lawn they dug a trench and I am pretty sure I wouldn't have let them bury it bare.

If you have part of it above ground you must know roughly where it goes into the lawn. It would take less digging than typing to find the answer.

networkn

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#2813145 15-Nov-2021 12:10

Bung:
networkn:

I believe it was in Conduit. They ran it in green conduit down my drive without burying it, then when it had to cross the lawn they dug a trench and I am pretty sure I wouldn't have let them bury it bare.

If you have part of it above ground you must know roughly where it goes into the lawn. It would take less digging than typing to find the answer.

Yeah, I'll need to go and have a dig around. The lawn is a bog right now, so I need to wait a bit for it to dry more.

Wheelbarrow01

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Chorus

#2813247 15-Nov-2021 13:53

The black ruggedised microduct used by Chorus does have a tracer wire. Basically, if your fibre lead-in is not laid in a PVC duct, it is almost certain to be in ruggedised microduct, which means the Dial B4 U Dig people should easily be able to find it.

If it's in a PVC duct, it's probably not ruggedised. It really depends on your situation. If you had an existing serviceable copper duct, the technician may have used the same duct to haul the fibre in to your house. But if your house is older and the copper was direct buried, then the tech is likely to have also direct buried the fibre in ruggedised microduct.

I tested a piece of the ruggedised microduct and found it to be fairly hardy. I attacked it with a sharpened serrated spade by repeatedly stabbing at it on a concrete pathway in an attempt to cut it (and standing/jumping on the spade with the cable wedged under the spade blade), I also tried cutting it with household scissors. Both attempts only caused surface abrasions and didn't get through the outer sheath. I did successfully cut through it with secateurs (albeit with reasonable force).

I'd imagine any large powered tool such as a rotary hoe could concievably cut through it, but more likely it would catch the cable around the rotor and then rip the whole cable length out of the ground in its entirety without severing it - the weakest points being the joints at the FTP and boundary.

In your case it looks like you should find the end of the green conduit where your driveway meets your lawn and do some exploratory digging there to confirm whether the green duct ends there, or if it continues under the lawn.

Chorus Ruggedised Spec Sheet

The views expressed by me are not necessarily those of my employer Chorus NZ Ltd

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RunningMan

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#2813329 15-Nov-2021 15:08

Just when we were having fun digging for fibre with a rotary hoe, @Wheelbarrow01 comes along with useful information and actual good advice. The cheek of some people.

gregmcc

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#2813363 15-Nov-2021 16:56

networkn:

kiwiharry:

When they put the cable in across my lawn it was done with a spade. They just opened up a slit and dropped the cable in. So I'd expect it to be about 3/4 to full depth of a spade.

Yes, my memory was that it wasn't super deep.

I thought they had to go to a certain depth as part of the spec.

They use a fibre duct, and chorus would have got a contractor to do it, so it would have been done the cheapest, quickest, nastiest way possible.

You can "pot hole" yourself for it and get a reasonable idea of where it goes, it takes a fairly good wack with a spade to damage the fibre duct, but if you take it easy and start near when it comes in to your house, you should be able to get a good idea where it goes without too many holes in your lawn

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#2813974 16-Nov-2021 17:28

So, this won't shock too many but shocked me. Basically, the cable is in the micro duct and it's about 20mm deep and < 300mm from the fence.

Frustratingly, there is about 4m of spare green ducting (which they charged me for) sitting beside the actual duct that contains the fibre, unused.

I am wondering what the chances of getting Chorus to come back and bury it deeper is, inside the green duct that is spare/left over. I feel it was probably reason to expect they would bury it deeper than that?

Jase2985

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#2813987 16-Nov-2021 18:23

networkn:

I am wondering what the chances of getting Chorus to come back and bury it deeper is, inside the green duct that is spare/left over. I feel it was probably reason to expect they would bury it deeper than that?

probably zero

especially if you want them to put it in the conduit.

They may come if you pay for it

quickymart

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#2814051 16-Nov-2021 21:32

Yep, the free install has been done by the sounds of it, that will be a chargeable request.

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sparkz25

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#2814147 17-Nov-2021 06:48

FineWine:

When I had "instant-ready-lay" lawn installed their machine cut off the top 2" of the killed old lawn, then they tilled to a depth of 2" so 4".

BUT I also had blue-tooth timer pop-up irrigation installed and they trenched using a trolley mounted type of chain saw device that trenched to a depth of 12". During this process they sliced through the conduit (which I forgot was there) for a 12v cable that was buried about 9" to the pond . Easily fixed.

My point is you really should not have to go past 6" max depth for a new lawn and in theory the fibre cable should be buried deeper than that.

just putting this here

quickymart

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#2814150 17-Nov-2021 07:20

That's for a new build, not for a shallow bury fibre install.

sparkz25

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#2814155 17-Nov-2021 07:28

quickymart:

That's for a new build, not for a shallow bury fibre install.

Dont you mean it's the easy way out? or the path of least resistance like sky installers?

The shallower the better, makes it easier for the homeowner to hit and for chorus to then shift the blame to the homeowner because it was never installed properly?

Shallow install so you end up in this situation?

If a Sparky was to install the Mains to the property in this exact manner there would be consequences!

quickymart

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#2814159 17-Nov-2021 07:37

No, I don't mean that. At all.

A shallow bury (for an existing property) can be up to 200m, what you've posted there is the process for a new property build, which is not what the OP was asking about.

Comparing it to installing a power line is not an equal comparison - how many properties today around the country don't have an existing power line running to them? Next to none. Whereas a fair number do not have fibre installed.

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