Underground Wiring

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kevinzak

Limp Gawd
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Jan 3, 2009
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We're switching to a new wireless company here in a month or so. Their receiver works on line of sight and in order for us to achieve that, we have to put up a 20ft pole about 200-250ft from our house. Now, the ISP wants us to lay conduit underground with a wiring pull/snake line (whatever you want to call it, it's late and I can't think of the proper name) for the area where the pole will be to our house. Basically I was just wondering two things:

1. What kind of conduit works the best? Inside of it will be two runs of ethernet (I assume (and pray) cat6 but they keep calling it cat5), one terminating and the other just as a backup. Should I just use regular conduit that you can get at the hardware store or is there something that would work better for a decent price?

2. What's the best place to get 300-500ft drag/snake/pull lines that would work with a conduit run? The run itself will be terminated at under 100m to comply with standards, but I figure a little longer would be better. Any particular models/places to purchase them recommended?
 
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1. PVC will work best.
2. It is best to actually pull the cable while laying the conduit for these kinds of runs, depending on how long the sections of the conduit is, Although it probably won't be more than 10 feet at a time.
 
You can get direct burial cat5e, this would be easier since you are digging anyway, why bother with all the time putting PVC together? I would make 4 runs and then you have two spare anyway. The only advantage of running it in PVC is you can add runs later, and it protects the cable a bit more.

If you don't exceed 360 degrees in bends and you can pull it no problem, longer distance might need a little cable lube. If you are going to use PVC definitely schedule 40 direct burial, make sure you buy sweeping 90 degree bends, I see assholes use white plumbing bends some work i had to follow him behind to do the pull.

Personally I live in a very lightning stuck area (south florida) so we don't even think about running copper like that, we run fiber to anything outside of a building. Ground potential is an issue with running cat5 in the ground I've been told.

See this link for more info: http://ethernet.industrial-networking.com/forum/display_question.asp?qid=130
 
As mentioned make sure you get the sweeping 90 degree bends. Your just asking for a kinked or chafed cable if you don't. Also make sure you glue/seal all the joints thoroughly. You don't want any water to get in. If it does and freezes in the winter time it can crush the cables. For a pull cord I would just use a rope. Something thin but strong that won't rot for a long time. Just make sure it's double the length of the pull plus a couple of feet extra.
 
If the run is short--you can just use Poly Line, it's similar to what you use to tie the Christmas tree down to the roof of your car, home depot, lowes, etc. sell it in small 500ft cans in the electrical dept.
 
Vorex said:
You can get direct burial cat5e, this would be easier since you are digging anyway, why bother with all the time putting PVC together? I would make 4 runs and then you have two spare anyway. The only advantage of running it in PVC is you can add runs later, and it protects the cable a bit more.

If you don't exceed 360 degrees in bends and you can pull it no problem, longer distance might need a little cable lube. If you are going to use PVC definitely schedule 40 direct burial, make sure you buy sweeping 90 degree bends, I see assholes use white plumbing bends some work i had to follow him behind to do the pull.

Personally I live in a very lightning stuck area (south florida) so we don't even think about running copper like that, we run fiber to anything outside of a building. Ground potential is an issue with running cat5 in the ground I've been told.

See this link for more info: http://ethernet.industrial-networking.com/forum/display_question.asp?qid=130
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I asked them about running fiber because I read these forums quite a bit and I see it gets recommended for outdoor runs quite often. He just looked at me like I was crazy. They're not the most competent people, I don't think, but it is a hell of a lot faster than what I have now so I think I'm willing to trade competency for that.

Thanks for the recommendations all.
 
100m=300 feet? A little long of a run IMO.
 
kevinzak said:
I asked them about running fiber because I read these forums quite a bit and I see it gets recommended for outdoor runs quite often. He just looked at me like I was crazy. They're not the most competent people, I don't think, but it is a hell of a lot faster than what I have now so I think I'm willing to trade competency for that.

Thanks for the recommendations all.
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Lol, He looked at you like that because he didn't know how to terminate it, or didn't want to think about the higher cost.

Off topic rant about this kinda stuff --
I had a job where there were two buildings across a parking lot that needed to be connected. There was a 2" conduit run already and the plans didn't have a mark between the two buildings that designated that the distance isn't correct, they just dropped both buildings on the page to save space. So the cabling guy just took a scale ruler and measured, it was like 250ft. He ran cat5e between them without my knowledge and a week later I was on site for a meeting, and when I heard he ran the cable I said what is the distance between the two buildings, he put the scale ruler on the plan and said ~250ft, I said look out the window and tell me that 250ft sounds right. (it was more like 375ft). He had to rip out the cat5e he ran and rerun me a 12 fiber cable.
 
kevinzak said:
I asked them about running fiber because I read these forums quite a bit and I see it gets recommended for outdoor runs quite often. He just looked at me like I was crazy. They're not the most competent people, I don't think, but it is a hell of a lot faster than what I have now so I think I'm willing to trade competency for that.

Thanks for the recommendations all.
Click to expand...

Think of it this way, if its running to a pole outside, high up, how are you going to terminate it into the receiver? They probably don't use a direct fiber connection, and find me a fiber to cat5 converter that dosent require power. They are probably running Cat5/5e. Why bother with more expensive cat6 when 1) There is no way the wireless internet will ever surpass the speed cat5/e can provide 2) Its cheaper for the installer.

Run conduit. Dont do direct burial unless you want to replace the line when it breaks under ground, gets cut, ect. Conduit allows easy upgrade/replacement to cat 6/ect.
 
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