liveaboard

I need to dig a trench; well actually I'm building a machine to do the digging, since that's much more fun.

I try to keep Manuel Labor as far from me as possible...

Does anyone know what is the standard minimum code depth for power, communication, sewer, and water lines?

Ingles

I could only find this , it translates AOK, & basically states get in touch with your local authority & request info as the depths they require !

A que profundidade deve-se enterrar tubulações de água | Irrigação

macliam

Ay,different rules for different people on different days in didfferent places ..... why should trench depths be any different?

.... and I think Trump wants to crack down on Manuel Labor too!

RichardHenshall

Assuming this is on your own land, you are the biggest risk to the integrity of your buried services. Build your trench digger to dig as deep as you can and once you've dug it, get a little man with a spade to dig it a little deeper still. When you've finished all that build a giant crusher to destroy your trench digger so you aren't tempted to go back and undo your previous good work.

Knoxy_UK

Best check the piped things work first 😇

liveaboard

As I suspected; no one knows!
My trench digger will go down about 1.2 meters. I might not even go to full depth, I think a meter will do.
My irrigation lines [about a km of it] are at around 0.5 meters, and I once hit a public water main that passes through my land that was even shallower.
There was a lot of water suddenly...
I called the emergency number on my water bill. They don't speak English, no one there does.
Tubos, tractor, BOOM, muito problemo, muito agua I told them, and they came around to fix it on a Saturday evening. Nao problemo.

Old Biker

The EU spec is, as you would expect, very diverse !! Officially gas and electric around your property can be as shallow as 450mm with water at 600mm but 200mm minimum between services. But then if on land that may be plowed it goes down to 1000mm min for all services. Similarly if under a public footpath, gas and electric goes to 600mm and water to 750mm and finally under a road should be 1000mm. They are also very fussy regards having fine back-fill around the service pipes and compacting the back-fill in layers to ensure minimum sink of the finished trench. Add to this that each service should be in the correct colour duct... blue, black, green, red even purple these days for some broadband services. When did you last see in Portugal the correct grade and colour for underground foul pipe; the average seems be to what ever is the cheapest!!
But nobody will be interested in inspecting your work to verify that it is correct so just enjoy the experience and satisfaction constructing your machine and successfully completing the job. I have found that this approach has always worked here for me and I just have fun playing with my mini digger and dumper and ignoring health and safety

liveaboard

Thanks for the input;
Of course the depth of water lines is much about frost prevention, but that's interesting about fields that get plowed. As I said before, there are some water mains barely under the surface of my fields.

I had the MEO linesmen around yesterday to find and fix a fault. They said they would need to run a new line to my house, and I asked them about putting it underground and eliminating the pole and stay wire in my yard.
They told me the norm is a green tube, but on private land I can use whatever I want. They aren't particular about depth, but electricity mains should be separated and can never share the same tube.
That's a pain for me as there is just 1 service tube passing under my stone and concrete front veranda and I hope to bury my EDP cable in future.

Anyway, if I put in the tube they'll do the rest. For this I'll use a tool I made earlier, an implement for the tractor that pulls the tube underground. Max depth is 60cm.
I just have to avoid cutting the irrigation lines I installed a few years ago.

Troia

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