sti-wrx t1_jdadjbt wrote on March 22, 2023 at 11:40 PM

At work this past summer we were excavating WITH full blueprints and still hit a gas line. I would highly advise getting line locating done if there is ANY chance of hitting your electric line.

(I’m an electrician)

It’s expensive to do it, but you will feel pretty stupid if you end up in the hospital or worse just to save a buck.

InvertedOpticsPhoto OP t1_jdadqdh wrote on March 22, 2023 at 11:42 PM

Damn. Good point and I wasn’t trying to cut corners around safety. I was just really thinking there’s a safe economical way to do it. Thanks.

sti-wrx t1_jdagfit wrote on March 23, 2023 at 12:01 AM

No sweat. I like to give my perspective when possible about electrical safety because it’s an important part of my day to day.

If you have some visual cues you can possibly hand excavate (gently/with a shovel finding the utility and then excavating following the cable) for a small section. I’m not certain exactly the scope of your project either, so this may not

If you hit your incoming power you are relying on the protection device outside your home to cut the power. The potential for fault current is much higher than if you were to work on a plug inside your home.

Good luck with the project.

InvertedOpticsPhoto OP t1_jdagnui wrote on March 23, 2023 at 12:03 AM

Thanks alot. I was thinking hand digging to get an idea but I’ll probably just start with some phone calls to see what quotes look like. This is really delaying my project and I need to get it done before rainy season.