Electricity over foundation

[Ben Weston]

Hi all,

 

Our electricity line comes in from a meter cabinet the other side of the driveway (as it's 3 phase). It's buried at 600mm deep under the drive but BC said nothing can penetrate the footing so were advised to bring it up and above the top of the 600mm footing, through DPC level presumably. Having poured the foundations, it just doesn't seem right.

 

We're one trench block and two brick courses away from DPC. The ducting you see (which I'd originally intended to be buried in the foundation until the inspector said otherwise) currently sits on top of the foundation. Trench blocks would go either side but we'd then presumably need lintels above (where the brick courses would go) which would be very obvious and unsightly as they're out the ground.

 

I'm sure I'm missing a better way to deal with this?

[Temp]

Think I would just cast by own block with the duct through it. Chuck in some rebar above the duct for good measure.

 

If you were drilling a hole in the wall for an extractor fan you wouldn't worry about adding a lintel above it.

 

 

 

[Carrerahill]

22 minutes ago, Ben Weston said:

Hi all,

 

Our electricity line comes in from a meter cabinet the other side of the driveway (as it's 3 phase). It's buried at 600mm deep under the drive but BC said nothing can penetrate the footing so were advised to bring it up and above the top of the 600mm footing, through DPC level presumably. Having poured the foundations, it just doesn't seem right.

 

We're one trench block and two brick courses away from DPC. The ducting you see (which I'd originally intended to be buried in the foundation until the inspector said otherwise) currently sits on top of the foundation. Trench blocks would go either side but we'd then presumably need lintels above (where the brick courses would go) which would be very obvious and unsightly as they're out the ground.

 

I'm sure I'm missing a better way to deal with this?

 

I'd have gone under the footing with it in a duct.

 

I would just have your bricky build over it, lintel it to be on the safe side (although it will be totally unnecessary) then within your property you can take the cable to wherever it needs to go, issue you now have is that the cable is very near the surface on the outside, depends how far up your going to be bringing soft/hard landscaping but I would want coverage over that, if not get it housed in a red uPVC duct and get it down again as quickly as you can. 

Edited June 1, 2022 by Carrerahill

[JohnMo]

Here are two photos of mine.  J tube above footings, lintel in block work.

 

We have a reinforced slab and the j tube is cast into position.  The white box houses our meter.  Once the insulation and UFH pipes were in, a further 100mm of concrete cast over again.

[Ben Weston]

Thanks all! Yes, would have buried it under the footing but it's all connected up so didn't have that much play in it. The issue I have with lintels is that they will go over the trench block in place of the engineerinb bricks and will be seen as it'll be above ground level.

 

8 minutes ago, Carrerahill said:

 issue you now have is that the cable is very near the surface on the outside, depends how far up your going to be bringing soft/hard landscaping but I would want coverage over that, if not get it housed in a red uPVC duct and get it down again as quickly as you can. 

 

Yes, quite. That's why I thought the duct would go through the footing, continuing the 600mm depth. BC insisted they prefer the cables to come up from depth and lap over the top so the foundation itself is continuous, the logic of which I sort of understand. We can build up the earth a bit around the cables (they're all armoured too). It just feels wrong to penetrate the DPC all the way through; I can't see how that's better than having set the duct (which is corrugated for load) within the footing of a single-storey lean-to. But there we go.

[Russell griffiths]

Leave it as low as it is now, except a bit tidier, cut a 100x100 chunk out of the trench block and lay it over the top, no lintel needed. 

[nod]

1 minute ago, Russell griffiths said:

Leave it as low as it is now, except a bit tidier, cut a 100x100 chunk out of the trench block and lay it over the top, no lintel needed. 

 

13 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

Here are two photos of mine.  J tube above footings, lintel in block work.

 

We have a reinforced slab and the j tube is cast into position.  The white box houses our meter.  Once the insulation and UFH pipes were in, a further 100mm of concrete cast over again.

As above 

Pretty standard stuff 

 

[Ben Weston]

Thanks all. Yes, I knew there was an obvious solution I was missing: cut out the trench block. Obviously. It's been a long week!

[Carrerahill]

On 01/06/2022 at 17:02, Ben Weston said:

BC insisted they prefer the cables to come up from depth and lap over the top so the foundation itself is continuous...

They have clearly never worked on a commercial project with ducted services in their life. They have created a problem now.