Drainage & Electrical Conduit around pool

[Ascew]

Just ran into a situation where the electrician and the decking guy want a trench in the same place. The electrician wants an 18" deep trench to run a line to a Landscape electrical outlet, and the decking guy wants to put a dry well around the decking to catch the run off from the slope and divert it around the pool. The electrician painted his line before the rain, so you can't see it very well, but it basically hugs the stone wall from where I am standing to out by the shed at the back side of the pool.



The electrician was out first, and didn't say anything about run off from the slope being a problem. Does anyone have any thoughts on running the electrical at 18" and then filling with 6" gravel, then a perforated pipe, and filling it more gravel, then topping it off with a couple inches river rock? Or possibly run them side by side?

 

[ouachita]

If the wire is not in conduit (i.e. direct bury wire) I would bed it in a few inches of sand and put gravel on top of that.

 

[bob22]

Assuming the electrician knows what he/she is doing and you've a permit for the work, all will be inspected to ensure your safety and that of your pool's visitors.
Depth of trench and the need for wire protection depends on the electrical line (low voltage or house) and what it is made from.

 

[spawlish]

First, what a beautiful lot! Second, I've been reading up on the electrical code on this and have a few things that might help. I'm shocked at how little the electricians know when they come out. I hope you've had better luck. One electrician that is a friend sent me the chapter on pools from his electrical guide. The two things that are worthy to note in this case is that the electrical line HAS to be in conduit for a pool and that the electrical line has to be 5 feet or more from the pool unless space doesn't allow for it. In your case, I would think that you have space for two separate trenches. But, that's a lot of work. I don't see why they can't share the trench since it will be in conduit. I would just put the electrical in first and bury it with crushed stone up to the drain tile.

One thing I would recommend is to have the deck guy dig the trench and backfill because he will likely charge you a lot less than the electrician. My deck guy charges me $60 per hour for two guys, but my electrician wants $123 per hour for two guys. Overall, I've been finding things are cheaper if I do time and materials, too (at least for the electrician).

Did the electrician talk to you about bonding your pool? That's another requirement that my electricians didn't know about.

Best of luck--hope that helped!

 

[Ascew]

Thank you all for your input!
Thank you spawlish for the compliment

Our electrician seems to be pretty good, at least from my uneducated in electrical code, point of view. I am not sure what "bonded" is, but it seems to me that our PB mentioned that phrase when he had the electrician out the first time to ground the pool. So far all the lines in are in conduit (hard plastic pipe?), and the electrician has always referred to the trenches as being for the conduit, so I am assuming the rest of the lines will be in the conduit as well. Everything is on the up and up, and we are getting permits and inspections for it seems like everything. The electrician is coming out tomorrow to lay the conduit, and the PB is coming back sometime next week to bury it since he has to leave a couple days for the inspection. The decking guy was out yesterday to look at the site and take some measurements, and that is when he said he would like to put the dry well in right between the rock wall and the edge of decking. I mentioned the electrical line, and he didn't know if it would be a problem. He told me to take lots of pictures of where the line is, so when he comes back next year he won't hit them. We have so much fill it will be crazy to do the decking without letting it settle for a year. It was my thought to put the perforated pipe in trench on top of the conduit or next to the conduit so we wouldn't have to dig up the same area next year.

I of course turned to TFP for some input, this place is a wealth of information!

 

[dw9000]

If your not using conduit you can use UB 'romex' its rated for underground with no conduit.

As for putting both the electrical wire and drain in the same trench, I can only take an educated guess and say that won't be to code. I wouldn't do that unless i had to. Is it possible to come from one side of the pool for drainage, and the other for electrical?