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broke a cable line with aerator today!

18K views 34 replies 20 participants last post by  Cadzilla 
#1 ·
how deep are these lines supposed to be? this one was about 1 inch under the soil. I was doing a lawn renovation for a friend, spent about 4 hours out there, no charge. I aerated, roto-tilled a few areas.. seed and starter fert that i supplied.. i spent some time with a rake trying to level out areas.. I think i did a good job i hope they water!.. lol. i feel like a total jackass for hitting that line, but there was no way to know it was there, i didn't think you needed to call 811 to aerate? i always just watched out for sprinkler heads.

anyways, no exchange of money.. they were gonna watch my kid a day or two while i was at work. but they were not gonna hesitate to send me the bill for the cable line... lol. I managed to get them to let me pull it up and fix it.. I have a feeling they were trying to get money and fix themselves.. it was gonna be over 100 for comcast to do it according to them. its so good to have great friends. never again..
 
#5 ·
yeah, i realise that now. lol. I bought the stuff to fix it myself, plus extra connectors and what not in case this happens again on another job. I'm sure its bound to happen again eventually if the cable company is not burrying them any deeper. I'll be prepared next time.

You might as well learn how to fix or splice the cable

http://www.lawnsite.com/archive/index.php/t-148772.html
Here is discussion of the problems earlier. They are supposed to be buried deeper, but many times they are not.
 
#6 ·
811 calls are required.

Locates are only good to the interface, any splits past the interface are private not facility.

One must hand dig within 18-24 in either side. No mechaical work in that area.

Yes they should be 18 in deep, but they aren't.

You are taking on liability for that cable from now on.

Sorry fella's 811 is gaining a lot of power and one can get in a bunch of trouble by not calling.
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#9 ·
I tell the client before they hire me, I'm not responsible for under ground cables I might damage due to tilling/digging.
 
#10 ·
the line got taped back together last night and kinda worked, but i went out to splice it all back together with connectors i got from radio shack. it wouldn't work. so, I pulled up the cable in the area, and found that it was hardly an inch in the ground. and I had actually chewed the line all to hell about 6 different spots. the line wasn't visible at all, still it wasn't buried deep enough. this cable line never had a chance. I told them to call comcast back, and make sure they tell them that the line wasn't buried deep enough and they need to fix it for no charge. hopefully that works out. because if they don't fix it, i'm gonna buy a new line and fix it and bury it myself. so a freebie job will turn into me paying to work. I think a disclaimer sounds good... from here on out i'm gonna have something like that in writing.
 
#12 ·
the line got taped back together last night and kinda worked, but i went out to splice it all back together with connectors i got from radio shack. it wouldn't work. so, I pulled up the cable in the area, and found that it was hardly an inch in the ground. and I had actually chewed the line all to hell about 6 different spots. the line wasn't visible at all, still it wasn't buried deep enough. this cable line never had a chance. I told them to call comcast back, and make sure they tell them that the line wasn't buried deep enough and they need to fix it for no charge. hopefully that works out. because if they don't fix it, i'm gonna buy a new line and fix it and bury it myself. so a freebie job will turn into me paying to work. I think a disclaimer sounds good... from here on out i'm gonna have something like that in writing.
I'm afraid that a disclaimer from the customer won't stand up in court with facility owners.

You have opened up a topic which is much more complicated than simply depriving the ho of a few hrs of home entertainment.

Our infrastructure is in a constant state of disrepair, it is a combination of antiquated technology and temporary improvements to handle expansion and growth.

That new subdivision that you may be working in may have originally been 2 feet higher than what the existing grade is now, utility cover depth may have been changed by cuts & fills. Power and gas mains are the real worries fos safety but the bottom line is that all utilities are facility property until it terminates at a meter or interface. Hence the HO cannot release the equipment operator of liability.

Dial Before You Dig is the law and if you call in and use reasonable caution, minor damage is an in field tech call and can be either free or way expensive. That depends on how you have acted and reacted.
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#14 ·
I'm afraid that a disclaimer from the customer won't stand up in court with facility owners.

You have opened up a topic which is much more complicated than simply depriving the ho of a few hrs of home entertainment.

Our infrastructure is in a constant state of disrepair, it is a combination of antiquated technology and temporary improvements to handle expansion and growth.

That new subdivision that you may be working in may have originally been 2 feet higher than what the existing grade is now, utility cover depth may have been changed by cuts & fills. Power and gas mains are the real worries fos safety but the bottom line is that all utilities are facility property until it terminates at a meter or interface. Hence the HO cannot release the equipment operator of liability.

Dial Before You Dig is the law and if you call in and use reasonable caution, minor damage is an in field tech call and can be either free or way expensive. That depends on how you have acted and reacted.
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While I respect you on this forum, I have to disagree with you on this. I have recently found (the hard way) fiber optic line in a bed when putting in some bulbs for a customer. I cut a phone line last year when re edging a bed and have pierced a coax with an aerator as well. The utility company repaired all these issues for my customers. I do think the problem lies in that these service providers don't care about the quality of the install and just do the bare minimum. None of these line breaks were deeper than 4".

BTW the main gas line for my neighborhood is only 10" deep running through my front lawn, glad I called.
 
#15 ·
I have to disagree with you on this. I have recently found (the hard way) fiber optic line in a bed when putting in some bulbs for a customer. I cut a phone line last year when re edging a bed
I have to assume that you didn't repair either, you notifide the facilities.
None of these line breaks were deeper than 4".
These installers should be fired since both are installed after grading.

BTW the main gas line for my neighborhood is only 10" deep running through my front lawn, glad I called.
This is not about me being right or not. Once utilities are buried things can happen to make them shallow but 10 in is criminal.

My point is that you become part of the solution when you get a ticket rather than placing yourself in jepordy by not.

Things are changing and the consequences of unticketed damage are going to be more severe than we can imagine right now.

We aren't really disagreeing about that much knox.
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#16 ·
You are correct, I notified the customer and called the utility and everyone went on with their life. There is no fixing these utilities with any underground splice.
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#19 ·
I agree for aerations it seems useless, but for actual digging like planting or roto-tilling and such I would call for sure. Ive never had an issue with aerations but you never know I guess. Often times the cable company doesn't even know how deep it is anyway so the call is useless, imho.
 
#20 ·
Around here, the Comcast contractors bury them MAYBE 2" deep TOPS. I hit the one in my front yard one time. It was maybe 1.5" under ground.

They've even gotten to the point where they aren't tunneling under the driveways anymore, they're going all the way around the house.

I hit one of my customer's cable last summer with the mower, the dirt had eroded away leaving it exposed. Luckily, at the time she was using Direct TV so it wasn't in use. I went by there a few weeks ago and a new cable had been buried. I guess she switched back to comcast. She's a cheapskate anyways constantly switching service to save a few bucks. Doesn't seem like it's worth the hassle to me to save $10 a month.
 
#21 ·
A little aside about fiber optic cable. 15 year's ago i was talking to a guy who was installing a major (2in.) cable, he told me that to repair one they had to dig back 50 ft. on either side of the break to fix it and if that cable carried a lot of telephone traffic it could be worth a million dollar's a day in lost revenue. He also told me that it take's 3-7 day's to repair a big fiber line.
 
#22 ·
A little aside about fiber optic cable. 15 year's ago i was talking to a guy who was installing a major (2in.) cable, he told me that to repair one they had to dig back 50 ft. on either side of the break to fix it and if that cable carried a lot of telephone traffic it could be worth a million dollar's a day in lost revenue. He also told me that it take's 3-7 day's to repair a big fiber line.
Yep, he is correct. However, fiber is usually buried pretty deep and well marked to prevent that.

I work for a major telecommunications company and we have dedicated investigators on our landline side of the business who only work fiber cut cases (both accidental and intentional).
 
#24 ·
There is no code for cable lines. At least in NJ. Comcast will fix for free. They usually just hand spade the wire in if there are things in the lawn like sprinklers. If they use a plow to pull the wire it's still only 3-4 inches deep. Comcast is as far as I know the only utility that fixes for free. I can see why when their wires are do shallow most of the time.
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#25 ·
Years back I was using an idiotic barrell spike aerator when I cut the 120 volt line to their lamp post/mailbox. The community watch continually told the homeowner that if it wasn't fixed soon they'd be getting fines soon. Like an idiot I went to home depot & purchased "outdoor" wire unlike the indoor stuff they laid on the ground before sodding. When I started pulling the wire it only had to make its way up thru the thatch. I should have called in the county building code office instead. Then we'd see who gets the fines for over 500 homes all with the same issue.
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#26 ·
Im not calling locate to do 2-3" deep aerations. Period.
Bingo

A couple years ago I was Harley raking a lawn for a renovation. Ripped out a phone wire that was about 2" down. No one came running out, so I figured it was an old one. A while later, phone guy shows up and starts looking around and asks me if I had seen a phone line. Told him where, he digs up one end and finds the rest where it is 2-3" below the surface.

Turns out, when the account had done a renovation, they were forced by the township to do a sidewalk install. The concrete guys hit the phone line; the phone guy did the spade thing and buried it 2-3" deep and away he went. Then I came along.

He was decent about it but told me I should call MissDig\Onecall whenever doing this. I told him I don't think so. BTW, he dug a trench up to the sidewalk and it was at least a foot deep. So he knew.

Did I mention this was all in the right of way? It was also only a few thousand square feet, so by the time they flagged it, I would have been able to rake anything because of the road, sidewalk, utility poles and flags.
 
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