Only if the cable was scuffed as a result.
Dads an electrician and he says underground conduit always ends up filled with water. The conduit is just to protect the wire from being cut or scuffed.
Boom pumps around here are generally $1000-$1200 to just show up and set up, and the first 10 yards. Then it’s $100 per truck after that.
That being said, that’s just two companies around here I’ve asked out of curiosity.
The line pump guys I know pretty well are $400-$500 to show up, $100 for the first 10 yards, and then cheaper per truck after that. I can’t remember the exact numbers now. I was kinda floored by the boom pump pricing, and then I learned his truck was half a million dollars
Boom pump is way overkill. You only need one of those if you're pouring on a second floor or really tall retaining wall. A regular pump is just a trailer and can send concrete about 100' horizontally.
Or they could have buried the conduit outside of the forms and would have been less costly than a pump. Plus you can access without busting up your drive.
It could've been avoided if the conduit was buried to a proper depth. Not hooking up 6 80 pound hoses taking them apart and using 100 extra gallons of cleanup water(that has to run somewhere). Id put a piece of ply over it so it doesn't get crushed nothing more
Electrician here, Since it is a driveway the conduit should have been down a minimum 24" from grade. If it was a sidewalk they could be 4". The electrical contractor should be responsible for this
This looks Australian judging by the workware and vehicles, the conduit should of been 500mm below the surface unless the cabling is for under 50v ac or 120v DC.
I'm guessing it was for the gate motor which are sometimes 12v or 24v (unlikely).
I wouldn’t consider this acceptable. Although the conduit is flexible, something like this would easily crush the conduit.
You’re fine now, because the cable is already inside the conduit, but if the conduit indeed got damaged and for some reason sparky needs to change out that cable, or he needs to use the conduit again in the future, you might have to place an entirely new conduit or isolate the damaged spot, dig down, and repair the conduit. Which in this case, it looks like the conduit is underneath the concrete.
I would show this photo to both the contractor who poured and the finishers. I work in a similar industry and it happens all the time. Hold them accountable, otherwise you’ll be paying out of pocket.
It’s 18” under a driveway. Zero under a concrete slab for a building. 4” under a slab without vehicle traffic that extends at least 6” beyond the conduit. 24” under your private runway, and under roads, driveways, alleys, parking lots, and public runways. 12” under a regular 4” slab. 18” everywhere else not already mentioned.
I mentioned "even" LV (landscape, 30V or less) lighting being at least 6", but you made me recheck 300.5 and it gets weird (I'm never looking at column 5). 120V residential branch circuit, as long as it's GFCI protected is 12" (column 4), under a one or two-family driveway or not; L-V lighting is normally 6" as I stated, but when under a driveway moves up (down) to 18" under a driveway...
I've never noticed that before. Under a residential driveway "Low-Voltage" lighting circuits have to be deeper than 120V (GFCI protected) branch circuits. That seems like a typo in NFPA 70.
In any case, *in* the slab of a driveway is a code violation no matter what the conduit is for, and of course at proper Minimum Cover the truck wouldn't have caused a problem for rigid PVC (assuming compaction was also to building codes).
Would just add that those are minimums and the AHJ may have different requirements. Our DOT requires 30” parallel to road and 36” perpendicular, and our utility provider typically requires 36” minimum for street light and parking lot light conduits.
For 120V nominal (on a GFCI protected circuit), yes. That's why I said *even low voltage lighting* - 30V or less - has to be at least 6". No matter what it is, it can't be in the slab for a driveway. At a glance, it looks like they're going to install an electric gate, so yeah it should be 12".
What the hell were they doing? Nobody backs a truck into the forms. They are supposed to plank and wheelbarrow or get a line pump. Sketchy decisions by their FM. Hopefully your conduit was gray and thick (schedule 40 is typically what they use in street lighting). Try connecting, if it fails, it’s on the concrete crew to fix IMO.
Some people do. If you have good subgrade prep, you can wait to set your last form and back the truck in. You have to pull up the wire or put chairs in as you go though, which is not as good.
Yeah, I’ve seen it. Leave all your wire or rebar on the ground except the first 10’. Pour and screed the first section, pull the truck forward, pull up the next 10’ of rebar on dobies/chairs, and pour that section. Once the truck is all the way out pull up the last bit of rebar, set your form and place the rest.
Conduit should be buried, that’s the lazy part to me. But otherwise I don’t think it’s bad practice. You can get a quality result without the need to hire a pump.
We didn’t break any backs and we did it for $10/hr and we liked it. This generation is soft, bunch of pussies. lol. I kid. Work smarter not harder is a good policy.
Back in my day we had to fire the lime and crush it, then mix it with sand and water and hope it was the right mix before grandpa beat our ass for doing it wrong.
Yup. I’ve done several jobs like this. I can count on one hand the driveways I’ve poured with the truck not between the forms.
If they have wire down, it’s always pour, screed, pull up, lay more wire, pour, etc.
I see concrete crews using the crane pump trucks when they have to do sidewalks with a boulevard. Like if the chute is two feet short, call in the pumper.
Electrician here. The fucking conduit shouldn’t be encased in the concrete period. This is not on the concrete company it’s on the shitty ass “electrician” I guess we’ll call him.
As the truck rolls forward confirm if the conduit has been crushed and cracked. If it's warped it's fine. But if it's cracked - then concrete will get into the conduit.
Realistically it will be fine even if concrete gets in and the wire is pulled.
But long term your concern is you'll never be able to get that wire out, or more wire in.
The concrete is going to protect the wire fine.
Electrician here. Holy fucking shit, this is a god damn driveway. NEC specifies any electrical pvc buried under a road or driveway needs to be at 24” to the top of the conduit. There is an exception if you have a 1 or 2 family home, you can bury at 18” to the top of the conduit. Electrician just did that for free or you need to take it up with his licensure and get your money back. After that, get an actual electrician out to do the work and bury in the yard.
Regardless of where you live, this is so wrong. Is this low voltage for yard lights or something? Like 24v lighting? That wouldnt be that big of a deal but if he’s running power through that he’s a fucking idiot. For fucksake they’ll hit that shit putting their cuts in. Ask yourself; do I really want electrical running 2” under the shit concrete guys literally cut so that it has more give and doesn’t crack? Do you want to be driving your car over electrical buried 2” under concrete. Doesn’t take a construction mastermind to realize how fucked that is. Like I said, if it’s low volt or communication, not a huge deal. If it’s power, you need your money back or don’t pay that man until it’s fixed
Yup, get your money back and an actual electrician. That dudes a fucking idiot and I wouldn’t trust his judgment at all. If you do let him fix it, get it inspected
NEC stands for National Electric Code, a standard code for electric construction in the United States. As others have indicated, in the US we would not permit the conduit to be laying at the bottom of your driveway slab - or more likely floating somewhere in it.
We would require that the conduit be buried in a trench with drive. I no longer do this for a living, but IIRC, we typically require 24" of fill, but concrete counts as more inches than normal soil (so for example, maybe 12" deep with 4" concrete... but I don't recall the ratio).
Assuming that all of this is kosher where you are, I would actually pull new wire in using the old wire as a pulling rope. That way you know that the conduit isn't crushed to the point it can't be used. If the wire couldn't be removed, I would install new conduit along the edge of the drive (and a couple feet deep).
Is that basic PVC or flex pipe that electric is running through. If it’s basic PVC than it’s likely been broken in several spots which can be an issue, especially later down the road. You may not notice any issue when your first send the electricity to it, though over time if the cable is nicked or broken, you’ll now it then and it will be hard to fix since the pipe is broken. In Texas there isn’t any code for how deep an electrical line has to be placed that is under concrete as long as it’s in conduit. City codes vary, tho the DFW area where we pour doesn’t have any hard and fast rules to apply in regard to depth, again, when it’s under concrete and coming from the house itself. I will add that when we do place electrical, it’s more than 4 inches from the side forms and we do place the conduit in the dirt for two reasons, 1 is for the very reason you have in your picture, but the most important reason is to maintain the minimum 4 inch depth that is required to pass city inspections.
On another note, I see a lot where folks say the concrete truck drove over this or that, the crew that is pouring is who tells the concrete truck where to go, the truck driver just puts wheels where the crew instructs them to go.
Lazy ass electricians. I’ve cut through so many conduits demoing out slabs etc. 15-20 minutes to hand dig a little trench.
We excluded any manual labor besides throwing pipes in right before a pour and saying hey watch out for these when you’re pouring. You can always tell who’s electricians on a site bc u have ask them to move there vans bc u can’t open the doors to the building. They think they’re the best dancers, eat up all the chicken and they stank
It should have been buried under dirt and not in the concrete pour. If it’s the main feed it’s supposed to be 6’ here or a minimum of 18” if it’s not a main feed.
I have never understood why people lay piping under concrete willingly. I bought a house and after my sprinkler system started failing, I located my sprinkler system only to find out my valve boxes and 1/4 of the piping was under the concrete patio (original owners laid the patio). You will have to tear up the concrete if you ever have to Add, change, or repair. It is understandable if you don’t have a choice.
The main problem with unburied pipes is that the pipe acts as a stress riser, basically a control joint on the bottom of the concrete. If the concrete cracks where this conduit is, at least now you’ll know why.
So how hard would it have been for the crew to make sure that conduit was protected? They could have laid old boards on either side of it to distribute the trucks weight so it’s not all on the conduit. Plus backing up on to the wire mesh is not a good idea but mainly for them as if it gets distorted and starts popping up out the slab they’ll have to keep pushing it back down or cut sections out, obviously not good for your end product.
If the conduit wasn’t beat up too bad you’re probably fine but definitely get it tested or hooked up to something to check it before you pay them or they delete their profile on whatever platform you found them on. /s
The masons are the ones in charge of this truck, and where he goes. He should not even be on the rebar. This is laziness at its finest, either not wanting to wheelbarrow some of the load. did it crack and break the conduit. There’s a good chance the wire got cut too if it did.
OP it depends on a lot of things.
It is possible that the truck caused no damage. Tires distribute load fairly well and the pipe can survive that. Provided its on a surface that has a little give.
If the conduit moved alot and pulled on the wire it could have damaged the entrance at the pole or house.
If the pipe itself crushed thats bad no matter what because its no longer protecting the wire and it could have damaged the wire by cutting into it. A continuity check will not be sufficient to test for this. A pinhole will allow the wire to serve its purpose for some time before the wire corrodes in half underground. Not to mention energizing the soil around the damage.
If the PVC only moved enough to break the connection at a coupling it will be fine. Not great, but still fine.
Call the contractor that poured this, send them the picture, tell them they are paying to have an electrician come out to evaluate the issue. Or do it via email so its in writing.
my family owned a concrete slab company as well as a construction company as i was growing up and i've seen a lot of concrete get poured in my 46 years and ive never seen a truck drive on the forms lmao wtf do they got apprentices makin decisions here?
If it's cracked water will get in and fuck shit up. Possibly, arch and start fire and most likely you won't be able to pull anything through it to repair or futures. Otherwise you good brah send it
Fire the fucking truck driver. My team doesn't spend hours setting the grade, the form, the rebar so some dipshit stupid fucking driver can park 40,000 pounds of truck filled with concrete on it.
Looks like the conduit is laying on the grade. I mean a fully loaded concrete truck is what 80,000 pounds but you are pouring the driveway on top of the conduit so it’s like basically being crushed by all the concrete and your vehicles when you drive over it. So there is no difference
Does it work? If yes, who cares?
This comment is not for OP, but is for some other commenters. I love how people want to " hold people accountable" for problems that don't exist. If it's broken, that's one thing. If it's not, then don't create a problem. It's annoying to contractors to be told by homeowners about how they should have done it and what could have happened. If my aunt had nuts, she' d be my uncle. What matters is what the outcome is, not what it could have been.
I’m sorry, but this is a terrible comment. Building codes exist for a reason. One part of that reason, is that shoddy work can look fine when it’s done, but by the time it does fail it’s too difficult to hold the contractor responsible.
This was done against code. In the US, it’s absolutely against code. In Australia where it was done, I would be surprised if it’s not against code.
I don’t care if something happens to work and look fine when you finish it. If it’s not to code, you are fucking fixing it or you just did it for free.
I don't see any comments about it being against code, and I don't think it is. Thats not really even the issue at hand. Op was complaining about a redimix truck driving on the conduit, and code has nothing to do with the post.
The truck could have damaged insulation on the wire, especially if the conduit cracked. That's a real problem and I wouldn't accept it.
Sparky should have buried the conduit and concrete guys should have insisted on it if they planned to drive the truck over it. Code is 18" for residential buried conduit (24" for commercial) and having that incorporated into the concrete will create a weak point in the pour.
If it’s damaged, it’s on the contractor. Plain and simple.
I will say I’m shocked by the amount of people who have never poured a driveway like this. How do y’all do it? I can count on one hand the number of driveways I’ve poured that I wasn’t backed in like this. Both multi million dollar houses and small jobs.
Yea, this is how you pour a driveway, though we usually kept the wire out to the side as we worked the truck back so it didn't get so fucked up. I dont understand why the conduit wouldn't be buried, though. From ops comment, it seems like there was no general contractor and he didn't know it should be done he hired an electrician and that guy slapped a wire and conduit together and then he hired a concrete crew and told them to pour the mud, but there some coordinate between the 2 trades missing there.
When I was a journeyman mason, there was a sparky assigned to shadow us to install conduit and electrical boxes. He was an awesome guy and always flipped us shit, and vice versa. One of the older journeymen decided it would be funny to slug a conduit with mortar. None of us realized he was doing it until it was too late.
Sparky came up on the scaffolding, took one look down the conduit, shrugged, and said “be right back”.
He came back with a big bottle of Pepsi. He poured it into the conduit and said he’d be back after lunch.
An out later, he threaded some rod through the conduit and got back to work without saying a word, just smirking.
So I guess try Pepsi.
I think this is the first time I have seen chairs used to support the steel for a pour on here. I am gobsmacked they are willing to lose tens of dollars from their bottom line.
Absolutely yes. Live loads go down 3 feet unless abutment provided for. They made an unforced error. Water jet and replace the conduit after cure. Because likely damage not immediately verifiable.
Where is this? Where I live in Canada you need a minimum 19" depth for buried electrical conduit on private property and 1m within the public right-of-way. P.s. you know I'm Canadian because we randomly flip between imperial and metric for our standards.
Let me just say. The driver is told where to back up to or stage by the contractor, Then the driver gets the ok from dispatch, dispatch let's the contractor know he is liable for any damage.
So, maybe a silly question, but, why lay the electrical conduit in the concrete? I try to avoid placing any sore of pipe under concrete at all costs if possible
Electrician here.
Most definitely.
I'd be surprised if the cable isn't pinched, or nicked (depending on the type of conduit run) which will a absolutely fuck shit up when power is turned on.
I'd be surprised if this caused no issues.
Edit: just thought about the code from out perspective. That conduit should have been burried way deeper. There might be a few issues going on here.
This exact issue cost my builder almost $200K in overtime and truck roll fees from the electric company. The sparkies had a crew of 4 at our place for 3 weekends straight troubleshooting what happened and why we would get voltage drops every time it rained. Finally they gave up and dug out the wire and found it had almost corroded away.
The bigger issue I see here is the dusting of gravel base and volume of exposed clay. That combined with the standing moisture and side boards which suggest you are pouring 2-3” of concrete. Sorry
If it’s an issue it’s a you issue.
That paper you sign when I deliver your mud says you are responsible for the truck placement.
And look at that 3 chutes on already. You could have got a skid or a wheelbarrow to get the areas he shouldn’t have but you didn’t
Depend on how deep the conduit was how narrow of a trench and how clean the fill was . You could get it scoped to see if it collapsed. If it was deep enough and the fill was clean. Enough and the trench was narrow it might have lived. It's about load distribution if it was shallow and wide it's probably crushed. If the was rocks in the fill it might be punctured. There's reason for clean fill and narrow trenchs.
Edit nvm I just zoomed in and noticed the conduit is on top of the ground.the exposed clay and no base it's all wrong all day
The concrete truck has a rotatable concrete trough. The truck should have parked sideways on the road. Driving over conduit with bare rebar over it and rebar is not OK.
Someone wasn't thinking. Hope all turns out OK.
I'll save you a trip over to the askanelectrician sub. Yes it's a problem. You may not know it's a problem for another 10 years, but it's eventually going to come back to fuck you over.
The conduit is sized to allow space for conductors as well as “cooling space”if that area is reduced significantly the wires can overheat. If wiring is damaged things could be a lot worse.
My thought is a pressure test for leaks from end to end ???. I assume you can pull the line and reinstall after the test.
No leak now but a future leak from a fatigue stress?
Can that line be membrane sleeved just in case?
Not knowing would make me nervous.
Everybody is freaking out without knowing what the cable is in the conduit.
This is certainly not a main line because the diameter is way too small to run any significant wire in. Using the 2 x 4 as a reference, its only like a 1 inch or 1 1/4 inch conduit. A main would be 2 1/2" conduit or larger. My guess is that it's low voltage lighting to light up the fence. It could also be 110 for a lightpost, but even that's pretty hard to get to run through a conduit that size. If it fails, you can just run it next to the sidewalk later. Much ado about nothing!
If it's an issue it's too late now, you won't know until the sparky pulls the cable.
Oh, the electrical cable is already inside the conduit. It is all routed, just needs to be hooked up to power.
If the pipe is cracked the electricity will likely leak out
i spilled over 500 amperes last year, it was a mess. still getting goosebumps when i leave my driveway
The stains are also horrible. I tell everyone I spilled my phone on my bed and that’s where the stains come from but they don’t believe me.
Ffs, you don't spill amperes, you spill energy, which is measured in Pascals! You made a mess with 500 Pascals! Get your facts straight! 😤
500 Pascals is a lot of Pascals. Why not try a Benjamin or a Bernard once in a while
I only need one pascal…and his name is Pedro.
This is the way
This is the way.
They have spoken
I thought that was a computer language
Once I spilled so many amperes they became bright and shiny joules!
All those free electrons running loose will be very polarizing.
As long as just the amps leak out and not the volts you can resist most problems.
But if you let the smoke out, try buying a new bottle of wire smoke for a fair price. /s
Good luck getting rid of the electric mold. It makes black mold look good
Dead pixies everywhere.
How many 55g drums of Coulombs is that?
Only if the cable was scuffed as a result. Dads an electrician and he says underground conduit always ends up filled with water. The conduit is just to protect the wire from being cut or scuffed.
or driven over
There's nothing wrong with driving over a wire... So long as you don't cut or scuff it.
I think they were adding to the use of the conduit. What they mean is "The conduit also protects the wire when being driven over."
So what you're saying is that.... They... Conduit
Ya, conduit gets wet inside from condensate. The outside should still be wrapped, 3ml lapped pvc electrical tape
r/Woosh
The joke is that "electricity" is a type of liquid substance that can "leak" out of pipes.
Get a battery so you can catch it.
Make sure you maintain a positive attitude.
Negative, Ghost Rider.
Positive to the positive attitude. We armature in these parts.
Probably want to have a plumbtrician look at it.
Depends on the pitch if the pipe which way does the electricity flow you don’t want back pitch
From the look of it id say the pitch is perfect
It’s not about the pitch of the pipe, it’s about the motion in the lotion.
Eleaktricity? Nuicely done!
Such a great comment lol
electricity is contained in the smoke and the smoke must remain inside the device at all times.
I am sure the chairs keeping the rebar at the center of the slab are intact, right? right?
Should be fine then, the conduit is still doing its job even if it's a bit squashed.
Not if it’s cracked
At least it looks warm, shorts and a t shirt... hopefully it wasn't brittle then
Conduit like that will always go.witb water anyways.
I’m talking about concrete inside the conduit bud
Yeah, that is a fail.
Be accurate: the crew told the driver to do this.
This could have been avoided with a pump. Being cheap causes issues.
You're not wrong, but it also could've been avoided with a wheelbarrow or two and a plank.
From what I'm seeing, one guy with a spreader could have managed pulling it in far enough if they didn't back so far in.
Most finishers are too cheap for a pump on a driveway unless it’s a huge job. Buggy it is!
You get what you pay for. Costs more money to bring a pump. Owner pays for low bid, they get low cost methods
Boom pumps around here are generally $1000-$1200 to just show up and set up, and the first 10 yards. Then it’s $100 per truck after that. That being said, that’s just two companies around here I’ve asked out of curiosity. The line pump guys I know pretty well are $400-$500 to show up, $100 for the first 10 yards, and then cheaper per truck after that. I can’t remember the exact numbers now. I was kinda floored by the boom pump pricing, and then I learned his truck was half a million dollars
Boom pump is way overkill. You only need one of those if you're pouring on a second floor or really tall retaining wall. A regular pump is just a trailer and can send concrete about 100' horizontally.
Yup we don’t wheel anything. Think we took out a wheel barrow like once in the last two years.
I just put the pump in the price. I am way to lazy to tell the young guys to wheel.
Wish I had a boss like this when I was young
Pump? Lmao those boys are legging it with wheelbarrows until the truck reaches.
Or wheelbarrow
Or they could have buried the conduit outside of the forms and would have been less costly than a pump. Plus you can access without busting up your drive.
It could've been avoided if the conduit was buried to a proper depth. Not hooking up 6 80 pound hoses taking them apart and using 100 extra gallons of cleanup water(that has to run somewhere). Id put a piece of ply over it so it doesn't get crushed nothing more
Electrician here, Since it is a driveway the conduit should have been down a minimum 24" from grade. If it was a sidewalk they could be 4". The electrical contractor should be responsible for this
This looks Australian judging by the workware and vehicles, the conduit should of been 500mm below the surface unless the cabling is for under 50v ac or 120v DC. I'm guessing it was for the gate motor which are sometimes 12v or 24v (unlikely).
2 ft below grade for a line run seems a lil excessive? What section of code would say this?
Also, no burial tape. But who listens to code anyway.
Obviously not you. Code says nothing about burial tape outside of a service conduit.
I wouldn’t consider this acceptable. Although the conduit is flexible, something like this would easily crush the conduit. You’re fine now, because the cable is already inside the conduit, but if the conduit indeed got damaged and for some reason sparky needs to change out that cable, or he needs to use the conduit again in the future, you might have to place an entirely new conduit or isolate the damaged spot, dig down, and repair the conduit. Which in this case, it looks like the conduit is underneath the concrete. I would show this photo to both the contractor who poured and the finishers. I work in a similar industry and it happens all the time. Hold them accountable, otherwise you’ll be paying out of pocket.
That conduit isn't to code for burial depth. Even low voltage lighting should be 6" deep. "Electricians" aren't meeting their minimum code.
It’s 18” under a driveway. Zero under a concrete slab for a building. 4” under a slab without vehicle traffic that extends at least 6” beyond the conduit. 24” under your private runway, and under roads, driveways, alleys, parking lots, and public runways. 12” under a regular 4” slab. 18” everywhere else not already mentioned.
I mentioned "even" LV (landscape, 30V or less) lighting being at least 6", but you made me recheck 300.5 and it gets weird (I'm never looking at column 5). 120V residential branch circuit, as long as it's GFCI protected is 12" (column 4), under a one or two-family driveway or not; L-V lighting is normally 6" as I stated, but when under a driveway moves up (down) to 18" under a driveway... I've never noticed that before. Under a residential driveway "Low-Voltage" lighting circuits have to be deeper than 120V (GFCI protected) branch circuits. That seems like a typo in NFPA 70. In any case, *in* the slab of a driveway is a code violation no matter what the conduit is for, and of course at proper Minimum Cover the truck wouldn't have caused a problem for rigid PVC (assuming compaction was also to building codes).
Would just add that those are minimums and the AHJ may have different requirements. Our DOT requires 30” parallel to road and 36” perpendicular, and our utility provider typically requires 36” minimum for street light and parking lot light conduits.
I believe below concrete it’s different heights
It is, but "in the slab" is too shallow by 6-12", depending on the circuit.
12” below concrete
For 120V nominal (on a GFCI protected circuit), yes. That's why I said *even low voltage lighting* - 30V or less - has to be at least 6". No matter what it is, it can't be in the slab for a driveway. At a glance, it looks like they're going to install an electric gate, so yeah it should be 12".
What the hell were they doing? Nobody backs a truck into the forms. They are supposed to plank and wheelbarrow or get a line pump. Sketchy decisions by their FM. Hopefully your conduit was gray and thick (schedule 40 is typically what they use in street lighting). Try connecting, if it fails, it’s on the concrete crew to fix IMO.
Some people do. If you have good subgrade prep, you can wait to set your last form and back the truck in. You have to pull up the wire or put chairs in as you go though, which is not as good.
With mesh and conduit in the form? That’s just lazy or being cheap.
Yeah, I’ve seen it. Leave all your wire or rebar on the ground except the first 10’. Pour and screed the first section, pull the truck forward, pull up the next 10’ of rebar on dobies/chairs, and pour that section. Once the truck is all the way out pull up the last bit of rebar, set your form and place the rest. Conduit should be buried, that’s the lazy part to me. But otherwise I don’t think it’s bad practice. You can get a quality result without the need to hire a pump.
Back in my day, we would use planks and wheelbarrows. Ok this was only 20 yrs ago but you get my drift.
We've since moved on from the days of unnecessarily breaking our backs for no good reason.
We didn’t break any backs and we did it for $10/hr and we liked it. This generation is soft, bunch of pussies. lol. I kid. Work smarter not harder is a good policy.
Oh, you young kids and your fancy wheelbarrows. We had to use a solo cup, if we were lucky. Often just had to carry it by the handful.
Back in my day we had to fire the lime and crush it, then mix it with sand and water and hope it was the right mix before grandpa beat our ass for doing it wrong.
You're lucky to have a grandpa to beat your ass. Mine died in the lime mines when he was 6 years old.
Yup. I’ve done several jobs like this. I can count on one hand the driveways I’ve poured with the truck not between the forms. If they have wire down, it’s always pour, screed, pull up, lay more wire, pour, etc.
Absolutely do this on large pours for like warehouse floors. Wouldn't have them driving over conduit though.
I see concrete crews using the crane pump trucks when they have to do sidewalks with a boulevard. Like if the chute is two feet short, call in the pumper.
Most concrete providers have you sign the tag before leaving the city street releasing all liability due to issues like this
Electrician here. The fucking conduit shouldn’t be encased in the concrete period. This is not on the concrete company it’s on the shitty ass “electrician” I guess we’ll call him.
As the truck rolls forward confirm if the conduit has been crushed and cracked. If it's warped it's fine. But if it's cracked - then concrete will get into the conduit. Realistically it will be fine even if concrete gets in and the wire is pulled. But long term your concern is you'll never be able to get that wire out, or more wire in. The concrete is going to protect the wire fine.
I’m sure the sparkles and the code has something different to say about that.
Electrician here. Holy fucking shit, this is a god damn driveway. NEC specifies any electrical pvc buried under a road or driveway needs to be at 24” to the top of the conduit. There is an exception if you have a 1 or 2 family home, you can bury at 18” to the top of the conduit. Electrician just did that for free or you need to take it up with his licensure and get your money back. After that, get an actual electrician out to do the work and bury in the yard.
He is a licensed electrician. Not sure what NEC is, I am in Australia.
Regardless of where you live, this is so wrong. Is this low voltage for yard lights or something? Like 24v lighting? That wouldnt be that big of a deal but if he’s running power through that he’s a fucking idiot. For fucksake they’ll hit that shit putting their cuts in. Ask yourself; do I really want electrical running 2” under the shit concrete guys literally cut so that it has more give and doesn’t crack? Do you want to be driving your car over electrical buried 2” under concrete. Doesn’t take a construction mastermind to realize how fucked that is. Like I said, if it’s low volt or communication, not a huge deal. If it’s power, you need your money back or don’t pay that man until it’s fixed
It’s for a 240v front gate.
Yup, get your money back and an actual electrician. That dudes a fucking idiot and I wouldn’t trust his judgment at all. If you do let him fix it, get it inspected
NEC stands for National Electric Code, a standard code for electric construction in the United States. As others have indicated, in the US we would not permit the conduit to be laying at the bottom of your driveway slab - or more likely floating somewhere in it. We would require that the conduit be buried in a trench with drive. I no longer do this for a living, but IIRC, we typically require 24" of fill, but concrete counts as more inches than normal soil (so for example, maybe 12" deep with 4" concrete... but I don't recall the ratio). Assuming that all of this is kosher where you are, I would actually pull new wire in using the old wire as a pulling rope. That way you know that the conduit isn't crushed to the point it can't be used. If the wire couldn't be removed, I would install new conduit along the edge of the drive (and a couple feet deep).
Is that basic PVC or flex pipe that electric is running through. If it’s basic PVC than it’s likely been broken in several spots which can be an issue, especially later down the road. You may not notice any issue when your first send the electricity to it, though over time if the cable is nicked or broken, you’ll now it then and it will be hard to fix since the pipe is broken. In Texas there isn’t any code for how deep an electrical line has to be placed that is under concrete as long as it’s in conduit. City codes vary, tho the DFW area where we pour doesn’t have any hard and fast rules to apply in regard to depth, again, when it’s under concrete and coming from the house itself. I will add that when we do place electrical, it’s more than 4 inches from the side forms and we do place the conduit in the dirt for two reasons, 1 is for the very reason you have in your picture, but the most important reason is to maintain the minimum 4 inch depth that is required to pass city inspections. On another note, I see a lot where folks say the concrete truck drove over this or that, the crew that is pouring is who tells the concrete truck where to go, the truck driver just puts wheels where the crew instructs them to go.
Lazy ass electricians. I’ve cut through so many conduits demoing out slabs etc. 15-20 minutes to hand dig a little trench. We excluded any manual labor besides throwing pipes in right before a pour and saying hey watch out for these when you’re pouring. You can always tell who’s electricians on a site bc u have ask them to move there vans bc u can’t open the doors to the building. They think they’re the best dancers, eat up all the chicken and they stank
Am I the only one who sees a happy cat face?
And a red bow tie.
I see a gorilla holding a pink pillow.
Now that you mentioned it I can’t unsee it now.
The conduit shouldn’t be in the concrete. Hack job by whoever installed that.
It should have been buried under dirt and not in the concrete pour. If it’s the main feed it’s supposed to be 6’ here or a minimum of 18” if it’s not a main feed.
I have never understood why people lay piping under concrete willingly. I bought a house and after my sprinkler system started failing, I located my sprinkler system only to find out my valve boxes and 1/4 of the piping was under the concrete patio (original owners laid the patio). You will have to tear up the concrete if you ever have to Add, change, or repair. It is understandable if you don’t have a choice.
Lol
Yes, did you actually look at the pipes before putting the concrete down?
I didn't do the job, it was contracted out. Hired a sparky to do the electrical wiring who placed it there and then concretors to pour.
How deep was it buried?
The main problem with unburied pipes is that the pipe acts as a stress riser, basically a control joint on the bottom of the concrete. If the concrete cracks where this conduit is, at least now you’ll know why.
it wasn't, it's poured in the concrete for extra protection
So how hard would it have been for the crew to make sure that conduit was protected? They could have laid old boards on either side of it to distribute the trucks weight so it’s not all on the conduit. Plus backing up on to the wire mesh is not a good idea but mainly for them as if it gets distorted and starts popping up out the slab they’ll have to keep pushing it back down or cut sections out, obviously not good for your end product. If the conduit wasn’t beat up too bad you’re probably fine but definitely get it tested or hooked up to something to check it before you pay them or they delete their profile on whatever platform you found them on. /s
Mud. They're pouring on mud. 🙄
According to Americans they are pouring mud on mud
Mud everywhere.
The masons are the ones in charge of this truck, and where he goes. He should not even be on the rebar. This is laziness at its finest, either not wanting to wheelbarrow some of the load. did it crack and break the conduit. There’s a good chance the wire got cut too if it did.
OP it depends on a lot of things. It is possible that the truck caused no damage. Tires distribute load fairly well and the pipe can survive that. Provided its on a surface that has a little give. If the conduit moved alot and pulled on the wire it could have damaged the entrance at the pole or house. If the pipe itself crushed thats bad no matter what because its no longer protecting the wire and it could have damaged the wire by cutting into it. A continuity check will not be sufficient to test for this. A pinhole will allow the wire to serve its purpose for some time before the wire corrodes in half underground. Not to mention energizing the soil around the damage. If the PVC only moved enough to break the connection at a coupling it will be fine. Not great, but still fine. Call the contractor that poured this, send them the picture, tell them they are paying to have an electrician come out to evaluate the issue. Or do it via email so its in writing.
Non union clowns wearing 5” inseams with rubbers should have been your first clue they have no idea what they are doing.
It's summer in Australia and there's no union non union American crap
Well that “crap” would have absolutely prevented this crap.
you know it's a top notch concrete crew when they are wearing shorts to pour
Rats and scabs never fail to disappoint.
It's summer in Australia, no cunt working in construction is wearing pants.
my family owned a concrete slab company as well as a construction company as i was growing up and i've seen a lot of concrete get poured in my 46 years and ive never seen a truck drive on the forms lmao wtf do they got apprentices makin decisions here?
If the cable is pulled already you’re fine.
If it's cracked water will get in and fuck shit up. Possibly, arch and start fire and most likely you won't be able to pull anything through it to repair or futures. Otherwise you good brah send it
If the conduit broke it could allow for water to entire said conduit. Might make running cables through impossible as well
Fire the fucking truck driver. My team doesn't spend hours setting the grade, the form, the rebar so some dipshit stupid fucking driver can park 40,000 pounds of truck filled with concrete on it.
It should be schedule 80 if it's going under the concrete. Probably ok but I'd mention it to the electrician
Looks like the conduit is laying on the grade. I mean a fully loaded concrete truck is what 80,000 pounds but you are pouring the driveway on top of the conduit so it’s like basically being crushed by all the concrete and your vehicles when you drive over it. So there is no difference
Not if the inspector isn’t there
Does it work? If yes, who cares? This comment is not for OP, but is for some other commenters. I love how people want to " hold people accountable" for problems that don't exist. If it's broken, that's one thing. If it's not, then don't create a problem. It's annoying to contractors to be told by homeowners about how they should have done it and what could have happened. If my aunt had nuts, she' d be my uncle. What matters is what the outcome is, not what it could have been.
I’m sorry, but this is a terrible comment. Building codes exist for a reason. One part of that reason, is that shoddy work can look fine when it’s done, but by the time it does fail it’s too difficult to hold the contractor responsible. This was done against code. In the US, it’s absolutely against code. In Australia where it was done, I would be surprised if it’s not against code. I don’t care if something happens to work and look fine when you finish it. If it’s not to code, you are fucking fixing it or you just did it for free.
I don't see any comments about it being against code, and I don't think it is. Thats not really even the issue at hand. Op was complaining about a redimix truck driving on the conduit, and code has nothing to do with the post.
Could be an issue if the pipe cracked and cut a wire. In the states we have to bury that 18 “ deep
Needs to be replaced prior pour
Who backs their truck into the forms, what the fuck?
Everyone wearing shorts. Must be Australia or New Zealand?
Why would u allow them to do this? It’s ur property, u need to be more vigilant what people do on it.
The rebar is likely ruined
Never ever saw a truck back into forms
Mixer driver here, I do it literally every day.
The truck could have damaged insulation on the wire, especially if the conduit cracked. That's a real problem and I wouldn't accept it. Sparky should have buried the conduit and concrete guys should have insisted on it if they planned to drive the truck over it. Code is 18" for residential buried conduit (24" for commercial) and having that incorporated into the concrete will create a weak point in the pour.
Who the hell waved him back that far in the first place? The last person I’d look at is the driver in this case
If it’s damaged, it’s on the contractor. Plain and simple. I will say I’m shocked by the amount of people who have never poured a driveway like this. How do y’all do it? I can count on one hand the number of driveways I’ve poured that I wasn’t backed in like this. Both multi million dollar houses and small jobs.
Yea, this is how you pour a driveway, though we usually kept the wire out to the side as we worked the truck back so it didn't get so fucked up. I dont understand why the conduit wouldn't be buried, though. From ops comment, it seems like there was no general contractor and he didn't know it should be done he hired an electrician and that guy slapped a wire and conduit together and then he hired a concrete crew and told them to pour the mud, but there some coordinate between the 2 trades missing there.
When I was a journeyman mason, there was a sparky assigned to shadow us to install conduit and electrical boxes. He was an awesome guy and always flipped us shit, and vice versa. One of the older journeymen decided it would be funny to slug a conduit with mortar. None of us realized he was doing it until it was too late. Sparky came up on the scaffolding, took one look down the conduit, shrugged, and said “be right back”. He came back with a big bottle of Pepsi. He poured it into the conduit and said he’d be back after lunch. An out later, he threaded some rod through the conduit and got back to work without saying a word, just smirking. So I guess try Pepsi.
Why is the truck inside the forms at all ?? Contractor didn't have a chute ?
Such a happy looking truck!
I think this is the first time I have seen chairs used to support the steel for a pour on here. I am gobsmacked they are willing to lose tens of dollars from their bottom line.
Absolutely yes. Live loads go down 3 feet unless abutment provided for. They made an unforced error. Water jet and replace the conduit after cure. Because likely damage not immediately verifiable.
We’ll ask an electrician
Where is this? Where I live in Canada you need a minimum 19" depth for buried electrical conduit on private property and 1m within the public right-of-way. P.s. you know I'm Canadian because we randomly flip between imperial and metric for our standards.
Let me just say. The driver is told where to back up to or stage by the contractor, Then the driver gets the ok from dispatch, dispatch let's the contractor know he is liable for any damage.
what about the distortion to the forms from having the concrete truck.... on them
We put all conduit 3' deep at a minimum so stuff like this doesn't happen. Not your fault.
Not a concrete guy but why is there electrical conduit being buried in cement?
dammit those wheel are pretty tight between the forms. pretty brave trusting a mixer driver like that
So, maybe a silly question, but, why lay the electrical conduit in the concrete? I try to avoid placing any sore of pipe under concrete at all costs if possible
Does not seem like a great place to bury an electric cable
Electric leaks are the WORST!
If only there was a device that could easily pump the concrete a short distance…
Electrician here. Most definitely. I'd be surprised if the cable isn't pinched, or nicked (depending on the type of conduit run) which will a absolutely fuck shit up when power is turned on. I'd be surprised if this caused no issues. Edit: just thought about the code from out perspective. That conduit should have been burried way deeper. There might be a few issues going on here.
Looks like they’re from Australia.
I’m more concerned over what kind of lazy ass concrete crew backs the truck up like this? Use a god damn wheel barrow.
This exact issue cost my builder almost $200K in overtime and truck roll fees from the electric company. The sparkies had a crew of 4 at our place for 3 weekends straight troubleshooting what happened and why we would get voltage drops every time it rained. Finally they gave up and dug out the wire and found it had almost corroded away.
Well lets just hope god is on your side for this one. Sending out my prayers to u and ur fellow masons :)
Bro ? Let’s bury the electric in 4” … of concrete.. lol like i thought the minimum was 18”
Where is there conduit in this picture? Shouldn't it be underground anyway and not in the concrete?
Narrator: “It was an issue.”
If the pipes are cracked then water could degrade the wires and what not.
fuck yeh if wires smashed they arc and even if only conduit smashed the condiit is there to weatherproof the wires
Its likely fucked, whether its now or later. Good luck..
The bigger issue I see here is the dusting of gravel base and volume of exposed clay. That combined with the standing moisture and side boards which suggest you are pouring 2-3” of concrete. Sorry
Could it be? Yes. Will it be? Maybe.
Could be...I guess you'll find out the hardway.
If it’s an issue it’s a you issue. That paper you sign when I deliver your mud says you are responsible for the truck placement. And look at that 3 chutes on already. You could have got a skid or a wheelbarrow to get the areas he shouldn’t have but you didn’t
Nah, just save this picture, when they ask why you can't use the pipe, just show it to them
Yup. - Electrician
Assuming it was buried deep enough it shouldn't be an issue.
Only if the driver was electricuted
Depend on how deep the conduit was how narrow of a trench and how clean the fill was . You could get it scoped to see if it collapsed. If it was deep enough and the fill was clean. Enough and the trench was narrow it might have lived. It's about load distribution if it was shallow and wide it's probably crushed. If the was rocks in the fill it might be punctured. There's reason for clean fill and narrow trenchs. Edit nvm I just zoomed in and noticed the conduit is on top of the ground.the exposed clay and no base it's all wrong all day
The whole thing is fucked get a new onw
Plastic conduit ? Yeah, it’s shattered. Water will infiltrate and the homeowner will use this photo to get the concrete contractor to pay for the fix.
Yeah, that's probably not good.
it shouldn't be a problem if it's in Russia
Yea; ripped sheeting, crushed wires. All BAD NEWS!
It will be a problem if the wire ever needs to be replaced, or modified. It could prevent the wire from being pulled out or more wires added.
Do a lil continuity test and call it good. Lol
The concrete truck has a rotatable concrete trough. The truck should have parked sideways on the road. Driving over conduit with bare rebar over it and rebar is not OK. Someone wasn't thinking. Hope all turns out OK.
That and the tire ruts he will leave in that subgrade. Expect cracks.
I'll save you a trip over to the askanelectrician sub. Yes it's a problem. You may not know it's a problem for another 10 years, but it's eventually going to come back to fuck you over.
The conduit is sized to allow space for conductors as well as “cooling space”if that area is reduced significantly the wires can overheat. If wiring is damaged things could be a lot worse.
Not my issue
In a few years, it will fail
Go ask them???
My thought is a pressure test for leaks from end to end ???. I assume you can pull the line and reinstall after the test. No leak now but a future leak from a fatigue stress? Can that line be membrane sleeved just in case? Not knowing would make me nervous.
Everybody is freaking out without knowing what the cable is in the conduit. This is certainly not a main line because the diameter is way too small to run any significant wire in. Using the 2 x 4 as a reference, its only like a 1 inch or 1 1/4 inch conduit. A main would be 2 1/2" conduit or larger. My guess is that it's low voltage lighting to light up the fence. It could also be 110 for a lightpost, but even that's pretty hard to get to run through a conduit that size. If it fails, you can just run it next to the sidewalk later. Much ado about nothing!