Cable run under concrete patio

[Magic Static]

Yep. The 90 degree elbows use a little over 1 foot to do their turn. Should be easy to pull cable through in the future.

Now I'm worried about getting a good concrete contractor for the patio and walkway. I read the Yelp reviews and there are good and bad stories about all of them -- don't know who to believe. My wife wants a very fancy patio with raised planter boxes and possibly a gas fire pit, but I am more inclined to keep it simple. I know from experience that if we get anything that requires a building permit (like a fire pit), it will trigger a reassessment of the value of our house for property tax purposes. From what I've read, a plain patio and walkway don't need a permit as long as its not raised above the ground more than a foot or two.

I used pavers to fill in a hole where a shed stood. Turned out good.

 

[N6BY]

I used pavers at my previous house to cover a hole where there was an in-ground jacuzzi. After about a year there was settling and the pavers were very uneven.

I should have used a power compactor to prepare the ground before paving it. Had to partially re-do it before selling the house. Lesson learned.

 

[primestar31]

Brett, once you get your cabling upgraded, you should get your hands on an Edision OS Mio 4k receiver. I don't mean to sound like a shill, lol, but it's a GREAT receiver! It does everything I've ever wanted in a receiver, and mostly flawlessly, even though I knew nothing about Enigma2 receivers before this one.

 

[harshness]

It's well below the slab (in dirt). The contractor won't even know its there.

I was thinking in terms of installing natural gas or electricity through the slab.

 

[N6BY]

Brett, once you get your cabling upgraded, you should get your hands on an Edision OS Mio 4k receiver. I don't mean to sound like a shill, lol, but it's a GREAT receiver! It does everything I've ever wanted in a receiver, and mostly flawlessly, even though I knew nothing about Enigma2 receivers before this one.

I have been using my dishes for receiving weather satellite data. If I ever get back into FTA again, an OS Mio would be my first choice.

 

[N6BY]

Today I finally finished the 50 foot run to the Birdview, and started on a shorter (30 foot) line to the Unimesh. Since the Unimesh line is not under concrete I am just going to bury the cables (without PVC conduit).

The ground here consists of 60% heavy clay and 40% boulders. Trenching is not fun!! But I do have a jackhammer which cuts through the rock and clay pretty quick.

For the Unimesh line, I have to go through a concrete retaining wall. Drilling through it required renting a heavy duty masonry drill from Home Depot. Now the hard part is digging down through the back (earth) side of the wall to be able to run the cables through.

 

[primestar31]

Today I finally finished the 50 foot run to the Birdview, and started on a shorter (30 foot) line to the Unimesh. Since the Unimesh line is not under concrete I am just going to bury the cables (without PVC conduit).

The ground here consists of 60% heavy clay and 40% boulders. Trenching is not fun!! But I do have a jackhammer which cuts through the rock and clay pretty quick.

For the Unimesh line, I have to go through a concrete retaining wall. Drilling through it required renting a heavy duty masonry drill from Home Depot. Now the hard part is digging down through the back (earth) side of the wall to be able to run the cables through.

Always add a couple extra coax's for future use if possible. Makes it easy to swap to another if one goes bad while using it. Or you decide to add another lnb or two. That beats having to pull a new coax later.

I have a 75ft underground run to my newest dish, AND I had to do a 'water-jet and sledgehammer' 1.5inch pvc pipe 30' diagonal under a new blacktopped driveway. That was an experience. It's detailed in a thread I posted last year in the fta forum.

 

[N6BY]

Today with rain on the way I wanted to finish running the second line through the retaining wall -- before it all becomes a muddy mess. Digging through the gravel behind the wall seemed like a losing proposition. I would dig out one scoop and then two scoops of gravel would cave in to take its place! But after several hours I finally got down to the horizontal hole through the wall and threaded the two cables through. There were two layers of landscape fabric which helped reduce the cave ins.

Sure glad that this is done.

I'm using PVC only for the part of the Unimesh trench that will be under sidewalk. The Birdview line going around the corner is all PVC.