Our New England Energy Star ICF Home Build: December 2014

Each step of the homebuilding process presents itself with a challenge, and getting power to our building lot was no exception. We knew it wasn't going to be easy, and we knew there would most likely be additional costs, but the challenges with this project just kept on coming…

As I may have mentioned, we have a double back lot, which means we are set back from the road past two other lots. We also share our driveway with another lot. The transformer is located less than half-way up our driveway, and our driveway is 1/4 mile long, so we had a long distance to cover to run the power lines.

Challenge #1 - Where do we run the utility trench? We decided that the best route for the trench would be through the woods, and not along the driveway. This would give us a more direct path to the house, and therefore shorter distance, meaning less pipe, less digging, and not having to tear apart the driveway. We also have ledge directly under our driveway, so running the trench directly under the driveway was not really an option. So, we decided to run the trench up the hill and through the woods. The photo below shows the transformer box and the small portion of trench that runs along the driveway.

Challenge #2 - Digging the trench. The majority of the trench runs through the woods, which doesn't really seem like a big deal, except it goes up a significant hill and the hill is basically ledge. With some creativity, we were able to get the trench dug on the hill, and through the woods using the Kubota, which is smaller and more nimble than the Caterpillar. The problem was that we couldn't get the trench deep enough for the required two feet depth to bury the power wire. The solution… a jackhammer? We rented a jackhammer and hammered away at the ledge, which proved to be the most physically demanding job yet. The jackhammer was run ALL DAY. It certainly helped quite a bit, and a lot of rock was able to be removed from the trench.

The next step was to add a layer of sand to the bottom of the trench, and then to place the pipes. Three pipes had to be run in the trench - one for the electric, the second for phone, and the third for cable. So, for our 400' trench, we had to purchase 1200' of pipe and two loads of sand!

Some of the pipe for the utility trench.

Sand to encase the pipes.

Laying the pipe was pretty straight forward. The trench had to be prepared by removing all of the large rocks, raking it out so that the pipes could lay flat, and then adding a layer of sand. Although the material was moved by the tractor, most of the prep work was done by hand.

Adding sand to the trench.

Trench prepared for the pipes.

The pipes are 10' in length and were glued together as they were placed in the trench.

Here are some photos of the pipes in the trench:

You can see in the photos below where the pipes are laying on ledge and we could not dig any deeper.

Since we have such a long run of pipe, and a 90 degree turn, we were required to install a precast concrete pull box for the electric line. I certainly didn't picture this in my mind when they said pull box. It's huge, and practically a man hole!

The Caterpillar was used to lift and lower the pull box into the trench.

The side of the form has cut out areas that were knocked out where the pipes would enter. Only the electric pipe runs into this; the phone and cable pipes go around it, as can be seen in the photo below. This box will be used by the power company when they run the electric cable through the pipes.

The pull box completed and backfilled.

Challenge #3 - Backfilling. The local power company had come out to the site multiple times to help us to come up with a final plan for our utility trench. We needed to upgrade our transformer (more $$$), install the pull box, and we were told that we were able cover the portions of the trench that were less than two feet deep with extra fill above ground level to make up the required two feet. However, the town building inspector required us to fill over these spots with concrete. We were NOT expecting this, so we had to come up with a plan on how to accomplish this task. It's not possible to get a concrete truck into the woods! It was decided that the best way to move the concrete was to use the bucket of the tractor. Finally, after moving all the concrete to the trenches and spreading the concrete, the job was FINISHED, thanks to help from family.

Portion of the trench over the ledge and filled with concrete.

Looking down the hill towards the driveway.

We passed the final inspection, backfilled the rest of the trench, and were ready for the power company to install the new transformer and power line! We finished this on November 15, 2014.

Backfilled Trench.

Almost exactly one month later, on December 16th, the power company came out to complete the power connection. This required upgrading the transformer, pulling the power line through the pipes, and finally connecting the power. A crew and two trucks came out from the power company for the job. First, they needed to feed the electric cable through the underground pipes. We had already ran a pull rope through the pipes, and they used this to pull through stronger webbing that would then be attached to the electric cable.

The webbing is attached to a reel on one of the trucks and it pulls the cable through the pipe. Due to the weight and size of the cable, this would be impossible to do by hand.

They pulled the cable through the main section of pipe and into the pull box, where the pipe makes a 90 degree turn.

And there is the electric cable! From here, the cable needed to be pulled through the last stretch of pipe along the driveway and to the transformer.

Ever wonder what is inside all those big green boxes that you see sitting on concrete pads near houses? I certainly was curious. So, this is what it looks like… it's basically where the high voltage lines from the street come in and connect with the transformer, and then the transformer steps down the voltage to the lines that go to your house.

Unfortunately, the transformer that was in our box was not big enough due to the distance of our electric run, so we had to pay to upgrade the transformer. We also learned that we share this transformer with the neighbor. A bucket truck with a crane was used to move the transformer boxes.