This pic, taken from another thread, shows the path a pipe takes:




This made me wonder ... how do YOU get the pipe under the walk? What tips / tricks work? Which don't?

Actually did this just this fall.

Pipe needed was 1/2 rigid. Ran 3/4 to cover future.

Took 1st piece of 3/4, put coupling end with weather proof ko seal on it, wrapped in duct tape. Then proceeded to pound coupling end vertically under 4' walkway. The pounding started at 7" below grade, ended up 16 below grade. Cut off damaged end, threaded on new threads, and the rest is easy.

OK, had a laborer do the pounding, but still it was my idea...

If the walkway was there first? Using a trencher to dig close as you can without damaging anything. Then use a Hilti TE 74 with especially fabbed chisel bit to drive a piece of 1" RMC under the walkpath. Then use the RMC as a sleeve for the pvc. I would think that you would be able to get the pvc stalks to bend enough so that the only factory or short radius ninetys in the run would be at the stub ups.

yeah what Tom H said....about gettin someone else to beat on it.

actually I've done the same thing

Water hose and a short of piece of EMT. It gets muddy but it works great.

I'm with ITO.
It works really quick, too.

Just had to do it the other day. I had
1- 1" pvc conduit and 2- 3/4" pvc conduits to run under a 4 ft. walk. I got a piece of 2" emt and flatened the end on it and proceeded to hit it with my sledge hammer. I would twist it ever so often with my big channel locks, so it wouldn't get stuck. Worked great. I thought I had hit a drain pipe close by when water started pouring out my hole, but come to find out it was just rain water that had collected under the walk Steve...

I have actually had success with driving 3/4" pvc conduit under a 4' sidewalk (x3 actually) Just heated up the non bell end and flattened it to a wedge shape and hammered it through with a sledge hammer.

"Water hose and a short of piece of EMT. It gets muddy but it works great"

Yes this does work, and works well, only problem is it also weakens the walkway bed, and in no time at all, you get a call. my sidewalk cracked, where you installed the electric, what are you going to do about it, so that may of been the easiest method, but it was the most costly.

1/2" rigid, and use ground rod driver on Hilti.

Pound rigid end into a point with small slegde, drive under sidewalk.

Cut off end when on other side, thread or use rigid compression coupling.

I use a 5/8" diversa bit (old 1) and drill a pilot hole through the mud and then tap the conduit through or just pull the 12v cable through(gotta love slow voltage). You can use the drill in reverse if atach a fishing swivel and pull the cable right through.

who'd of thunk it? sounds like a great way for walkways

Some great methods here and have tied some of them... Including Dnkldorf's which does work well. But can say I have a modification to Obsaleet's that I figure is better, and have done often. I figure a diversabit might drift off somewhere... Pre-drill the hole with roto-hammer and a long masonary(in rocky soil), or you can use an old wood auger and several extentions on a regular hole hog. (Soft loose soil or clay)An old shop I worked for had and SDS bit welded to a long shaft extention for the purpose, about 6' long.

I have also seen on the internet (but never used personaly) an attachement that you can put on RMC up 2" I think. It has a carbid tipped water lubed bit that threads right on, and a water feeding coupling that attaches the drill to the conduit. Suposedly you can with this item drive up 2" pipe 20' or so with a hole hog. When you're done you pull the attachments off the counduit, allow to drain, and you're done.

IN NE PA COAL IS STILL A COMMON SOURCE OF HEAT... I ASKED A HEATING GUY TO SAVE THE WORM( PART WHICH PULLS COAL INTO THE FURNACE FROM HOPPER) 1 1/4" BY 6' WITH A 1/2" SHAFT.... CHUCK INTO HOLE HAWG AND WALA INSTANT BORIING MACHINE,


LATER

DENNY

e57, if you happen to have a link, that gadget sounds like it might be handy. Might even help with driving ground rods in rocky soil!

Denny, you know, I have a similar gizmo I bought at a garden shop for planting flower bulbs. I'll have to give it a try.

There are two companies that make about the same thing: BorIt and BorZit. These both are powered by a dangerous HoleHawg and use a water hose. One advertizes in one of the contractor magazines. I won't Google it for you.
~Peter

Yep, thats the thing I saw a plumber had one and swore by it. http://www.borit.com/index.cfm

We called ours a Hydrosion Auger but don't know if that is correct or not since I got it from another plumber.
We used 7' sections of 1" black pipe and have drilled out as much as 50' or so from a basement to the hole dug at the water meter pit.

I had one employee that was very good at hitting the hole within 6" of where it needed to be and another that drilled a water line under a four lane street once with no problems.

Ours does wash the mud back out at you so a helper is needed to constantly clean it up.

Been doing it this way for 21 years and have never gotten that call. But I get blamed for everything else that goes wrong on a job, so it may be comming some day, because all concrete cracks.

Also note this is the same method sprinkler contractors use.

[This message has been edited by ITO (edited 01-18-2007).]

[This message has been edited by ITO (edited 01-18-2007).]

The water hose idea works in sandy soil like we have here in Florida but it wouldn't do much in Southern Md clay and gravel.
I shot a 2" 22 feet under my garage and hit a 1' hole I cut in the garage floor on the other side. I made a drill head out of a 2" rounded PVC pipe cap. I drilled a 3/8" hole in the center and three 3/16" holes around the edge about 1/4" in. That worked real well. Glue the 90 on the far end before you start and stub out a foot or so more of pipe before you glue on the hose fitting. That gives you a lever to rotate the pipe as you go. Then cut off the fittings and couple it to the risers when you finish.

BTW using the "drill head" reduces the amount of water you pump in there and reduces the weakening of the substrate. Higher velocity water drills the hole pretty fast.

I have been using a ruined 1" flex bit that's six feet long. I sleeve the bit's shaft with a piece of 1/2" PVC and drill away. The bit cuts a hole and the PVC just stays there, but it keeps the path straight. If a rock is encountered that might make the bit move, we know right away since the PVC won't follow the path if if's not straight. We unchuck the bit when done and pull it through from the other side of the pipe when we are done. Of course, this only works for sidewalks, etc. but it works well and it's clean.

Better yet..

http://www.sidewalksleever.com/?gclid=CN3EgJzg64kCFQ5DUAodVyR3Ew

Maybe it would do PVC, or pipe.



[This message has been edited by Dnkldorf (edited 01-19-2007).]

Bit off topic, but we are supposed to use 4 or less 90 deg bends in conduit runs, buried or not.

Absolutely, Macmikeman. That's why this pic is also in the violations forum; the poster noted the extreme number of bends.

I just thought it was also a very good pic to use to get this discussion going. (The lines and arrows are a nice touch!) I was not disappointed; I've seen a number of clever ideas here that I'll have to try.

It also appears that, had these guys a decent way to bore under the walk, they might have eliminated two of those 90's by boring at an angle.