[Starpilot]

I notice a few new concrete driveways being poured in St Catherine and I notice that about 10 feet out from the garage door, there were 3 pipes burried under the driveway going from one side to the other. They extended out almost by a foot on both sides of the driveway.

I was wondering if my home in Fenny may have the same feature allowing me to run some landscaping light wires to the other side of the driveway.

If anyone has any hands on experience in either locating these pass thru conduits (if they exist) or a viable plan “B” I much appreciate your comments.

Thank you - Lou

[Luggage]

Even if you don't have a pipe now, it's easy to do, it's called shooting water through a plastic pipe and pushing the pipe under your driveway. I suggest looking on YouTube to see how easy it is

[Starpilot]

Originally Posted by Luggage

Even if you don't have a pipe now, it's easy to do, it's called shooting water through a plastic pipe and pushing the pipe under your driveway. I suggest looking on YouTube to see how easy it is

Thank you. I had heard of that method, more for under sidewalks. I will check it out on Utube. There isn't much that you can't find there. Great idea, Thank you.

[villagetinker]

I just ran the wire in the stress cuts of the driveway. I have done this several times with neighbors. Works very well, however you or your landscaper do need to avoid the area where the wire comes out of the stress cut.

[Ozzello]

If you have ever pushed a pipe under a driverway or few, you wouldn't call it EASY, but this is the right way. shoving wires in the stress cut is a shortcut that will come back to bite you, and if you need a little larger wire than 18ga , almost impossible.

[villagetinker]

14 gauge landscape wire fit fine on the 3 or 4 projects I installed or helped with, and with LED landscaping lights this is fine.

[Ozzello]

14 ga is a tight fit, on most driveways. Seen people doing this method for years. Been called in to trouble shoot many of them shortly or a couple years later. The only way I would suggest doing this, is to cut the very shallow stress cut a little wider and at least an inch deep.

I prefer my lighting installs to be professional grade, so just spend a $100 or so on an extra GFI on the side of the house where all the lights are going to be anyway. Shoving wire in the driveway is a hack in my opinion. An average lighting job (professional) should start around $1000 anyway, so a $100 or 2 extra for another very handy GFI for the customer is just smart engineering.

[photo1902]

Originally Posted by Starpilot

I notice a few new concrete driveways being poured in St Catherine and I notice that about 10 feet out from the garage door, there were 3 pipes burried under the driveway going from one side to the other. They extended out almost by a foot on both sides of the driveway.

I was wondering if my home in Fenny may have the same feature allowing me to run some landscaping light wires to the other side of the driveway.

If anyone has any hands on experience in either locating these pass thru conduits (if they exist) or a viable plan “B” I much appreciate your comments.

Thank you - Lou

You won't need to run low voltage cable under the driveway. Simply use enough cable to to go around the house. I do it all the time.

I've seen other installers use two different transformers, one on each side, but I prefer to use a longer run of cable.

[Carla B]

One time I worked for a developer in the sales office of a small-scale housing project. Every day at about 2 pm our phone system would go out for an hour or more and then come back on.

One day I decided to follow the cable where it led. It had been placed in an expansion joint in the road bed and the heat in the very steamy Houston climate caused the concrete to expand and pinch the cable, and cause the daily outage. Once the phone co. relocated it from that crack, all worked well.

[JoelJohnson]

I did that to run electric under the sidewalk. And drain pipes to the lawn.

[Ozzello]

Originally Posted by photo1902

You won't need to run low voltage cable under the driveway. Simply use enough cable to to go around the house. I do it all the time.

I've seen other installers use two different transformers, one on each side, but I prefer to use a longer run of cable.

If you use 12 ga wire (as you will need to due to the long run) The cost is about the same going around the house, as the added GFI and tiny transformer. I do both methods, but opt for the added GFI if the back of the house will not be lighting worthy.

Added wire all the way around the house is also more places for a problem. Add the GFI and be smart (and have the home owner's welfare in mind).