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type of flex conduit for bury ethernet cable installation in backyard

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camviewer43

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I've broken down and decided to run ethernet cable from my house to my detached garage. I'm just gonna run one direct burial cable, and protect it with some kind of flex conduit. Is that a good easy option? What kind of flex conduit and what size?

I don't have any special equipment. I was hoping to minimize the size of the conduit so I can just use a shovel to make a quick trench. It's about an 80ft run from house to garage, mostly straight but I'll need to make one turn to get around a bush to enter the house.

I watched this video of a guy just using a shovel and some really flexible conduit. Not sure what it is or where to find conduit like that.
 
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prsmith777

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cable with no conduit has to be buried deeper in the ground, at least in Colorado. This was for 120V power line. probably Doesn’t apply for Ethernet cable.

I rented a trench digger and skipped the conduit. Money wise it was probably a wash but not having to deal with conduit was a plus in my book.
 
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camviewer43 said:
I've broken down and decided to run ethernet cable from my house to my detached garage. I'm just gonna run one direct burial cable, and protect it with some kind of flex conduit. Is that a good easy option? What kind of flex conduit and what size?

I don't have any special equipment. I was hoping to minimize the size of the conduit so I can just use a shovel to make a quick trench. It's about an 80ft run from house to garage, mostly straight but I'll need to make one turn to get around a bush to enter the house.

I watched this video of a guy just using a shovel and some really flexible conduit. Not sure what it is or where to find conduit like that.
Click to expand...
I used flexible conduit for my Color 4K-X camera that goes out to the street from my house. It worked great. Here is a link to some 1/2", but I used 3/4" with the direct burial CAT6 cable.
 
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tmxv4128

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camviewer43 said:
I've broken down and decided to run ethernet cable from my house to my detached garage. I'm just gonna run one direct burial cable, and protect it with some kind of flex conduit. Is that a good easy option? What kind of flex conduit and what size?

I don't have any special equipment. I was hoping to minimize the size of the conduit so I can just use a shovel to make a quick trench. It's about an 80ft run from house to garage, mostly straight but I'll need to make one turn to get around a bush to enter the house.

I watched this video of a guy just using a shovel and some really flexible conduit. Not sure what it is or where to find conduit like that.
Click to expand...
Here's the link for the 3/4". Less expensive than buying from a home improvement store. I used about 94' for my run. conduit.jpg
 
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camviewer43

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I found 1/2" EMT to be tight for cat6 with the spline ( see picture ) and had to run cat5e instead ..

Thus perhaps 3/4" is a better option ..

1670489580435.png

note: I wanted to run 2-3 lines ..
 
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I’d only use conduit under certain circumstances. If you guys live by a Home Depot you can rent an EZ cable trencher for about $150 a day. One of my bury guys has one, he can do 1000’ at 6” depth in 20 minutes.
 
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camviewer43

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tmxv4128 said:
I used flexible conduit for my Color 4K-X camera that goes out to the street from my house. It worked great. Here is a link to some 1/2", but I used 3/4" with the direct burial CAT6 cable.
Click to expand...
Did you just use a shovel? I have a 80ft run that I need to do, and I'm wondering how much work that is. In my head, it seems easy and I can do it in a couple of hours. But I've never done it before, so maybe I'm way off?
 
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ludshed

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camviewer43 said:
Did you just use a shovel? I have a 80ft run that I need to do, and I'm wondering how much work that is. In my head, it seems easy and I can do it in a couple of hours. But I've never done it before, so maybe I'm way off?
Click to expand...
Even a “flat” shovel has little lips on it that make it pain unless you’re actually digging to put deeper. In the old days those of us who had to bury lines daily but weren’t a bury crew/guy used divels like this.
 

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Depends on the soil and what's in it. I've done several by hand. Two about 80-100 feet and one shorter. The first one was an absolute bitch because of tree roots. That took me forever since it seemed like about 50% roots most of the way. Second one was much, much easier without many roots. I did it over 3 or 4 days but probably could have knocked it out in a day if I'd really wanted to. Spent half a day cutting out roots in one section but other than that was very easy digging. Last was a shorter ~25 foot run. That was a couple of hours start to finish. Little bit of a pain since there was gravel over the area and I had to clear that away as much as I could and then it still doesn't dig very well until you get past what's mixed in with the soil.
 
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looktall said:
A trenching shovel will certainly help.
Click to expand...
That's what I used to bury over 600' of conduit radiating out from the house, done over about 4 years. My soil is very rocky and some of the big ones took a couple of days to get out. I wore the front few inches off the first shovel and had to replace it. Tree roots were easier, with either a saw or axe. It helps that I don't have a day job.
 
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If there is power in the garage, I would look at fiber instead of cat 5.
Price of fiber is not bad and you can get a POE switch with a SFP port cheap to power the cameras.

40 meters of fiber for $24

Most of these you can slide the 2 connectors apart, secure them where they are not side by side, and
see if it would go through a 1/2" conduit.

I put 3 duplex fiber cables, 3 runs of coax, and a 1/4" air line in a 3/4" PVC line from my house to shop.
It pulled very easy, and I have plenty of extra for hobbies and air for a flat in my attached garage.
 
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Use at least 3/4" PVC, cheaper and will be a lot easier if you have to add, or replace a cable.
But yeah, pull more cable now than you think you will need.
 
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I used 3/4 PVC with direct burial. The PVC was mostly due to rodents in the area and extra protection.

I just went to Home Depot. Conduit has doubled in price it seems.
 
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