how deep underground are electric cables put and gas pipes laid underground for houses and bungalows here in the united kingdom,the Supply would be coming from the street up the front garden,asking this as thinking of knocking in metal posts for garden fence,
Over here in the US we have telephone numbers we can call (Called Call before you dig) so the power companies will come out and mark the lawn wherever the lines are. They do this for free because it is easier than repairing them. Find out if there is a number in the UK before digging. Good luck Chris
i put three rocks and my mom put a peace or qucomeber
I apologize for the first answer. I can't imagine that basic building code is too different in the UK. The utility companies should have the information on file, and possibly your municipality. But the best bet is to see if they mark it for you. If that fails, I would pick up a manual post hole digger and some quick set cement and cement the posts in (i/m/o, this would be the way to go anyway as it gives you a much more secure post, plus you avoid having to wait on the utility company). Good luck.
All of the other instructions are correct - for normal household 120V lights it should be 12-18 inches below ground (plus be sure to use a Ground Fault Interrupter (GFI) somewhere so if there is a problem it will be safe). A buried power line can be closer to the surface if it is not in a conduit because it is flexable.. so frost heaves will not affect it as much as rigid conduit. However, if you really want to go only 3 inches.. get a low voltage (12V) light for the post lamp, a voltage converter at the house and you can run the power line at 3 inches.
Here in NZ Power cables have to be buried 600mm or 2 foot below ground, but if your still unsure locate someone with a detect machine who can exray the ground tell you where what are below the surface these gismo's can track trace pipes, power cables, telephone cables, even rabbit burrows! I know co's I used a company that traced underground pipe work on a farm at a speedway before the ground was dug up to insert an under ground drain from one building to another, co's we knew somewhere down there was a high voltage power cable we didn't want to hit it!. Cheers!!
