I'd be extremely careful digging near any electrical wires. Even if they were at some standard depth at one time, that can change. And I wouldn't trust that it was done correctly in the first place. You can't even be sure they follow a straight line. You should be able to get the lines located for free by your utility company. But they probably won't be exact. And if you have any lines that the utility company doesn't own, like maybe a line running to a garage that they didn't install, they probably won't locate that for you. And they may not even warn you of the possibility it exists. If you really need to dig there, I'd call your utility company, and ask for advice.

On a job recently, my excavator cut a powerline that should not have been on the property, was not found by the utility sub sent after the dig-safe call and so not marked, and was about 20 inches deep instead of 36.

So yeah, be careful, don't cut any 'roots' without making certain first that they don't have plastic casing.

My main entrance line was buried about 30 to 36 inches deep. Apparently not all are that way.

yep ring up the power company first so they can either tell you from a plan or come and locate it, the depth they give may not be actual all along the cable site.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

I'd go with a raised bed if you even "think" there are electrical lines below.

The electrical lines running to our detached garage in the back yard from the house were less than 4 inches under the soil (and naked too!)!!! My mom bumped it with a shovel this past weekend while planting a shrub along the corner of the garage...its freaky how stupid people are about doing electrical work themselves! I'm sure the electrical company wouldn't have known the line was there either.

36 inches is code although erosion will change the depth. please be very careful. if you dead short it it will make one big boom its not pretty so have the utility co. locate them or a qualified electrician the good news is that utility lines are now required to be run in rigid PVC conduit

It's even worse if you live in a house built by an amateur -- my dad built my house with help from my mom's father and her brothers. My grandfather also built my sister's house next door, and my mom's oldest brother built several others on the street when they sold of the old farmstead property as a way to make money.

None of them were pros at this. But, especially my dad. All kinds of interesting little things going on. I hope I never have to have major inspection for any reason, they would find all kinds of funky things with the electrical for sure.

Anytime you run a line underground to a light or building, put it inside plastic pipe and bury it a foot deep. I dug into a buried line on my daughters flower garden It was going to a storage shed and was about 6 inches deep and not encased in plastic.

Call before you dig. It's the law, people. The response will be very fast and you'll have all underground utilities marked for you.

Here is a link that might be useful: Find your local number

Do you like curly hair? Do you have a thick pair of rubber boots? If you answered no to both questions, DO NOT attempt to work the ground by anything that digs deeper than about six inches - unless you have a huge life insurance policy that does not contain an "idiot" clause. Or, another route is to find the breaker to the wire and turn it off, then have a go at working the ground. If you hit a wire, you won't get curly hair, if you don't you will not have to worry.

Mike

rhizo - You'll have all underground utilities marked, except for the ones not owned by the utility companies. And it's the ones they don't own that would concern me the most, since they were probably installed by denninmi's dad:)

Keep in mind that OLD homes were not built/governed by city codes . . . case in point: my 1952 home! You just never know what you'll turn up next . . . one moment you're digging a small hole for a lovely shrub and the next you've sliced into a high voltage electrical wire that has no conduit or pvc protecting it from a shovel or tiller!!!

You'll have the ones marked that they bother to look for, as I said. It's not a question of ownership. The point of dig-safe is to locate utilities and thus prevent accidental breaks, not determine ownership. Around here and I believe in most places, power companies generally do not own underground lines and certainly not on the residential side of utility pedestals.

The subs that the utilities use to find the lines are far from infallible. If they do not suspect a line exists in a particular direction, then they don't look for it and obviously won't find it. And yet an unsuspected line carrying significant amps could exist. In light of what happened to me recently I would assume that the feeds for abutting properties could be crossing a given property improperly and proceed with caution. In fact, having learned a lesson, in future where residences are close together I will call dig-safe multiple times for all the abutters as well, so that the searcher will be compelled to search from each end point and if a line if is not heading in the expected direction a mishap can be apprehended.