What Cable Is Recommended for Burial to a Light Post

Let in that location be lite - at least enough for people to see what treacherous terrain might prevarication underfoot as they approach your domicile. Illuminate the topography with a lamppost, which will light the way for weary travelers and homebound housemates alike. Installing one is simpler than you lot might call up. A pigsty filled with concrete keeps the post straight, and a narrow trench from the house carries the wiring - you could do that all in a day, equally This Former House technical editor Mark Powers shows here.

Hooking up the wiring to the chief box and adding a switch - for that, you should hire a licensed electrician, but there'south no reason you tin't install the post and run the wiring yourself. In that location'south even some added satisfaction for your effort: Your guests will thanks for your hospitality that much more than when they can actually see their way to your forepart door.

Step 1: Lamppost Overview

You lot don't want a lamp that leans like a prizefighter in the twelfth round—it must stand tall and straight. Unfortunately, the basis won't always cooperate in supporting the post because rains and frosts and even droughts tin can shift the soil. So you need to set up it in a stable ground to keep it aligned. About 16 inches of physical volition do the trick, with the post prepare 12 inches into it. You can besides add to the stability of the lamp by digging a deeper hole and lining it with nigh 6 inches of gravel, says This Sometime House full general contractor Tom Silva. Though manufacturers don't require this step, Tom recommends it to help with drainage and minimize frost heaves in colder climates.

To bring the wiring from the breaker box in the house out to the post, you'll need to bury information technology. The wire we recommend you apply is rated for direct burial, simply in concrete, information technology needs the protection of PVC conduit. For a double measure of prophylactic, nosotros suggest you protect the wire with conduit for its unabridged run. That will avoid any nasty surprises should someone dig too shut later on. The lamp post is hollow to let the wires to run without the conduit from the base to the lantern top.

When you lot run the wire, make certain to leave plenty of extra near the house then at that place's enough to ophidian through the wall and reach the circuit-breaker panel inside the firm. Then have a licensed electrician check your piece of work, make the connexion to the billow, and install the switch for the light.

Step 2: Dig the posthole

Using a posthole digger or circular shovel, make a pigsty at the mail service location 12 inches in diameter and 22 inches deep. Make full the bottom of the posthole with six inches of gravel. Then, use a trenching spade to create a narrow, 18-inch-deep

Step iii: Course the trench

When digging the posthole and trench, place the soil on top of a plastic tarp. That way, you won't bury the surrounding grass or plants, and the tarp will make it a whole lot easier to scrape the soil dorsum into the hole and trench when it comes time to backfill.

Step 4: Install the PVC conduit

Dry out fit PVC conduit to reach from the business firm to the posthole. Where necessary, cut the pieces with a hacksaw. Attach elbows to bring the conduit away from the house and downwardly into the trench, and so upwardly from the trench at the mail service. Add together conduit to the elbow in the post¬hole long enough to protrude 6 inches above the footing.

Connect the conduit pieces with PVC cement, making certain that all the elbows are oriented correctly. Next, thread 12-guess UF-rated wire through the pipe. Leave 9 feet extra at the post location and enough actress at the house to reach through the walls and to the billow box. Lay the pipe, with the wiring inside, in the trench, then backfill with soil.

Footstep v: Fill up the posthole with concrete

Mix a batch of concrete in a trough or wheelbarrow, one handbag at a time. Go along the mix stiff (non likewise much water) to assistance back up the post and shorten the set fourth dimension. The concrete should hold its shape, simply jiggle a little when jostled.

Shovel the physical into the posthole atop the gravel, being careful not to get any into the conduit or on the wires. Fill up the hole to grade or but below information technology, leaving most vi inches of conduit exposed. Using a physical float or a piece of scrap wood, shine the meridian of the footing.

Tip: Employ your shovel to chop gently at the concrete as you fill the hole, which will help eliminate air pockets.

Step vi: Set the postal service into the concrete footing

Working carefully but quickly, lay the post next to the hole and pull the wires through it from bottom to top. With the physical still wet, slide the shaft of the mail over the conduit and 12 inches into the concrete, making sure the wires still protrude from the top of the post. Twist the post as y'all put downwards pressure on information technology to piece of work it into the concrete.

Tip: Before setting the mail service, marking it with a pencil 12 inches up from its lesser so you'll know how deep to found it in the concrete.

Step 7: Install the lamppost

Wrap two or three straps or ropes around the mail and pale them into the ground a few feet abroad, which will brace the post by pulling it in opposing directions. Hold a level vertically against the mail in several spots around its circumference to check information technology for plumb.

Footstep eight: Brace lamppost perfectly plumb

Conform the straps attached to the lamppost, equally necessary, to deeply concur the post in position. Allow the physical to harden completely before removing the straps—at least four hours.

Step 9: Make the wire connections

Once the concrete is hard enough to hold the post without straps, use a utility knife to advisedly peel away three inches of the gray insulation from the UF cablevision coming out of the post to reveal the three wires encased in information technology: white, black, and a bare copper (or green) ground. These stand for to like-colored wires on the lantern.

Use wire strippers to expose ½ inch of bare copper on all the colored wires from the mail service and lantern. Pair the wires from the lantern to those from the post, matching white to white, blackness to blackness, and blank copper to blank copper (or dark-green). Twist on wire nuts to agree the pairs together.

Slide the lantern onto the post and tighten its set screws to secure it. Have a licensed electrician connect the wires to the billow box and install a switch in a user-friendly location.

Tools

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Source: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/curb-appeal/21016640/how-to-install-a-lamppost

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