Home construction question

[jincay]

Anyone have an Idea why a heavy gauge wire is buried in front of my townhome? I'm doing some landscaping and found it today.

[jincay]

[jincay]

[Grendel]

Lazy contractor or contractors. I am no longer surprised by what can be found under the grass around a home. I have found 100s of unused bricks, many many unused framing nail gun reloads, PVC pipe, large pieces of framing wood, rolls of Romex...etc. If the excavator contractor shows up to cover stuff up and the area is not cleaned up they will just bury everything there.

[bellicose]

When I went to sell my house (first people to live in it) the buyer asked all the trash in the crawl space to be cleaned up. I was thinking, "I've never been down there, what trash?" Contractors just used it as a garbage pit while building.

[jincay]

Thanks that's what I figured. Seems to be the norm that when my house was built that all the candy wrappers and other assorted trash was simply buried

[grendal50]

It may have gone to a post light in the past. Handy homeowners sometimes don't know or think to ask about the "right" way to do things.

[Memornix]

Can't really tell from the photos, but is the wire bare or insulated? If it is bare, and close to the house and/or electrical panel, it might be a ground. I some cases there are several grounding rods with bare copper running to them exiting the house/electrical panel. Thats one possibility, otherwise, it is probably what was stated above.

[Seajay]

Don't think that is a ground, it doesn't look deep enough to be used for grounding.

That looks like tie wire for concrete to me. If it isn't a cable it's trash.

[iamthelazerviking]

My parents had a house build in 2005. Insulation was stuffed into air ducts, and workers used the shower as a toilet.

[scottieb]

It is hard to tell from the pictures but is the wire copper? Or is it just steel? Steel would be magnetic and harder to bend. It would have obvious evidence of rust as well. Copper would have a nice patina on it and filing or sanding through that would reveal shiny copper.

Have you discovered more of it? Have you pulled it up and is it connected to anything?

A single, bare copper wire of that size is not untypical of grounding from an electrical panel to a ground rod or another grounding electrode.

[jincay]

It was bare wire, very mild and was looped in sections with spikes going down, very soft to cut with pincers. I think it was for concrete pouring that was changed by builders.

I did not follow it all the way only about three feet. Mains electric runs into the back of the house and so does the ground.

[Seajay]

Ya very much looks like tie wire for concrete to me.

But I got curious and started looking for grounding wires, and they all look like what I have which is a grounding Rod connected with either solid copper or stranded copper cable. Usually next to the house, and seemingly not ever in the middle of the yard.

Are there other grounding methods used?

[flyweightnate]

Tied to cast iron or copper water pipes is often allowed by code. Burying a long loop of copper wire of a certain size used to be to code, too.

I didn't trust the electrician who did my house however long ago, after seeing a 55 Amp breaker on 10ga, so I just drove my own grounding rod to make sure. No sense letting a deadly shock or a house burn down for an hour's work and a few bucks.

[Seajay]

Neat, thanks.

[jincay]

My house is grounded in the rear, I really appreciate the answers from everyone here.

[Chuck E Ducky]

Underground Dog fence possibly is it along the border. Or around maybe ware a garden use to be.

[oldschool]

We found a pool that was filed in with construction debris in the 60s/70s that eventually rotted. Well, the pay loader found it when driving over the lawn....