Accidentally scraped an underground electric cable while digging flowerbed?

Question

I was digging about 10-12 inches down with a garden shovel, when the point of my shovel scraped an underground electric cable located about 5 feet away from the foundation of the house. The shovel-point scraped into 2 inches of the top black layer of the cable, exposing a white underwire, but not cutting it. Power seems to be ok; but I was pretty scared about that experience. What do I do now?

Answer 1

Tape up the wire with electrical tape and you should be just fine

Answer 2

If you can see no copper exposed then do not worry about it. It may be eletrical or phone or cable. If no copper is exposed then let it go.  You may wrap in electrical tape to make you feel better.

Answer 3

Are you sure the line is for electricity or for cable?  You may be able to call the power company and they will fix it.  Leaving the wires exposed can lead to corrosion since they will now be exposed to moisture.

Answer 4

If the underwire hasn't been cut, I'd uses RTV sealent to spread over the gap let it set up for an hour, Then fill in the dirt and forget it.

Answer 5

Call a qualified professional electrician to make the repairs. Before digging call for underground service locations.  This wire should have bee buried about 36" down and have a warning tape over it.  This shallow, it should have been in rigid steel conduit, not direct burial.  The electrician should be able to determine if it is a live cable or one that was abandoned.  

   Do get it fixed.

Answer 6

If it didn't damage the white or black insulating cover, I would carefully dig around the cut and retape the damaged area with a good electrical tape. Making sure to give myself enough room to make sure I was right about the damage and second, to make sure that I got the damage taped right.

Answer 7

The white wire is the common or neutral wire anyway and should not be carrying any voltage. Being that it is only a foot deep it was obviously added after the house was built because even direct burial U/F cable should be 2' deep per the electrical code. It possibly is an irrigation control line or landscape ltg. power line which in that case it would be low voltage. I would tape it up and forget it as well.

Answer 8

I would call your electric utility.  They will usually come out for free, and inspect the wire.  As long as you don't see any copper showing, you should be safe as far as electrocution or arcing goes.  As an electrician, if the damage wasn't too bad, I would wrap the wire in Scotch 130C and Scotch 33, and then coat the wire with Scotchkote or a similar weather sealant.