Planning for wiring in a yet to be built shed?

Im looking at doing some concrete work outside this summer. Basically making a 3' wide sidewalk. In the future I plan to build a shed and hope to run wiring from the house to it. The path for the wiring will of course be under the sidewalk I plan to build.

Is there some sort of conduit or something I should place under the cement when Im constructing the sidewalk, to house the future wire to the shed? Or is there a method I can use to pull wire under a 3' wide sidewalk in the future?

thanks for any insight.

 

You can use a hose to bore a hole in the dirt under the sidewalk, but you run the risk of removing too much dirt and having the sidewalk crack. I'd definitely run a conduit or pipe under the sidewalk before you finish it.

If it were me, I would run 3 (or 4) 1.25", 5' long electrical conduits under the sidewalk spaced 6" or so apart. I would duct tape the ends pretty securely so dirt and such doesn't get in them and bury them 18" deep. Then, document somewhere where they are so you can find them again.

In the future, you can either continue the conduit to the house/shed for electrical, or just use them as a chase for UF cable, telephone/network wiring, water piping, etc. The 1.25" conduit will easily allow a 60A feeder to the shed or a 3/4" water pipe, or whatever else you might end up wanting down the road.

 

I've come to prefer gluing a cap on the open end over using duct tape. With 12" outside the sidewalk on each end, there's plenty of conduit to allow a short piece to be cut off before prepping for the coupling. The cap is a surer protection and avoids having tape residue interfering with the bond for the coupling.

 

I'd run 2) 3'' pipes under the sidewalk, so you can run most anything in them.