Public Utilities
Once the foundation is complete and the survey has been approved, we have our sewer and water contractor dig the utility trenches. The trenches for sewer and water must be below the frost line, so they will not freeze during our winter months. The required depth varies around the country. In Glen Ellyn the frost line is 42” deep; however we usually bury the sewer and water lines a deeper for added protection. We will install your sanitary sewer line at least 10 feet away from your water supply line to avoid potential cross mix issues years down the line.
Once the sewer and water lines are installed, we will install the gas and electric lines at least 18” below grade per code. Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) and Northern Illinois Gas (Nicor) provide electric and gas services in Glen Ellyn, Wheaton and much of the surrounding suburbs. In Naperville, the City of Naperville provides the electric service. This is significant to know because some of the service providers may have extraordinarily long lead times to install new gas, water and sewar services.
We prepare for ComEd by trenching from the source of electric – usually a telephone pole, to the meter socket – the exterior electric service terminal on your home. We then install direct burial underground cable from the source, to the home, and fill in the trench. By doing it this way ComEd only has to connect the wire to the meter socket and the telephone pole. The result of trenching and running the wire ourselves, generally reduces the overall time for ComEd to install and connect your electric service. We typically do the same for Nicor, which from time to time has very long lead times for new installations.