Skip to content
QCA Electric
Specialty

Underground Directional Boring

Boring puts conduit under a driveway, a sidewalk or a finished lawn instead of cutting a trench through it. A drill head is steered from a small entry pit to a small exit pit, and the conduit is pulled back through the bore. What you see afterwards is two patches the size of a doormat rather than a scar across the yard. It is how we feed garages, outbuildings, lot poles and irrigation controls.

A multimeter and hand tools with wire connectors laid out on a printed wiring schematic

Where boring beats trenching

  • Under a concrete or asphalt driveway that would otherwise be cut and patched
  • Beneath sidewalks, patios and retaining walls
  • Across an established lawn, a septic field or mature tree roots
  • Under a parking lot where closing a lane is the real disruption
  • Anywhere the surface is newer or better finished than you are willing to dig up
  • Long runs where an open trench would be a hazard for days

How a bore runs

  1. Locate everything firstPublic utility locates are called in, and we probe for private lines: irrigation, gas out to a grill, septic, pet fence and old feeds nobody documented.
  2. Entry and exit pitsTwo small pits are opened at either end of the run, sized for the drill and the pull rather than for the whole path.
  3. Steer the boreThe head is tracked from the surface and steered around what is in the way, holding depth under the obstacle the whole way across.
  4. Pull the conduitConduit is pulled back along the bore, the conductors go in, and both pits are backfilled and the surface restored.

What can stop a bore

Solid rock, old foundations and a yard full of undocumented utilities are the honest limits, and so is a run that has to stay shallow because of what sits above it. We walk the route first and say if trenching part of it is the sensible answer, rather than discovering that with the drill halfway across.

Answers

Frequently asked questions

Will boring damage my driveway?

No. The bore passes well below the slab and the surface is never opened. The only excavation is the small pit at each end of the run.

How do you avoid hitting other buried utilities?

Locates before anything starts, plus probing for the private lines a locate will not mark. The head is tracked from above as it goes, so we know where it is the whole way.

How far can a single bore go?

Far enough for the runs this work usually calls for: out to a detached garage, a shed, a light pole or across a lot. Soil and obstacles matter more than distance on its own.

Does the lawn recover afterwards?

Yes. The two pits are backfilled, tamped, and the sod goes back over them. Within a season you will struggle to find where they were.

Can you bore for something other than electrical conduit?

The bores we run are for the conduit and circuits we install: feeds to buildings, lighting and controls. That is the work we take on.

Services

Related services

Need an electrician in the Quad Cities?

24-hour emergency service available