Landscape lighting can work wonders for your home. Besides adding to the aesthetics of your home, these outdoor electrical fixtures also make your place safer by illuminating it at night. Proper outdoor electrical wiring is needed to make these landscape lightings, pump, lawn mower, or any other electrical devices work outside. Whenever you call an Atlanta electrical contractor to install outdoor wiring, he may place the wire overhead or bury it in a trench.

The overhead wiring not only spoils the view of your home but can also prove to be dangerous; thus, burying the wire is the most popular option. Before the contractors get on with the job of digging the trenches and burying the wires, they need to take into account the National Electrical Code (NEC) and all local codes set down for choosing the right wire and the correct depth at which they need to be buried.

Keeping the safety of your family members in mind, the following facts should be noted when the wiring has to be buried:

• If the wire is placed in the metallic conduit, you need a depth of about 6 inches for burying the cable. The pipe in which the wire is placed is made using aluminum or steel. To prevent the corrosion of the aluminum conduit pipe, paint it by using a bituminous based solution.

The wire must run all through the metallic conduit before it comes out from the trench so that it doesn’t get damaged due to moisture, other natural elements, insects, and pests.

• If a wire is placed in a rigid non-metallic conduit, the NEC suggests placing the wires at a depth of 12 inches. Wires should be placed in a rigid conduit that is made from high-density polyethylene or polyvinyl chloride.

• If you are using an underground feeder cable that has to be buried directly in the ground as it comes with a weatherproof casing, you need to place it in an 18-inch deep trench since there is no conduit to protect the wire.

The above guidelines have been issued by the NEC, but Atlanta electrical contractors should also check the local procedures before they actually start the work.