Jim, I'm afraid that if you don't cut the conduit beyond the line of the wall, it will continue to serve as a conduit (for water) into the wall and room, and that the portions of conduit that are left inside the wall will continue to rust, which will crack the concrete (and rust rebar in the wall, too), and it will all have to be redone. CYCA [the second C is for Customer's] Ralph -----Original Message----- From: Jim Follett <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Mon, 2 May 2005 09:03:50 -0500 Subject: Re: [BP] Duke of Marlborough country ... Ralph: The conduit does pass through a concrete wall, but it does not pass from under the building slab at any point. Perhaps we could use a combination of seals, I am going to check the Sika grouts, and see if we can weld a cap over it. We may be able to get a die grinder into the conduit and remove more material, allowing better than an 1 1/2" of seal. If I can get some photo's I'll e-mail them. Jim -----Original Message----- From: The listserv which takes flossing seriously! [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of [log in to unmask] Sent: Friday, April 29, 2005 8:33 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [BP] Duke of Marlborough country ... In a message dated 4/29/2005 6:10:56 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, [log in to unmask] writes: Since you sent this to everybody, you can have my 2 cents' worth, in addition to Ken's. Got a problem coming up on a project, we have an electrical panel in the basement of a lab building over at Rice University. We are going to abandon the existing 50 year old electrical feeder, and conduit to the panel, it was run in rigid conduit, using lead over rubber covered conductors, there is no way we will be able to remove the existing feeders. We are installing a new conduit and feeders to the panel. The problem is this, the existing conduit has a large amount of water in it (assumed to be ground water), this is what has precipitated the need to replace the panel, the water seepage has corroded the copper bussing in the panel. We intend on cutting the conduit off as close as possible to the wall, leaving a stub of conduit. We will then beat the old conductors into the conduit as far as possible, lets assume a maximum of 1 1/2". The issue I need help on is how best to permanently seal the conduit so that it does not leak anymore. Assume this conduit passes through a concrete wall of some sort where it enters your switchroom or whatever. We probably will not be able to weld a steel cap to the old galvanized conduit. Epoxy has been suggested, but I want to know if we encapsulate the end, can we assume that this will be permanent. My concern would be that even if you seal up the conduit with epoxy, the conduit itself will continue to take on moisture and will continue to rust, and that to the extent the conduit passes through the foundation wall and into your switchroom , the rust will put pressure on and crack the concrete, and your foundation will get AFU and continue to leak where this conduit is buried in it. Seems to me that you need to open the wall, cut the conduit somewhere outboard of the outside face of the wall, and then patch the wall with some sort of non-shrink grout. It would be nice if you could get to the outer face of the wall and waterproof the area through which the conduit passed, after you patch the wall, assuming that the outer face of the foundation was waterproofed when it was built. The total conduit run is about 100', it is buried probably 3'-4' below ground, it is a 2 1/2" conduit, filled probably 50% with conductors, I don't think there will be any hydraulic pressure on what ever seal we go with. Seems to me that you're gonna continue to get water attempting to enter the building through the conduit unless you kill the conduit beyond the wall line, in which case the water in the conduit just pisses into the soil. Just want some professional input. Let's see what everybody else says. The other question is who tells you how to solve this problem, and whether you want to be the father of this potential bastard child...which is to say, who (for legal purposes) is the designer of the repair, and who gets sued if it doesn't work right, or continues to leak into the building? Jim Ralph