Trenching for house connections, are there specified depths?

Hello everyone, is there a guideline on how deep the water supply, electricity or telephone cables must be laid to be protected from frost, for example? If there is a regulation, which I assume for Germany, is it nationwide, state-wide or regionally different?

Hello Speer,

as a civil engineering construction manager in Baden-Württemberg, I can tell you that the depths of the individual utilities even vary locally.

In general, the utilities in the area of house connections are at depths as follows:

Electricity, telecom, cable television 0.5 - 1.2 m cover
Water Gas 0.5 - 1.3 m cover

For a water pipe, I personally would not go below 0.6 m cover.

TIP: Just call the local water master, he will surely help you and knows the local conditions best

Regards

Seems to indeed vary regionally.

For us, it's electricity/telecom 0.6m and water 1.20.

Hello,
completely correct. In old residential areas, there are many different depths. In general, you cannot dig safely. For the new construction area, I would still rely on the local building yard manager or water supervisor.