Outside lamp post shorting

[JCox]

Hi Y'all. Got an outside lamp post that has started to blow our living room breakers each time it is turned on. We did some landscaping and cut the wire going to the post. Looks like it was never wired correctly anyway, since we hit it just about 4 inches underground, thought these were supposed to be much deeper. It looks like standard UF-B (no conduit), so for a quick fix, I spliced it back and waterproofed it (so I thought), with silicone in the wire nuts, several layers of liquid electric tape and also several layers of outside rated electric tape. Seems to have held up for about 6 mths., but now it trips. Before I started to shop for an electrician, I had a few dumb questions. The wire going from the house (from basement wall) goes under the sidewalk and crosses over to the other side of the sidewalk to the post (about 50 ft. from house). Since I mentioned that we had landscaped, I'm wondering about what kind of digging would need to be done, is this a big job? I was hoping not to have to redo the landscaping or patching it extensively. Has anyone had this done or know how invasive it is to the yard? Also, any idea of a ballpark price for something like this?

[John Nelson]

The cable, assuming it is GFCI-protected, is supposed to be at least 12" deep, but I often see it done much more shallow. For some reason, inspectors are lax on enforcing this code.

You need to go to your home center and buy a $10 UF splice kit. It will allow you to do a splice that is really waterproof. If you have to replace the cable completely, it will make a mess of your landscaping.

[JCox]

I'm pretty sure this isn't GFI protected. I can see where it comes into the basement wall and it just goes right into a junction box that goes up into the living room light switch (light switch has 1 living room receptacle (switched), porch light, and the lamp post light). Also, when I spliced this after it was cut, I really didn't have much slack to work with since it was cut pretty much right where it goes under the sidewalk. I'm not so sure it will be easy to redo without an electrician and unfortunately, without replacing the whole wire....Shucks!!!

[John Nelson]

Go check out the splice kit. You don't need any slack.