G McCall said:
I need to run a water line through the woods which has cedar trees and post oaks. I hope to rent a ditch witch or some type of ditching machine that will do the job. I believe I can get a ditcher through the (woods) path I have chosen.
Will tree roots be a big problem ?
You don't have a location listed, so the depth of your trench might be very important. If you have a frost line, you need to be deeper then that.
You didn't mention how far you are going to run the line or the size of the line. If it's a large line, 2 inches or more, then you want pipe with rubber seals at the end. These are better on long runs, and mandatory on larger lines. Pipe moves around in the ground, since the ground moves all the time. To avoild breaks, the pipe with gaskets in the bell housing allow the pipe to slide in and out a small amount.
Is this a straight line or will there be turns? Will you have any other lines off of this line?
Are you trying to save the trees from dying, or just want to know if a trencher will cut through the roots? Just about any trencher will cut through the roots, rock is where you run into problems.
What type of soil do you have?
A walk behind trencher will dig a 4 inch trench two feet deep faily easily. I've done 1,200 feet in a day through the woods in clay, but it was a very long day. A ride along trencher will cost allot more to rent, but it will do allot more without the strain and physical labor that a walk behind requires.
If you want to save the trees, you need to keep your trench at the edge of the drip line. Just look up while under the trees. If you are under branches, you will be cutting roots. If you don't see branches above your head, you wont harm the tree. The closer to the trunk that you are, the greater harm you will cause the tree. Cedars are pretty hard to kill, oaks can be fairly easy to kill.
Always run Schedule 40 pipe. Thinwall will fail and leak on you. The reason I ran that 1,200 foot trench was because a one inch thinwall pipe was installed by the original builder. It had so many leaks in it that I couldn't find them. Lots of small leaks wont show above ground, but I was losing 10,000 gallons a month through them.
Use purple primer and clear glue. There are other glues, and they all have a special use, but clear glue is the strongest and in my area, the only type that's allowed. All other colors have been proven to fail.
Lastly, digging the trench is the easy part. Filling it in is where the real work begins!!!!!!!!!
Eddie
