Water Line to new Pasture fields

[barticus73]

I am going to run anywhere from 800 to 1200 feet of water line from a well at my house out to some pastures and surface the water with frost free hydrants. Any ideas on what type of piping to use? I am planning on renting a ditch witch for the trenching. Everywhere around here want 200 bucks a day!! How fast can you dig with a ditchwitch?? Its the 3 foot deep model on wheels.

Also, I have to go under a sidewalk as well as an old set of railroad tracks. How do you dig a hole under these things.?
I already have a drain pipe going under the tracks and could just run the water line through that if I had to but would like to know if there is another way to do it?

Any ideas???

Thanx,

Jerry in Pa

[MrP]

Jerry,

Can't comment about the speed or cost of a ditch-witch, but make sure you put the tubing below the frost line. In PA, that is probably 2 1/2 to 3 feet.

[MJB]

For digging under the sidewalk I would use "hydraulic mining". Dig a hole straight down on either side of the sidewalk where you want to cross. Take a piece of heavy wall PVC pipe big enough for your water line to run through and long enough to reach between the two holes you dug. Place the PVC horizontally in the trench at the desired depth and drive it into the dirt under the sidewalk with a sledgehammer and a piece of wood. When the pipe has driven in a few inches take your garden hose and spray water inside the PVC to flush out the dirt. Drive in the PVC a few inches further and again flush out the dirt. Repeat as necessary until the PVC comes out in the other hole. Run your water line through the PVC and backfill the holes. This works very well in soils that don't have a lot of large rocks. I don't know if you would be able to drive the PVC far enough to cross the railroad tracks. Good luck.

[gws]

You need to look at the front line in your area. Unless your in the south or dont get much cold and snow then 3ft may be to shallow.

[Charlie_Iliff]

We did 2500 ft in easy soil in 3 days with a rental trencher. It did not have either the missile or borer to get under the road. We had to have that done separately. We laid 1 1/4 inch plastic pipe and an electric line to the heated waterers. Our worst problem was getting dirt properly back in the trench. We are now 1 1/2 years later and still holes show up where the ditch didn't get filled properly. Ours runs through the pastures, so that is a problem. I don't know others' experience, but I'd recommend the widest trencher available, so you have room to backfill and tamp.

[TonyC]

This has come up before in TBN and I offer the same advice to you. I have done more than my share of trenches. From my experience, hire someone! Get pricing first, of course but I have learned the hard way that having someone come out is not only worth the dough, it is often cheaper. By the time you rent the trencher (which often is too small and for how many days?) and do the work, you'll wish you had gotten someone to do it. They will dig the trench in no time...no work for you. You run the water line behind them as they go. When they get through trenching, the pipe will be laid and they will go back and cover it up and pack it in with the weight of their trencher. In no time flat you're done, your not broken and beaten (I hate running a trencher on foot) and the job is completed with probably no future issues of filling in depressions. Call someone..they'll give you a price per foot and you can figure from there.

As far as pipe, I learned that the hard way too. The standard black roll pipe is good but if you have a lot of rocks like I do, they will work on it at some point down the line. Then you have a leak. Where is it? Sometimes you can tell by the wet ground. Sometimes it goes downward and never shows up except you meter keeps spinning out of control. Now what do you do? I ran a completely new line using high grade hard PVC pipe so I'll never have to do that again!

Good luck!

[edt]

Hi barticus just last year I ran about 500 feet used 1 inch poly
type pipping it came in roll of 500ft becouse i'm in norhteast
I had too put it down 4 feet below frost line used six yards of sand for good base and fill did it with my long tractor and back
hoe its a bush hog I think 665 took about two full days also hit alote of rocks and back fill has been ok all year good luck also installed frost free hydrant down 4 feet with rocks for drainge

[yooperdave]

Hi Jerry,

Are you hoping to use your pipeline during the winter months?
If so, you may want to add a couple inches of rigid insulation over and around the pipe in addition to sinking the pipe as low as you can afford. Fixing a leaky pipe after the fact is a real pain in the butt. If you use the black roll pvc pipe, use double clamps around the connectors. If you use rigid pvc pipe, use the best epoxy money can buy. Regardless, try out the system before backfilling. You may want to rent a high volume industrial air compressor to blow out the line in the fall if you have any doubts about using the system in the cold weather.

Good Luck

Yooper Dave

[Charlie_Iliff]

In one run of 2" black roll plastic, we used connectors that have a thin sleeve inside and outside compression collars with a barbed ring to hold the pipe in. I don't know the name, but pros around here say they prevent the number one cause of failure - bad hose clamp joints. Some swear that heating and clamping works fine, but I've seen that fail. The compression fittings are more expensive, but if you save one leak, they're cheap.

[Darren]

I use 160 or 200# polyethylene pipe. For a long run like you're considering, you'll need to consider the effect of the internal friction of the pipe. The larger the pipe the less effect on the pressure at your hydrant. I'd vote for compression fitting too. They get expensive in the larger sizes but they're still cheaper than fixing leaks later.

After you dig the trench and before you lay the pipe, check the trench for rocks in the area of the pipe. As one of the posters mentioned, use sand in the bottom of the trench for pipe bedding. After putting about 4" of sand
in the bottom, lay the pipe and then fill around the pipe and over top of the pipe with sand to a point several inches above the pipe. Following that start filling the trench in layers.

You can either use an inverted spud bar to compact the fill or if you can use an air driven trench tamper which is designed like a jackhammer with a ram on the end. Either method will give you a workout, but you won't have settlement later.