Installing 2000 ft water line this weekend. Any advice?

   / Installing 2000 ft water line this weekend. Any advice? #1  

pharmvet

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Sep 28, 2008
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535
Location
North East TX
Tractor
Ford 7710 II FWA, NH TB110 FWA w/ NH 46LB loader, JD 5303 2wd w/ loader
In preparation for a new house, Im running 2000 ft. of water line this weekend. The rural water supply is in the southwest corner of my property next to the road. The coop manager is a good friend of mine. I will be digging all the ditches (got a ride on trencher rented for the 3 day weekend). The coop will provide the pipe (2 inch slip joint) from where the water comes in on my property to the meter (800 ft) I will run this pipe 6' inside my fence along the road. I will them pay for the pipe running north up the hill to my house pad (1200 ft.) I have small white oak trees planted on both sides of my driveway. I plan to keep the water line 30 or 40 feet from these trees to avoid any root issues in the far future. I am planning to get the line at least 3 ft. deep. It is about 4 or 5 ft. deep where it comes into my property. I plan to use 2" slip joint all the way. I will also use a 2" residential meter. I realize this is probably overkill, but I feel it is a one time investment, and so long as it wont cause any problems, why not?.

Anyway, any and all advice on the use of a trencher, slip joints, etc is welcomed.
 
   / Installing 2000 ft water line this weekend. Any advice? #2  
I think you are on the right track. 2" for that long a run would be the minimum in my opinion or you'll have low pressures.Back in the early 80's I worked for a water/wastewater company running a backhoe crew. If it was mine,at any change of direction( like at a 90 ) I would back up that 90 with stabilized sand ( bag of Portland cement mixed with bank sand ) just to make sure it couldn't blow out .

Good Luck , and keep us posted !
 
   / Installing 2000 ft water line this weekend. Any advice? #3  
I just ran a water line last weekend. Sounds good only I would drop it down to 1 inch about 50 to 60 feet before it hits the house. Have fun trenching and hope there isn't much rock. Took me 4 days and a backhoe ( to dig floaters up) to get that far. We kept it at 36 inches the whole way.
 
   / Installing 2000 ft water line this weekend. Any advice? #4  
May want to put something else in later. Joint trenching cable/wire or additional conduit might make sense. Take a picture so in the future someone else knows where things are at. Staple it someplace where your meters at. #30 years passes pretty quickly and I have learned somethings from grandfathers and fathers notes on the farm.
 
   / Installing 2000 ft water line this weekend. Any advice? #5  
I dont think you need a 2" meter but the 2" pipe is right due to the flow restrictions in that long a run. Regardless of the lenght, the pressure will be the same when you first open the valve on the end but rapidly drops due to flow restriction. The larger pipe will alleviated this in the long 2000" run. I dont know about your water company but a 2" main meter will cost you a bunch more and in the end all you will get out the end of the line is what size you have coming into your house which is usually 3/4 or 1" max. therefore at the supply point a 1" meter is all you need. The larger meter will not put any more water in than what you can remove on the far end and if the line pressure is higher than 45PSI you will have to put in a pressure restrictor before it comes into your house.
I run my house with a sprinkler system that uses 2" header pipe to supply as many as 11 sprinkler heads per zone fed thru the 3/4" meter @ 110 PSI and that is all it needs. You will be wasting money putting in a 2" meter and likely the water company will charge you commercial rates for your water also plus charge you extra for the meter. Most water districts supply their standard size meter 5/8" for no charge and then charge extra for anything larger, so check it out and ask the water dept supervisor about the need for larger meter based on today and future use.
 
   / Installing 2000 ft water line this weekend. Any advice? #6  
The only thing that I might add would be to throw in a locate wire for the future. I'm not sure how large of a wire would be required for 3' deep, but we started doing that around the facility where I work. It lets us clamp to it at one end and find the line anywhere along it's path. I think we usually use 16 or 18 ga wire, but I'm not sure.

Good luck and take care.
 
   / Installing 2000 ft water line this weekend. Any advice? #7  
The previous owner here put in the water line and used 2" slip joint. I agree, that's the right size especially if you have decent main line pressure (we have a pumping station nearby so we have decent pressure.)

I would take some measurements at different locations so that you can find where it is later if you want to put in fence posts, etc. It might be worthwhile to put in a wire that can be traced electronically. Ours has the telephone cable buried with it and that let's the "Before you dig" people come out and locate it for me when we are doing fencing or driveway work.:thumbsup:

Ken
 
   / Installing 2000 ft water line this weekend. Any advice? #8  
The locator wire is a good idea. The other thing we do is backfill the trench 2/3's of the way and then lay in some yellow caution tape before we finish filling. Some distant day in the future when a backhoe starts digging they will catch the caution tape before the pipe and save a messy repair. Cheap insurance to me.

MarkV
 
   / Installing 2000 ft water line this weekend. Any advice? #9  
locator tracer wire for sure. take pictures as well for reference, i have already to find pictures i took of some things a couple years later.

i would say 2" pipe size as well. and go with 2" meter but with word of caution check with water company and folks doing the final hook ups to the meter. some places charge some places do not.

2" would be good if you plan on a liner pond, or large swimming pool.

2" with slip ends. can work. but have you priced out black poly pipe? you need to double check on "inside diameters" of both pipe and hose. inside diameter can differ pending on what specifications are used to list it. personally for my area prefer a black poly pipe. over longer runs. less chance of "settling issues" and having a leak some place. then again i have to worry about freeze / thaw of ground, and causing ground movement. being your in texas in hot climate. you should be fine.

be careful of placing near areas were a "ditch" may need to be put in. putting in a ditch = re doing a good portion of your pipe. also try to avoid areas were wash outs are happening and the ground is eroding away. that way in a few years from now, your pipe is not setting out of the ground.

if your project is going to take a few days, and it is going to rain. and you have pipe in your trench already. "cap the lowest end" and fill the pipe up with water. that way when it does rain, your pipe does not turn into a balloon and float up and out of the ground on you. *been there done that* no fun re digging trench, and cutting out broken pieces of pipe.
 
   / Installing 2000 ft water line this weekend. Any advice?
  • Thread Starter
#10  
Got started this afternoon. Ive got the ditcher rented for the next three days (lucked out with the holiday weekend). Anyway, looks like I may need the time. Dug about 210 ft. this afternoon in 2 hours. At this rate, its a 20 hour trench time not to mention installing the pipe. Once again im overkilling the job and going 3 ft. but I figure its a one time job and Im gonna give it all I got. Ive got 2000 feet of schedule 40, made in the good ole USA slip joint 2" pipe. Here are some pics. Ill post more later. thanks for all the good advice guys !!!
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