Frozen fill dirt on water line?

Billrog · Dec 8, 2016

Cover the top of the hole with card board , plywood anything you have to prevent the ground in the hole from freezing. I fixed a water leak at -15C one winter and the dirt pile got froze solid all I did was put a piece of fiber glass insul. over the pipe and cover the hole with plywood until the dirt thawed in the spring.

oosik · Dec 9, 2016

Cover the pipe with something - sand then insulation or straw. Cover the hole with plywood. This should prevent the pipe from freezing. You should not have to run the water if the hole/pipe is properly insulated/covered. Back fill the hole when the dirt thaws.

A word of caution....... continuously running the water, in the house, can cause an overload on the septic system, if you are on a septic tank.

Deere Dude · Dec 9, 2016

Cover it with about 4 inches of blueboard or styrofoam and then sand if you have any. The styrofoam should protect the line form hard frozen chunks and it will keep it from freezing and make it easier to find later if it needs to be dug up.

Billrog · Dec 9, 2016

This is the repair I made that waited until spring to get back filled & not leaving the water running with just a couple pieces of 2" blue sm Styrofoam and covered the hole with plywood. In the spring back filled to within a 1' of the surface with sand then top soil. This avoided setting.

Nic3456 · Dec 10, 2016

I checked the sand this morning and it's pretty hard/frozen - perhaps just buy a bag or two of top soil and combine with insulation and plywood?

Billrog · Dec 10, 2016

I'm concerned I might give you advice then that darn thing freezes. If you cover the insulation with some 6 mil. poly then use some chunks of froze dirt to seal the edges and cover the top of the hole with plywood you should be good to go. I'd didn't have poly on hand so if I remember correctly I used cardboard which also has some limited insulation effects.

jenkinsph · Dec 12, 2016

Nic3456 said:
I checked the sand this morning and it's pretty hard/frozen - perhaps just buy a bag or two of top soil and combine with insulation and plywood?

If you have a backhoe you could find a spot to dig down deep to get some warmer dirt. Put this over the insulation and call it good. Watching the weather I would get this done quick.

Rereading the thread I see the hole is only 2'x3' and about 40" depth. If you add an additional layer of insulation board you should be able to use any dirt you have that is not frozen and will tamp down tight.

grsthegreat · Dec 12, 2016

Depending how worried you are about this, i have rented and used automotive steam cleaner to thaw frozen groung in the past. Works like magic. Its amazing how fast it thaws frozen ground.

You can also buy a bunch of sacked sand from homedepot to cover the pipe, then cover the rest with frozen junk.

radioman · Dec 13, 2016

its not the frozen dirt im worried about. its the moisture content. sand shouldnt have any moisture when you move it to bury the pipe the first 6 inches. If you are worried enough - it wont hurt to fill 5 gallon buckets and keep it inside your house for 24 hours then cover the pipe then cover with the frozen dirt. the dirt will stay frozen till spring then warm up. there is a reason for a frostline. around here the frostline is 42-48 inches so we have to bury water, electrical that deep around here. as long the pipe is below the frostline and its covered with frozen or not dirt - it will act like an insulator since it keeps soil below it at a stable temps.
I wouldnt have qualms right now if you got it buried before the deep freeze this week.

Nic3456 · Dec 13, 2016

I bought some bags of topsoil and they are thawing in the house. Going to put those on Thursday.

In a separate note I noticed I have several sections where the original trench dirt has settled quite a bit (I'd say 14-18" in some places. The original line is buried 36-40" deep - do I need to get more backfill or just use plastic,etc? Overall I would guess 200ft of the 600ft are like this