We spent the last few days running water and electricity to the barn.
Originally we had planned to either dig or drill a separate well for the barn, so we didn't plan an exit route for water to get from the house to the barn. When you install in-floor radiant heat in a house built on a slab, that's an oversight that's hard to get around.
After some consideration, we decided not to risk disturbing the geothermal piping by running a water supply for the barn through the same thimbles. In the back of the house, there is a buried water pipe from the dug well. We ran the water supply for the barn through the same thimble as that, just enough room to get the second pipe in place. 240 feet of trench and two driveways later and it's at the barn.
We were able to use the same trench to run the electric line as well. Again, the plan was to use a separate service for the barn, but the electrician convinced us we were further ahead to run power from the house (no overhead cables, no second meter, etc.) Tech cable (armored direct burial cable) carries 60 amps of power to the barn. We had excess capacity in the house, so it was do-able.
Our excavating contractor used a mini-excavator for the around-the-house work, and a full-size one for the open areas when it wasn't busy elsewhere. Tricky area in the back of the house, we had to dig under our septic line. Nice to have an expert running the excavator, I'd have the house destroyed if it were me running it!
To meet the electrical code, the armored cable must be in a layer of clear sand, 6 inches under and 6 inches over it, with no rock in the sand. As well, there's a warning tape buried above the cable, to make anyone digging aware that they're over an electrical cable.
The place looked like the wrath of God had descended on us for a couple days, but the trench is 90% backfilled now, the
L3400 did about 50% of it.
Water is hooked up to the barn now, with a decent flow rate. That surprised me a bit, I expected less flow over 240 feet away. We used poly water line, 1" in diameter.
With any luck, we'll have power hooked up this week, and then the big hurdles are over.
Sean