Putting Water Hydrants In

[Tim_in_IA]

Here is where I rounded the back of the house. It was steep here so I had to be careful with support placement and how fast and high I moved the bucket. Turned out just like I wanted it to.

 

[Tim_in_IA]

This is the last one for now. You can see with the placement of the tractor that I am making my way into the backyard at the south of the house. I'll have a few more obstacles here like our septic line and underground cable. Should be interesting! I'm feeling like Eddie Walker digging this much waterline trench! (That's a compliment Eddie btw /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif ).

At this point I am at about 300' of 6' deep trench. More to come next week.

 

[Farwell]

Tim,
Looks great. I am jealous, would love to have a back hoe. Not sure what the rules are in your area, but in Michigan they try to make us use blow out fittings on our hydrants. I leave them set up with the blow out fittings on them for inspection then I set them up so they drain back into the ground when I shut off the valve. I surround the base of the valve in a bunch of pea gravel wrapped in landscape cloth to make sure that there is plenty of room for the hydrant to drain when shut off.
Your work looks like you are a pro. Thanks for sharing your photos.
Farwell

 

[Tim_in_IA]

Farwell, thanks for the compliments! It means a lot since I am just learning on the hoe. The setup with the rock and the fabric as you described is pretty much how I am going to go. I will also be equipping these with vacuum breakers to prevent contamination through the hose. I'll be using 6' bury Y1 Iowa hydrants and 1" pipe. They should let out 46 gallon per minute!! I told my wife not to drink water directly from them as her cheeks would explode /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif.

Having lots of fun with this project! Also, this is the first time I used earplugs while I was on the tractor and that's how I am going to do it from now on. Really makes a difference! My wife says I don't shout at her now when I'm done like I used to. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Tim_in_IA]

Thought this might be helpful as the project moves along. This is the type of hydrant I am putting in. It's the Y1 6ft bury:

hydrant specs

 

[Tim_in_IA]

Made a little progress on this project last weekend. Here is a shot of the trench coming round the back of the house. The hose over the trench is the temporary water lines I used this summer. They're a big reason for the hydrant install /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif.

 

[Tim_in_IA]

The water line will need to go under my septic line so I have some careful digging to do in the next photos. I ran a line to estimate where the underground sewage pipe is buried.

After attempting to dig dry rock-hard clay I decide to get back on the hoe and take tiny scrapings and then have another shot with the shovel. The first scoop I take produces a white shaving! In terror I jump off the hoe to be pleasantly suprised that I just peeled a tiny shaving off the pipe with no real damage! Man was I lucky! Here is a shot of the exposed pipe next to the shovel.

 

[Tim_in_IA]

Here is a non obstructed view of the exposed pipe.

 

[Tim_in_IA]

After finding the pipe my next job is to position the hoe so I can dig underneath it without damaging it. The pipe was around 19" underground, and my waterline will be 6' down so I have some clearance room here. The hard part was positioning the hoe to straddle the trench so I could get the support arms down.

 

[Tim_in_IA]

I trenched about 15' more after this when my pto pump started leaking. I've had the same problem before with the gear oil coming out so I knew if I didn't stop I might have a backhoe with the arm stuck in the ground and no way to get it to the shop. This is the first hoe that my dealer has sold so they are being very helpful but at the same time learning from my setup. I'll leave you with this picture of me with a face of relief that I at least didn't have to do emergency plumbing repair that day! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif I should have been done with this project that day but I'm not sweating it. Lots of time before the ground freezes!