Water line bid

[rutwad]

Rent a large trencher for a day and see what you run into. You're already talking about 30k, so what's another $300-400 if it may be able to save you lots, if you do it all yourself.

 

[_RaT_]

Rent a large trencher for a day and see what you run into. You're already talking about 30k, so what's another $300-400 if it may be able to save you lots, if you do it all yourself.

Interesting, I was thinking along those same lines. At the very least, it would indicate where the problem areas are. Trench as deep as you can to.

 

[JRobyn]

Rent a large trencher for a day and see what you run into. You're already talking about 30k, so what's another $300-400 if it may be able to save you lots, if you do it all yourself.

Ah, too late; I approved the contractor's bid and he'll start next week after the pipe and valves are delivered.

There's also the issue of the time I'd have to take off to get up there from GA and then rent/haul/run a trencher that I'm convinced would get hurt by the rock.

 

[_RaT_]

Ah, too late; I approved the contractor's bid and he'll start next week after the pipe and valves are delivered.

There's also the issue of the time I'd have to take off to get up there from GA and then rent/haul/run a trencher that I'm convinced would get hurt by the rock.

Your probably a better judge too of the rock you have. If you find rock, the rented trencher will indeed be useless.

 

[JRobyn]

There is absolutely no doubt that rock will be the order of the day. There are long stretches of the road where the waterline trench will be cut, that are solid (well sorta shaley) rock. I have attempted to "work" some of it before, particularly where there's a shelf in it that's rough to drive over. It tends to break off in layers that vary from an inch or so to several inches thick, with pieces that vary from book size to Volkswagen size. I fear that a "regular" trencher would tend to catch and break off big chunks, resulting in the trencher soon being in big chunks. This is one I'll gladly leave to the pros with the right (very expensive) tools!

 

[Harleymsn]

Ah, too late; I approved the contractor's bid and he'll start next week after the pipe and valves are delivered.

There's also the issue of the time I'd have to take off to get up there from GA and then rent/haul/run a trencher that I'm convinced would get hurt by the rock.

Well I would certainly want to be there when they do the trenching to insure that there was not extensive padding to the 'time'.

 

[Harleymsn]

Your probably a better judge too of the rock you have. If you find rock, the rented trencher will indeed be useless.

RaT, the rental outfits generally stock equipment based on the local conditions. Being that this area is 'rock, rock everywhere' the equipment is suited for that, which is why I had suggested checking with the rental comapnies in Cookeville (18 miles away).

 

[gemini5362]

I am curious about one or two of the itemized charges. Why are you going to need a bulldozer for 50 hours. If you are useing it to cover the line that seems like an excessive amount of time for that. When I have seen people cover water lines they usually just use the FEL on the backhoe. It also seems to me that you are figureing on haveing the trencher work 10 hours a day and the backhoe 5 seems like that is a lot of use of the backhoe. I figure it is for cleaning out big pieces that the trencher digs up but my experience with trenchers are that they pretty well make a ditch. I will admit to haveing the experience of watching this done and not know anything about the procedure. I am just curious and was wondering if anyone could enlighten me. I also am curious about the size of pipes and calculations. The lane I live on is about the same length as they are talking about installing water lines. Our water line is a 4 inch line and it feeds 6 full time residences without any water problem that I have seen. Why would you need a 2 inch line for two residences.

 

[JRobyn]

I am curious about one or two of the itemized charges. Why are you going to need a bulldozer for 50 hours. If you are useing it to cover the line that seems like an excessive amount of time for that. When I have seen people cover water lines they usually just use the FEL on the backhoe. It also seems to me that you are figureing on haveing the trencher work 10 hours a day and the backhoe 5 seems like that is a lot of use of the backhoe. I figure it is for cleaning out big pieces that the trencher digs up but my experience with trenchers are that they pretty well make a ditch. I will admit to haveing the experience of watching this done and not know anything about the procedure. I am just curious and was wondering if anyone could enlighten me. I also am curious about the size of pipes and calculations. The lane I live on is about the same length as they are talking about installing water lines. Our water line is a 4 inch line and it feeds 6 full time residences without any water problem that I have seen. Why would you need a 2 inch line for two residences.

Hi Gemini,

The dozer is for trench cover, regrading of the road and final gravel spreading. So far, they haven't used a backhoe. To "regrade" he has already peeled off several pieces of rock that are about 6-8 feet on a side and 8-12" thick. The dozer can handle this well, but a hoe would be overmatched.

They bid 2" pipe since in their experience it is only slightly more expensive than 3/4 or 1", since there was a lot of length for smaller pipe, and since the slip-joint is easy to lay and is rugged. It's the same pipe that the county specifies for county water mains.

I posted some pics in the "waterline install" thread.