Where is my frostline

[RayCo]

Hey group. Does anyone know how I can figure out or where I can look up approximately how deep my frostline is? I need to dig a trench for some waterlines to run to a remote hose spicket, and from what I'm reading, I need to put it at least 6" below my frostline. I'm in south eastern PA. Any ideas?

Thank you

 

[tommu56]

RayCo

Call your twp building dept.

My well lines at my old house in linfield were only a little over 3' down.

If you use poly pipe that can freeze with out damage hydrant and fittings will be damaged if frozen.

tom

 

[mark1]

Check with your county water dept. see how deep they require lines to be burried. Here it's 5 ft.

 

[karman 4564]

i live in northwest pa and i just had water lines installed today and they went 3 feet deep.i was asking the workers how deep they found frost last winter,they said the deepest was no more than 2 feet.just to be safe you should go no less than 3 feet.

 

[Farwell]

Rayco,
I live in Mid Michigan and my frost line is 42 inches. You need to contact a reliable source for your frost line in your area because if you make a mistake and run water lines above the frost line you could have a serious and costly problem. Contact your local building dept just to be safe.

 

[RayCo]

Thank you all for the feedback. I'll be finding some reliable sources to contact before running anything.

 

[Egon]

Also consider the placement of the buried line. If there is traffic over it the frost may go deeper.

 

[plowking]

It be more expensive, but check and see if you can bury ridgid styrofoam insulation, comes in sheets, cut in 24 inch strips, on the pipe before you backfull to keep frost from penetrating. We had a septic tank line with negative pitch and shallow, it was 50 feet long. I had to thaw line two winters ago with jetter. We dug it up and covered it with ridgid insulation, frost went six feet this past winter, it didn't freeze, but had thirty others that did. A mobile home park covered all the lines in their subdivision with insulation, especially in the roads. Frost is worse in low or no snow years, the air molecules in snow insulate the grouind. plowking

 

[pat32rf]

Ray-Are you going to be using this tap during the frost season or will it be summer use only? There are some plastic lines in use around here by people who get their water from the lakes that arn't bothered by freezing. (They heat trace them if they need water during winter but some power outages can go on for days.) Mostly it is the section where the pipe comes out of the ground (in a barn for instance) that gives problems.
If you are at all in doubt, and the water is critical pull a run of heat tracing, or at least some eavestrough snow melt cable in with the pipe then insulate on top....

 

[MarkV]

A little off topic but a cheap trick I always liked was to backfill half the trench depth and then run “caution” tape before completely filling. If a backhoe digs in the future the tape will come up first to warn of the utilities below.

MarkV

 

[Builder]

Hey group. Does anyone know how I can figure out or where I can look up approximately how deep my frostline is? I need to dig a trench for some waterlines to run to a remote hose spicket, and from what I'm reading, I need to put it at least 6" below my frostline. I'm in south eastern PA. Any ideas?

Thank you

I'm a builder and live nearby in Chester County. It's 36". I have to deal with it all the time.

 

[RayCo]

Thank you to everyone for the feedback. The line is going to be run to a remote garden area for watering purposes, so I guess it'll only be used half the year or so.

 

[RayCo]

I'm a builder and live nearby in Chester County. It's 36". I have to deal with it all the time.

Thanks Builder. Do you mean that you dig 36" to get below the frostline, or that the frostline is at 36", meaning I'd dig at least 42"?

Thank you

 

[Builder]

Thanks Builder. Do you mean that you dig 36" to get below the frostline, or that the frostline is at 36", meaning I'd dig at least 42"?

Thank you

Sorry for the delayed reply. What I mean is that anything below 36" is considered "safe" for even extreme frost conditions in our climate zone. I've never seen frost below 18", so I think at 36" your safe. 42" just means more digging, but might be something to consider if the area in which you're digging is very shaded and has a northern/easter exposure (gets very little sun). Even then, I'd be surprised if you had frost below 36" in the worst imagineable winter.

 

[shvl73]

Thank you to everyone for the feedback. The line is going to be run to a remote garden area for watering purposes, so I guess it'll only be used half the year or so.

If its only going to be used in the growing season, couldn't it be blown out to winter over in the off season?
I used to do that at my other house with the in-ground lawn sprinkler system.

 

[RayCo]

If its only going to be used in the growing season, couldn't it be blown out to winter over in the off season?
I used to do that at my other house with the in-ground lawn sprinkler system.

As my daughter gets older, she may want a ice chute in our front yard, so maybe I'll use it in the winter.

 

[bluetc30]

a little over kill but when you run your water lin sleeve it inside a larger pipe so if by chance it freezes and breaks you can just pull the lin thru and replace or fix without redigging

 

[Jay4200]

Hey group. Does anyone know how I can figure out or where I can look up approximately how deep my frostline is? I need to dig a trench for some waterlines to run to a remote hose spicket, and from what I'm reading, I need to put it at least 6" below my frostline. I'm in south eastern PA. Any ideas?

Thank you

You are in a fairly warm area - you likely don't ever get frost deeper than a couple of feet. However, if you want a slam-dunk number, call your building inspector and find out what the local code is for footing depth and put your pipes at that depth. I'm guessing it'll be ~42" (which is serious overkill anyway).

JayC

 

[czechsonofagun]

I got this map:

 

[RayCo]

Interesting map there, thanks!