At the suggestion of everyone here, i went ahead with going all the way to
the meter, rather that trying to hook on to the old steel line. Whole job
took 6 hours with the help of a bobcat mini excavator. We dug along side
the old line, to the side walk, then managed to get a couple of scoops on
the other side of the side walk. Hand dug the rest of the way on the meter
side. They had a copper pigtail on the meter, so we cut it at a good round
spot, doubled the pipe over on the house side, put a big cable clamp on it
and pulled it out from under the sidewalk with the bobcat. It left a nice
big tunnel we were able to push the new 3/4 copper right through there and
put a nice big brass compression union onto the existing pigtail. Other end
through the new foundation and sealed up, with a nice new ball valve on the
inside. Finished backfilling the foundation after that. WHEW! One more
thing off the list.....


steve barker