On 04/09/14 08:48 am, I wrote:

to save $$$ on this project try finding a local guy with a backhoe to
dig the trench. a large part of a plumbers mark up is the
excavating.......

I was surprised to find that they are not digging a trench, just digging
a hole at each end and using a "missile" (as he put it). Even for copper
it would still be the same method. I don't know whether that would work
for PVC.

Now I've watched the procedure in action, I wouldn't have called it a
"missile": it's a compressed-air-powered procedu pulsating compressed
air forces the "head" through the soil bit by bit until it emerges the
other end, then they attach the PEX or copper to the end of the air hose
and pull it through.

To use PVC as "conduit" would require digging a trench, they told me.
And that would require hand digging around a bunch of other cables and
the gas line.

I was surprised to see how shallow the cable company's cable is buried.
I could easily have damaged it when working on the sprinkler system if
I'd had to do anything at that spot.

Perce

On Wed, 09 Apr 2014 10:44:44 -0400, "Percival P. Cassidy"
wrote:

On 04/09/14 08:48 am, I wrote:

to save $$$ on this project try finding a local guy with a backhoe to
dig the trench. a large part of a plumbers mark up is the
excavating.......

I was surprised to find that they are not digging a trench, just digging
a hole at each end and using a "missile" (as he put it). Even for copper
it would still be the same method. I don't know whether that would work
for PVC.

Now I've watched the procedure in action, I wouldn't have called it a
"missile": it's a compressed-air-powered procedu pulsating compressed
air forces the "head" through the soil bit by bit until it emerges the
other end, then they attach the PEX or copper to the end of the air hose
and pull it through.

To use PVC as "conduit" would require digging a trench, they told me.
And that would require hand digging around a bunch of other cables and
the gas line.

I was surprised to see how shallow the cable company's cable is buried.
I could easily have damaged it when working on the sprinkler system if
I'd had to do anything at that spot.

Perce

I've had the cable damaged by a turf aerator (plugger) more than
once. The cable is just BARELY under the sod.

On Wednesday, April 9, 2014 10:44:44 AM UTC-4, Percival P. Cassidy wrote:
On 04/09/14 08:48 am, I wrote:



to save $$$ on this project try finding a local guy with a backhoe to

dig the trench. a large part of a plumbers mark up is the

excavating.......



I was surprised to find that they are not digging a trench, just digging

a hole at each end and using a "missile" (as he put it). Even for copper

it would still be the same method. I don't know whether that would work

for PVC.



Now I've watched the procedure in action, I wouldn't have called it a

"missile": it's a compressed-air-powered procedu pulsating compressed

air forces the "head" through the soil bit by bit until it emerges the

other end, then they attach the PEX or copper to the end of the air hose

and pull it through.


I've seen that used here to go under driveways, sidewalks, etc.
And for those applications, it's even better because more work
would be involved. Seems to go pretty fast, but I guess a lot
depends on the soil.







To use PVC as "conduit" would require digging a trench, they told me.

And that would require hand digging around a bunch of other cables and

the gas line.



I was surprised to see how shallow the cable company's cable is buried.

I could easily have damaged it when working on the sprinkler system if

I'd had to do anything at that spot.



Perce

Cable company lines here are only a few inches deep in spots too.
They use a machine to actually pull them, no trenching involved.
They do that for lawn sprinkler poly pipe too. The downside is that
at best, it's not very deep and if the soil is really hard in spots
the eqpt tends to ride up, so it can wind up only a couple inches
underground.

"Percival P. Cassidy" wrote:
On 04/09/14 08:11 am, bob haller wrote:
to save $$$ on this project try finding a local guy with a backhoe to
dig the trench. a large part of a plumbers mark up is the excavating.......

I was surprised to find that they are not digging a trench, just digging
a hole at each end and using a "missile" (as he put it). Even for copper
it would still be the same method. I don't know whether that would work for PVC.

That's how they ran the plastic gas mains and service lines to our houses
last fall. Holes on both sides of driveways, holes at the street and at
various places in yards, holes at the houses, but not a lot of actual
trenches.

The few places where they dug trenches was where they had to follow a
curve.


Just talked to a neighbor who's live here a lot longer than we have; he
said that a lot of the people around here have had to have their original
poly piping replaced. The development is about 45 years old.

The water pressure must have something to do with the failure rate too.
Our supply is approx. 80psi, but we installed a pressure reducer in the
house to take it down to about 45psi.

Perce

gas company replaced a lot of main lines in our neighborhood.

They snaked a new plastic line thru the old metal mains. Just one hole dug at each homesstreet shut off....