Running water lines
 

I am wanting to run a water line about 250 feet to my shed where I have
a garden. The problem is, between my house and garden are my spetic
tank field lines. Any suggestions on how to properly do this or how I
can water my garden without digging a new line?

wrote in message
ups.com...
I am wanting to run a water line about 250 feet to my shed where I have
a garden. The problem is, between my house and garden are my spetic
tank field lines. Any suggestions on how to properly do this or how I
can water my garden without digging a new line?

(You ain't gunna like my answer) Hire day labor, hand dig. How
expensive that is depends on how deep you have to go and what kind of soil
you have. Use schedule 40 PVC and put plenty of extras in the ditch! PVC
is cheap, ditches are expensive. Take time to think and dream. What else
are you ever going to want out there? Phone? Electricity? TV? Air? Computer
data? Might want a standby generator someday? Get all that conduit in the
ground while the ditch is open.

Vaughn

In article . com,
wrote:

I am wanting to run a water line about 250 feet to my shed where I have
a garden. The problem is, between my house and garden are my spetic
tank field lines. Any suggestions on how to properly do this or how I
can water my garden without digging a new line?


I once had a similiar problem so I buried a garden hose at ZERO depth.
It didn't stick up but you could see it if you parted the grass.
Fortunately it was sloped so it would drain for the winter but an air
blast would work. Didn't work in freezing weather but neither did the
garden.

--
Free men own guns, slaves don't
www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5357/

Just go around the septic field. It doesn't sound like the added
distance will be that far.

Steve

wrote:

I am wanting to run a water line about 250 feet to my shed where I have
a garden. The problem is, between my house and garden are my spetic
tank field lines. Any suggestions on how to properly do this or how I
can water my garden without digging a new line?

I am wanting to run a water line about 250 feet to my shed where I have
a garden. The problem is, between my house and garden are my spetic
tank field lines. Any suggestions on how to properly do this or how I
can water my garden without digging a new line?

Cheap and dirty - get a coil (or two) of flexible black plastic water
line, and find someone with a trencher (vibrating type) to bury the
line. Cable TV companies use trenchers to install underground drops
and cables everywhere - and the trenchers can be used to put it a
couple of feet down (if that's what you want) or just 6" or so. The
PVC waterline will feed right down through the throat of the trencher
blade and you would only have a little bit of hand work to do at each
end. Hope this helps.
Ken.

wrote:

I am wanting to run a water line about 250 feet to my shed where I have
a garden. The problem is, between my house and garden are my spetic
tank field lines. Any suggestions on how to properly do this or how I
can water my garden without digging a new line?

Where I live, septic tanks and drain fields are pretty deep (and not for
freeze protection, either - I live in South Carolina). I trenched for an
underground irrigation system across the drain field with no problem. Since
I used pop-up rotor sprinklers, the depth was about 13 inches. This was
over 10 years ago.

Joe

I had to replace my feed line last fall, and it was surprisingly easy to
do using a mattock and a narrow shovel. Dug ~50' of 2' deep trench in
about 3 hours. The crucial tool was a sharp mattock. Since you're going
to drain it in the winter (use an air compressor to clear the line) all
you need to do is get below the surface. I'd go down about 6" and lay
plastic pipe. Fit the turf back on top in order and it will be invisible
after the first rain. Don't know where you are, but here in earthquake
country they recommend you lay a curving line so it will flex a bit and
not sheer at one end in a quake.

Jim (Seattle)

In article , Jim McGill says...

I had to replace my feed line last fall, and it was surprisingly easy to
do using a mattock and a narrow shovel. Dug ~50' of 2' deep trench in
about 3 hours. The crucial tool was a sharp mattock. Since you're going
to drain it in the winter (use an air compressor to clear the line) all
you need to do is get below the surface. I'd go down about 6" and lay
plastic pipe. Fit the turf back on top in order and it will be invisible
after the first rain. Don't know where you are, but here in earthquake
country they recommend you lay a curving line so it will flex a bit and
not sheer at one end in a quake.

Agree. But not on the amount of time it took!

My backyard was full of rocks, old brick walls, and trash
pits from way-back-when. It took me about of month
of working each night for an hour or so, to dig a 3-foot
deep trench, about a foot wide, 50 feet out to the garage.

The real come-down was when I was flailing away with the
pick, and my neighbor (70 y.o.) came over and said 'let
me do that for a while.' And he made three times the
progress in about half the time, with about 1/4 the effort!

Jim


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jim rozen wrote:
In article , Jim McGill says...

I had to replace my feed line last fall, and it was surprisingly easy to
do using a mattock and a narrow shovel. Dug ~50' of 2' deep trench in
about 3 hours. The crucial tool was a sharp mattock. Since you're going
to drain it in the winter (use an air compressor to clear the line) all
you need to do is get below the surface. I'd go down about 6" and lay
plastic pipe. Fit the turf back on top in order and it will be invisible
after the first rain. Don't know where you are, but here in earthquake
country they recommend you lay a curving line so it will flex a bit and
not sheer at one end in a quake.


Agree. But not on the amount of time it took!

My backyard was full of rocks, old brick walls, and trash
pits from way-back-when. It took me about of month
of working each night for an hour or so, to dig a 3-foot
deep trench, about a foot wide, 50 feet out to the garage.

The real come-down was when I was flailing away with the
pick, and my neighbor (70 y.o.) came over and said 'let
me do that for a while.' And he made three times the
progress in about half the time, with about 1/4 the effort!

Ditch diggin isn't the career path
it used to be. My grampa was a soft
coal miner and I'm sure that he could
have outdug me any day in my youth.

On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 10:52:55 -0800, Jim Stewart
wrote:



Ditch diggin isn't the career path
it used to be. My grampa was a soft
coal miner and I'm sure that he could
have outdug me any day in my youth.

Seems to me, the guy has a tractor complete with plow to plow his
proposed garden, so why not open a furrow, lay poly-pipe and turn the
sod back in and compact with a wheel. I think you might even get away
without blowing out the line before freezing, just open the ends to
let it drain somewhat.
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada

On Thu, 03 Feb 2005 10:52:55 -0800, Jim Stewart
wrote:

jim rozen wrote:
In article , Jim McGill says...

I had to replace my feed line last fall, and it was surprisingly easy to
do using a mattock and a narrow shovel. Dug ~50' of 2' deep trench in
about 3 hours. The crucial tool was a sharp mattock. Since you're going
to drain it in the winter (use an air compressor to clear the line) all
you need to do is get below the surface. I'd go down about 6" and lay
plastic pipe. Fit the turf back on top in order and it will be invisible
after the first rain. Don't know where you are, but here in earthquake
country they recommend you lay a curving line so it will flex a bit and
not sheer at one end in a quake.


Agree. But not on the amount of time it took!

My backyard was full of rocks, old brick walls, and trash
pits from way-back-when. It took me about of month
of working each night for an hour or so, to dig a 3-foot
deep trench, about a foot wide, 50 feet out to the garage.

The real come-down was when I was flailing away with the
pick, and my neighbor (70 y.o.) came over and said 'let
me do that for a while.' And he made three times the
progress in about half the time, with about 1/4 the effort!

Ditch diggin isn't the career path
it used to be. My grampa was a soft
coal miner and I'm sure that he could
have outdug me any day in my youth.

Proving once again that's there's skill in almost everything.

Thanks for the reminder.

--RC
"Sometimes history doesn't repeat itself. It just yells
'can't you remember anything I've told you?' and lets
fly with a club.
-- John W. Cambell Jr.

snip


The real come-down was when I was flailing away with the
pick, and my neighbor (70 y.o.) came over and said 'let
me do that for a while.' And he made three times the
progress in about half the time, with about 1/4 the effort!

Heh, heh! It's amazing what a bit of practice does for increasing your
efficiency!!

Ken Sterling wrote:

I am wanting to run a water line about 250 feet to my shed where I have
a garden. The problem is, between my house and garden are my spetic
tank field lines. Any suggestions on how to properly do this or how I
can water my garden without digging a new line?


Cheap and dirty - get a coil (or two) of flexible black plastic water
line, and find someone with a trencher (vibrating type) to bury the
line. Cable TV companies use trenchers to install underground drops
and cables everywhere - and the trenchers can be used to put it a
couple of feet down (if that's what you want) or just 6" or so. The
PVC waterline will feed right down through the throat of the trencher
blade and you would only have a little bit of hand work to do at each
end. Hope this helps.
Ken.

Around this place we have black plastic running on top of the ground -
through the trees.
Two reasons :
1. billions and billions of roots (Redwood forest with Fir and Oaks)
2. Earth Quakes - just snakes the line back and forth. The underground pipe
normally snaps or pulls out an end.

I would guess there would be a spec on the field giving you depth at least.

Martin

--
Martin Eastburn, Barbara Eastburn
@ home at Lion's Lair with our computer
NRA LOH, NRA Life
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder