Water line question

[jthibodeau89]

The 2500'+ waterline to our house is 2" o-ring slip fit. House is 200' higher than meter, so there is a booster pump 50' above the meter. Installed in mid 80's. Only issue was when the trackhoe operator forgot i told him there was a water line in the area while he was grading out downstrean from a culvert repair. Snagged it and pulled out the the nearest joint. Spliced in a 20' stick of schedule 40 with shutoff valve. Reused the bevelled end.

Based on your length from the meter. If you go eith a 1" line, you may need a 50 gal well tank at the house to maintain pressure during showers, etc.

 

[4570Man]

You have a lot of very strong opinions. It would be nice to find out where they come from. IF I am missing something I am always interested in learning, please let me know where to look for this. CPVC is chemically stronger than PVC to my knowledge and PE pipe works great in that application also.

There’s no if ands or buts about it pvc is stronger than black poly. Go saw each pipe in half with a bread knife and see which takes longer if you don’t believe me. And the PVC has a working pressure of over double the pex or poly. Not that that matters but it supports my claim that’s it’s stronger. I’ve fixed dozens of poly lines thar have been abraded through. I’ve never fixed a pvc line thar wore through. CPVC is a much weaker pipe than pvc. 20 year old cpvc is almost untouchable because it just breaks when you move it. I’ve never had that problem with PVC. Like I said earlier cpvc is intended for hot water. There’s no claims anywhere of it being better for burying. Even putting that aside I don’t think you can buy it in the diameter needed or with belled ends. A belled end is far stronger then a coupler.

 

[redipsweb]

Pex or poly for direct burial is great either way, at this point there is probably more poly service connections underground then everything else combined in this country. I gutted the kitchen in my cottage 2 years ago (was seasonal use originally) and ripped every inch of PVC water out. There were more repairs sections then I had fingers or toes to count and if you took a piece and bent it by hand it would literally explode. I re-piped the house with 3/4 pex.

I'm curious to know if most the repairs were on the hot side, if so, that pipe should have been CPVC. I come to experience over the years that CPVC joints tend fail over time. If it didn't have CPVC, well than that's the other reason it had so many repairs, PVC is not rated for hot water. But, Pex would have been my choice for replacement over copper on a seasonal cottage. Plus, if it's a seasonal cottage it probably should be winterized, which could be another reason for all the PVC repairs.

 

[Menagerie-Manor]

I'm curious to know if most the repairs were on the hot side, if so, that pipe should have been CPVC. I come to experience over the years that CPVC joints tend fail over time. If it didn't have CPVC, well than that's the other reason it had so many repairs, PVC is not rated for hot water. But, Pex would have been my choice for replacement over copper on a seasonal cottage. Plus, if it's a seasonal cottage it probably should be winterized, which could be another reason for all the PVC repairs.

Repairs were all freeze related even though they did install low point drains, most don't realize that standing water breaks pipes too. No longer seasonal.

 

[redipsweb]

There’s no if ands or buts about it pvc is stronger than black poly. Go saw each pipe in half with a bread knife and see which takes longer if you don’t believe me. And the PVC has a working pressure of over double the pex or poly. Not that that matters but it supports my claim that’s it’s stronger. I’ve fixed dozens of poly lines thar have been abraded through. I’ve never fixed a pvc line thar wore through. CPVC is a much weaker pipe than pvc. 20 year old cpvc is almost untouchable because it just breaks when you move it. I’ve never had that problem with PVC. Like I said earlier cpvc is intended for hot water. There’s no claims anywhere of it being better for burying. Even putting that aside I don’t think you can buy it in the diameter needed or with belled ends. A belled end is far stronger then a coupler.

You're absolutely correct about CPVC, when repairing this crap you have to be so cautious w/ it. Any repairs I've ever done to it, I've put copper or pex in it's place. This crap is so horrible & I can't believe people swear by this sh** sometimes

 

[duffer]

I suspect you're probably totally confused by all the opinions that oppose each other here. I'm more concerned about the size of the pipe you'll use, more so than the type of pipe you'll use.

At 400' of linear pipe (of any kind) you'll get a LOT of friction inside the pipe. Worst thing I ever did was run a small pex line out to my 2nd garage (80' from the house, and about 110' from the pressure tank). Water pressure and volume sucks.

Use a MINIMUM of 1½" ID pipe (my preference is Sch 40). Personally, I'd go 2" ID if it were my house, especially over 400'. You'll reduce the friction immensely and maintain your volume & pressure as well.

Good luck!

 

[redipsweb]

Repairs were all freeze related even though they did install low point drains, most don't realize that standing water breaks pipes too. No longer seasonal.

Gotcha, low point drains work, but to truly winterize 1 you should blow air through lines & push out as much water as possible. But hey, now that's not the issue any more.

 

[redipsweb]

I suspect you're probably totally confused by all the opinions that oppose each other here. I'm more concerned about the size of the pipe you'll use, more so than the type of pipe you'll use.

At 400' of linear pipe (of any kind) you'll get a LOT of friction inside the pipe. Worst thing I ever did was run a small pex line out to my 2nd garage (80' from the house, and about 110' from the pressure tank). Water pressure and volume sucks.

Use a MINIMUM of 1½" ID pipe (my preference is Sch 40). Personally, I'd go 2" ID if it were my house, especially over 400'. You'll reduce the friction immensely and maintain your volume & pressure as well.

Good luck!

In a previous post, I said

"Depending on the lay of your property from the meter to the house/shop is what would determine the size line to use. Remember your meter is only a 3/4" or 1" unless you pd for a commercial size meter, so your only get so much volume/pressure. If you go to big you'll ruin your volume/pressure. Unlike a lot people think, you can not create pressure by down sizing your line, the water company is only giving you so much. I ran 1500' of 3/4" pex on a job & the guy digging for me said I should have used 1", he wasn't taking into consideration we we're going downhill the whole time. When we're done, we had to use a pressure reducer at the house because of to much pressure. You pick up what's called head pressure when going downhill. If you could draw a imaginary straight line from meter to house & your w/in ten or so feet of where that line hits vs where the house sits, stay w/ whatever size your meter is & you'll be fine. Because when your going up hill you lose pressure, but you gain it back when going downhill w/ head pressure, so it basically evens out when it get's to the end of the run. The 1500' job had a few areas that were extremely rocky, I sleeved the areas w/ the 1-1/2 pvc, that line has been in for 6+yrs now & not heard back from the customer."

You can over size a water line.

 

[Menagerie-Manor]

I suspect you're probably totally confused by all the opinions that oppose each other here. I'm more concerned about the size of the pipe you'll use, more so than the type of pipe you'll use.

At 400' of linear pipe (of any kind) you'll get a LOT of friction inside the pipe. Worst thing I ever did was run a small pex line out to my 2nd garage (80' from the house, and about 110' from the pressure tank). Water pressure and volume sucks.

Use a MINIMUM of 1½" ID pipe (my preference is Sch 40). Personally, I'd go 2" ID if it were my house, especially over 400'. You'll reduce the friction immensely and maintain your volume & pressure as well.

Good luck!

Good point, I just ripped out all the original pump (jet)and piping for a re-do on my system. Installed a submersible running at 60-80 psi but the supply from the pump house is almost 400' so phase 2 will be a 1-1/2" to replace the 1" poly.

 

[ning]

I'd caution you against considering price differences of $100 or even $200 on a job like this. $200 is nothing compared to the time to repair a leak for whatever reason. Realize also that your limited use of water there today isn't a good indication of water needs in 10 years (been there, done that!) when you decide to put in a garden behind the shop or who knows what.

Personally, bigger is better when it comes to water pipes and conduit. You'll never regret having put in a larger pipe.

Ignore the cost of the material and realize that the differences in installation time aren't huge, compared to the time cost of tracing leaks + digging + repairing a leak, or re-trenching the whole thing later for a proper sized pipe.