Water Line Installation Again…

 

Water Line Installation Again…

by admin on Sep.10, 2006, under Water System

Back at It…
09 Sep 2006.
Well, this sure took some time…I was sent on several business trips over July and August, as well as a personal trip to Colorado in July, so we didn’t make it back up until September!
We finished digging through the rocks (using a pick and shovel) for the last 15 feet to the wash house. After placing the rest of the pipe and gluing it up, we covered it back up with dirt.

 
Line to Shed

Wash House Access
09 Sep 2006.
We terminated the 2″ schedule 40 pipe with a threaded 1″ connector and a 1″ ball valve. By using 2″ for the very long run, we have plenty of water available at the wash house.
The black hose is a short washer hookup type. We will replace that with a longer (6′) buried hose to the wash house inlet pipe. The hose allows us to easily disconnect from the wash house and drain the pipe from the tank.

 
Shutoff Valve at WashHouse

Tank Connection
09 Sep 2006.
Next, we dug up the end of the pipe at the water tank. I had left it open when I left in June, thinking I would get back in a couple of weeks to terminate it.
We were delayed getting back. In the meantime, we got 9″ of rain during our monsoon season. The pipe end was totally buried with mud turned to dirt. Of course, the pipe was full of mud, too.
After digging it out, we used a few 45 degree elbows and a 90 degree elbow to connect it to the tank.
Because the pipe comes out of the tank pointed slightly down, we had a hard time lining up the fittings. We finally got them together, but I’m not totally happy with it. I guess if it leaks later, we will deal with it.

 
Main Tank ShutOff Valve

Tank Connection
09 Sep 2006.
The trouble fitting was at the top of the top 45 degree elbow.
It doesn’t look like it’s leaking, and it will be buried, supported by dirt underneath, so no stress, and low pressure out of the tank.
It took nearly 200 gallons of our water to flush out all of the mud from the pipes! This took a couple hours.
We opened the valve, let the water run until clear, then shut it off for one minute. We kept repeating this until it ran clear after each wait.
We’ll come back in a couple of weeks to winterize the connection at the tank.

 
Tank Valve a little Crooked

2 comments for this entry (From previous blog...):
  1. Bo
    April 23rd, 2011 on 8:33 pm

    We had some locals recommend that the whole tank sit about 2 feet into the ground. Any thoughts on that?

  2. rdpecken
    April 24th, 2011 on 10:24 am

    Hi Bo. I have seen that done quite a bit. Since the outlet is near the bottom of the tank, that would keep it below the freeze line, and prevent any pipes bursting from freezing.
    We have had ours above ground since 2006 with no problems. We built a little retaining wall around the outlet, and filled it with mulch. In addition, we wrapped the outlet pipes with insulation and packed insulation on top in the access hole. But it may be easier to just bury it a couple of feet since you have a tractor.
    One thing to think about is to cover the area the tank will sit on with several inches of clean clay dirt (no rocks). That will keep the weight of the tank from pushing down hard on a sharp rock edge and causing a hole.

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