Connecting to galvanized water supply line
Hi,
I am replacing my water supply line to within about 15 feet of the city meter. The way the landscape is, the meter is at the curb beside the street, then there is the sidewalk and then a 2 foot cinder block retaining wall, behind which, the yard rises another 2 feet above that. To get down to the water line from the yard would involve digging at least 5 – 6 feet down, and then the issue of trenching under the foundation wall and sidewalk. The space between the sidewalk and curb, where the meter is located is about 2 feet wide, so all digging / trenching would need to be done from the yard.
What I’m contemplating is to run the new supply line from the house and get as close as possible to the retaining wall, then tie into the galvanized pipe there. My theory is that if there is a leak, it will be in that short section and I’ll deal with it if I have to, but if there is no leak, I’ll hook it up and let it ride (our water company now sells busted pipe insurance, which I could buy after hookup). I’m using schedule 40 inside the house and would run either schedule 40 or black poly pipe through the yard.
How would I make a connection to the galvanized pipe using either the black poly or s40 pipe? If I were able to terminate the galv pipe at a coupling, I could tie into it, but I have not seen any transition adapters for that.
Thanks,
Jon
Replies
You should consider hiring someone who can push/pull in a new pipe without so much trenching.
Thanks,
I had a plumber come out and look at it. Since the area between the curb and sidewalk (where the meter is) is only about 2 feet, he'd still have to cut the sidewalk, get the city involved and dig way down in the yard. If it has to be done, it has to be done, but I'm hoping to hedge my bets by connecting to the existing line. The plumber said it would be about $1500 just for that.
There's a pipe already in there. If it's a straight run you attach the plastic to one end and pull the pipe out the other end with a hydraulic jack. Or a hydraulic ram is used to punch through under the sidewalk.
The #1 rule about plastic and metal be be sure the plastic threaded fitting is the male, use a metal female coupling,
If you have a female plastic fitting, the metal one will start rusting inside and break the plastic one on the outside.
Thanks, so I could just get a threaded male pvc fitting and couple it to the galvanized? I was looking for some sort of transition adapter, I didn't think about such a simple solution.
connecting to galvanized pipe....
go to your local plumbing supply store and you can get a compression fitting for the cutoff galvanized pipe...and dont forget to get the fittings to make your connection...don't make a project out of this when it is really a simple lowcost fix..that is common practice.
You talking about a house on a basement, crawl space or slab? If its a basement, you can do as suggested above. dig down and cut the galv off where its convenient and then attach black poly to the galvanized and pull the whole thing into the basement ...you may have to cut the galavanized more than once depending on the basement set-up. At least then you are only digging one hole.
Or talk to someone about horizontal boring. HVAC, guys use it around here all the time to put in Ground Source Heat Pump lines.
The house is on a low crawlspace. It sits about 60 feet from the street / water meter. I think I can trench along the existing line and find the coupling closest to the street and tie in there. As it approaches the edge of the yard, it will either take a 90 and drop about 6 feet to go under the sidewalk, or it takes a gradual slope from the middle of the yard, I don't know yet. That way I can isolate any potential leak to the first 15 feet of pipe under the sidewalk, the most expensive section to replace.