Installing a permanent water line sure beats handling (and re-handling)
250' of hose.

Last time I used a ditch witch it made a really nice trench 4" wide and
18" deep. (except where it encountered a pile of rocks). It made an
excellent water line trench. The ditch witch itself was a real bear to
operate. First of all, it weighs around 800 lb. Don't plan on putting it
into your car's trunk. It had wheels which could be driven together or
separately. Steering was basically nonexistent. You had to kind of lean
on the handlebars sideways to keep the thing going in the direction you
wanted. To make a sharp turn, it was easier to lift the digging bar,
reposition the witch and start a new trench. If you can't lift really
heavy things, get a friend who can to help you run the ditch witch.

Use 1" or larger polyethylene tubing (the black stuff). It will hold up
to occasional freezes. It resists UV where it sticks out of the ground.
You can put a hose connection at both ends and just let the end stick
out of the ground. If you want to be fancy, put a pressure treated 2x4
at the end and use some of the metal pipe clamps (you need some of them
anyway to connect plumbing connectors to the PE tubing) to hold the PE
tubing on. You can put a faucet at the garden end, although I recommend
using a T and putting two faucets there. You can fill a bucket while a
hose is watering something. Using 1" tubing will reduce the line
pressure drop. Home Despot carries all that stuff.

At the house end, I just use a washing machine hose (about 4' with two
female couplers) to connect the PE tubing to the hose cock.

At the low point in the line, install a valve box and put a drain valve
there so you can let the water out for the winter. Alternatively you can
buy an air compressor and blow out the line in the fall. The valve is
cheaper. If there are any ball valves in the line, make sure they're
open over the winter.

If you know where your fuel lines are, I would strongly advise using a
shovel to dig by hand in that region. If you don't know where they are,
either go as far around as you can to avoid the area or get professional
help on the installation.



wrote:
Feb 4, 6:40 am show options

Newsgroups: alt.home.repair
From: - Find messages by this author
Date: 4 Feb 2005 06:40:59 -0800
Local: Fri, Feb 4 2005 6:40 am
Subject: Running water line.
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I am wanting to run water line about 250 feet to my garden. Thinking
about using a ditch witch. Are these hard to use?


Will there be very little pressure going that far? I plan on using
sprinklers to cover my 50 x 50 goot garden.


Also, the garden is not perfectly straight inline with the area of the
house the waterline would need to come out of. Is this a problem.


Also in between the two are my fiel lines? How do I get around that?