Ask a Plumber.

Thanks, effective communication is not my strong suit...

How would you connect the copper to the cities line? Sweat fittings, compression coupler?

See below \/


The cities water shut off is "between the street and sidewalk". The city said I need to dig down to their line right next to the sidewalk on the house side and that I will find either 3/4" galvi or copper. Then I would cut their line and connect my line.

When the city replaces their part of the line in the future, they will move the shutoff to the house side of the sidewalk. This is why I'll be connecting to their pipe, not the shutoff etc.

 

If your connecting to their line then it would be a dresser coupling.....
You would set up a com along in your basement and use a chinese finger as we call them or simular and attach your type k rolled tubbing out at the street and pull it into your house using the old piping....or dig the trench....
Hope that helps

 

Helps a lot, thanks. I'd been wondering about pulling the line through. Does not having the gear required to pull it through make it difficult for the "do it yourself type"?

I can see about getting some quotes for this, but we have a lot more physical motivation than cash. If need be we would dig the trench by hand. A big job no doubt, but my gf and I spent the last two years digging out our basement and under pinning the foundation. We also carried all the raw rock, sand and portland in my truck from our aggregate supplier home, mixed and placed it ourselves. Ended up using two small electric mixers to batch up in total 13 cubic yards of concrete....No, I'll never do that again, but we sure slept good we we're so tired

 

As a side note, the water line runs under our porch. We were expecting to free hand dig this area. Now I'm thinking a hybrid approach, trench out the yard to the street with an excavator, but then pull the tubing through the remaining 8' or so of soil under the porch into the basement. That would be awesome......

 

'round dees parts...

we run 3/4" sch40 PVC from the water meter to the home...connected to a shut-off valve outside the foundation, then sleeved copper throughout the foundation and throughout the home.

of course...our water meter & lines are only 6" - 12" below the finished grade.

 

Hey Brutal, how many tons would the com along need to be to pull 15 feet of buried galvi? I have a nice selection of 20 ton jacks, maybe I could rig something up?...I'm familiar sort of with the Chinese fingers, where would I find a suitable one for this application?...Don't worry, I have great health insurance

 

Your funny first off......the chinese fingers try oline or a plumbing supply,grtainer ect.
We have done them with just a small spot dug out by fountaintion wall and a spot dug by curb connection...we are 3-4' depth here if not more.....we sink a 3/4" eyebolt into the foundation wall opisite of water line penetration and use a come along......go 5-10 'cut reposition do over.....pull more then u need and cut to fit m....sounds like you got the balls to do it go for it.....not very hard......even oz could do it...hahahahha........goodluck

 

Oh tjhe reason we dig down by thje foundation is because most use hydrolic cement with a sleave foir the penetration and we chop it so it is nice n easy.....

 

I've seen guys do that with a backhoe, works very well

 

Hey Thanks you bring up many good points. I'm sure the line is cemented into the wall and I'll need to seal up the new pipe as well. Any hints on good products for this? I've got concrete block wall and hope to have new copper pipe soon.

 

Use hydralic cement...run a sleve through wall first then new copper pipe then the cement....then use a waterproffing....

 

Good deal, I'll start researching the hydraulic cement. Any brands to stay away from?

I got a quote last night from a professional excavator, $200 to $300 to dig out 25' of my line.

I'll start digging out under my porch down to the line this weekend, I'll post some photos as we go.

Thanks for everything

 

You can start a 'plumbing build' thread

 

Not a bad idea, I could call it the ill advised home owner.....

It will hopefully get interesting...Here's the long term plan......

I need to re do my plumbing prior to putting in either a high efficiency boiler or water heater to provide DHW and heat to my soon to be installed radiant heat system in my 700 sq. ft. basement.

I mentioned earlier I've just completed underpinning my foundation. I did this to increase my footing area, and to allow me to drop my basement floor about 8". I also have to put in new support columns and footers (2 of 4) are finished. So regressing, once the new dhw system is in, I'll remove my 1950's era furnace followed by knocking down my chimney, replacing the two remaining columns. Then install drainage, gravel, slab and perimeter insulation, radiant tubing then finally 6" concrete. I may be to ambitious for my own good, but it keeps me out of the bars......

 

WOW! I've done some foundation work myself over the years, looks good, like the over-engineered footings

 

Yeah I tend to over engineer most things, but hey concrete and rebar is cheap Specially when you make it yourself. I settled up with my aggregate supplier recently for the rock and sand I used, don't remember the number of pounds, but I ended up with almost 13 cubic yards poured, and the bill for rock and sand was just shy of $300.....

Just noticed you are familiar with project mayhem, that is quite ironic. When friends ask why we are doing so much work i tend to quote my favorite movie...It goes like this, nothing may ever be solved in project concrete, but afterwards nothing matters anymore......We sleep like babies and are carved out of stone........

 

LOL! Yeah my first thought was "jesus, unless this guy has three stories of house to hold up, he's building a freaking bomb shelter!"

Rule #1: Do not talk about Project Concrete.......

 

Nothing overdone there

Nice work

 

I'm not sure where this story will end, my significant other wants to make it zombie proof....Secret buried concrete rooms etc...And to be honest, she does more than her fair share of digging and carrying....So if she will dig it, I'll try to build it....

Seriously, thanks for all your comments, I'm very grateful I didn't try to replace that shutoff valve on that old galvi, I really owe you one!

 

Thanks, I made the column footings 13" thick with rebar in the middle, the surface area is about twice what successfully held the house up for the last 90 years. So figured I should be good. The basement is 30' long, with three wood columns holding up the upper level. I plan to make the middle footing larger, probably at least 3' x 3' x 13" thick with lots of rebar. Then if I live long enough, I may come back in and put in an engineered beam to allow removal of the two outside columns to open up the floor space.