Main Piping for Shared Well

There are nine of us using a shared well on our street. Every spring we seem to have need of an expensive repair when the thaw comes and the water main breaks. This years' break is a disaster: non-member's driveway destroyed, 3 days to locate parts, etc., etc. The mains are 3-inch ductile and I don't know their age. I've been on the internet looking at coatings. Is there anything out there that will help us reduce the number of repairs? Coating or otherwise? ANY info will be appreciated!!!

It will help if you use a pipe that is more accommodating to deflections, and put it well below the frost line.

It is unlikely that you can do anything about the pipe in the ground to help it survive the deflections that occur when the ground moves due to deep frost.

Most new water lines are plastic and will bend a lot before they break.

You may be able to bore under driveways to avoid digging them up.

Yes, we desperately need to dig it all up and start over with good piping and modernize everything. But, as I'm sure you can imagine, it's the same old song. No one has the money and costs go up every day. I'm sure we'll struggle along. But hey, thanks for writing!

madiana said:

Yes, we desperately need to dig it all up and start over with good piping and modernize everything. But, as I'm sure you can imagine, it's the same old song. No one has the money and costs go up every day. I'm sure we'll struggle along. But hey, thanks for writing!

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There is the possibility of doing it incrementally.

Each time there is a failure, dig up that section and replace.

Then lay Styrofoam over the pipe to effectively lower it and reduce frost.

It's amazing what a little Styrofoam can do.
FYI: Here in MN a 8 foot wide piece of 2 inch foam burred 1 foot underground can prevent frost, while the normal frost line is around 6 feet.

pipe

I have never heard of ductile pipe breaking. Cast iron, yes, but ductile is not brittle. Unless you mean it is getting holes in it.

pipe

But in this case, if that were the case they would also not have any water in the wintertime until the pipe thawed. If it were "deep frozen" that might not happen until summertime when the ground thawed out.