Getting Utilities to Garage

Hello all I am restoring/refurbing my detached garage. It is about 100' or so from my house. There is a workshop and loft out there from way back in the day.

There is a full bathroom and gas boiler out there for heating. Other than electric the utilties have been disconnected (not by me)

I need to get a new water line and possibly gas line out to the garage.

The existing gas line is 1" black pipe and looks to be in very good shape. It is connected to the approx 30yr old boiler in the garage and disconneted in my basement. A pressure test is in order prior to putting that back into service, if all passes ok with the pressure test is there anything more that could be wrong with the line that I should factor into my decision of reusing or replacing?


The water supply line is a different story. I can find the old 1" copper line cut off in the garage, but not in the basement. I'm thinking perhaps it was fed by it's own meter from the city. Either way I need to get water out there.

When someone ran the gas line out there they also ran 2 PVC Electrical conduits out there, a 3/4" which I can't find the other end of and a 1.25" that I know where both ends are. They put a pull string in the pvc....but it is stuck on either end. These are both unused at the moment.

I'm trying to avoid having to dig a trench for gas/water/power!! I was thinking of the possibility of pulling a 1/2" pex line inside of the conduit that i found. If this is doable and the gas line is reusable I can avoid having to trench.

If this is doable and the gas line bad I can settle on putting a propane tank out back for fuel for the garage.

Main reason for not wanting to trench is the driveway between the house and garage would have to be torn up...and that blows any budget.

A 1/2" pipe that long will not give you much flow. If you put a storage tank and pump it could fill between big uses, but laying a larger pipe is going to be less expensive than that setup and not require space, power, and maintenance to keep running.

Running the lines under your driveway doesn't really have to "tear up" everything. There are companies that can cut a strip across your driveway which would allow you to trench and then re surface just that strip. They do a nice, neat job. A 1/2" line would lose too much pressure/flow and would not be satisfactory at all.

If you have enough $$$ you can get a smaller one of these machines to put it under the driveway without cutting it at all...

Ok, so if I'm putting anew line in what size am I going with 1"? I'm not doing copper so material costs shouldn't be affected too much by my size choice.

I've seen machines that pull lines for sprinker systems with minimal invasion, does something like that exist for pulling a water line a the depth I would need, (I think 48")

The other option I was thinking that would probably allow me to dig the trench by hand would be to not have to go as deep. I read somewhere about insulating the line so I wouldn't have to go the full depth. Could I realistically cut the depth in half by doing this? Sorta something like this http://www.wdheat.com/pipe.htm

Also was considering a PVC run to be used as a conduit for the water line. That way if it ever did freeze/break I can just pull out the old line and pull a new one through.

Your area will have a required depth for water lines so they wont freeze...here is is 43"...insulation will not prevent it from freezing...if you call your local plumbing office they will be able to tell you...

Your link shows insulation to prevent heat loss not to prevent freezing

Ok, just was trying to brainstorm possible solutions. I can get a backhoe operator for a reasonable price, since he's local and done work for me before.

Is it realistic to get away with a trench just as wide as his bucket at the depth I need?

Also does my running a conduit for the water line make sense, or am I over thinking this and should just direct bury?

When I do water lines I sleeve them in 4" corrigated flexable drain line because much of the ground in this area is rocky and the inspectors will accept that in place of sand...it is much easier to use...

gas

If the gas line is an unprotected black steel line, I would not trust it even if it passed an air test, (and the air test should be at 60 psi), because it WILL rust out sometime, and could be close to doing so already. The ONLY way to prevent freezing is to keep the area around it above 32 degrees. Either by burying it below the point where the ground reaches that temperature, or adding heat around the pipe, or keeping the water moving so it is continually being renewed. Insulation does not add heat, it just slows down the rate that the pipe loses its heat and eventually freezes.