Under ground water main - replacement

Hi All,

I am getting ready to landscape my front yard and I'm considering replacing my water pipe from the shutoff in the sidewalk back to my house (about 25 feet). The reason I'm considering this is I had to replace the leaky gate valve by the house a couple of years ago and I was surprised to find white PVC going into the ground and towards the street. The white PVC isn't that strong and I'd rather replace the whole line now instead of waiting for a geyser in my new front yard.

I live in Los Angeles with no risk of freezing, the pipe is only 12-16" below the surface.

Assuming white sch 40 PVC was used all or most of the way - do you think its a good idea to replace it now?

If so, I was planning on using a 1" pipe. Do you recommend L or K copper? (Or something else?) Do I need to be concerned with corrosion on the exterior of the pipe since it will be buried?

Thanks very much!

Type L is widely used in CA, unless City of LA has its own spec. requiring K.

Sch. 40 PVC is widely used also, and is generally reliable, but occasionally there something can happen. As you know, the pipe is not deep, so there is some vulnerability.

No problem with copper underground. It needs to be sleeved with a few wraps of 20mil pipe wrap tape as it come out of the ground.

Why does the copper pipe only need to be wrapped as it exits the ground? I'll call my local inspector to check on L or K.

Under ground water main

Why would you want to replace a sch 40 pvc water service to your house, ? ?

As long as it's buried 18" deep it will outlast you, the house and all 10
of your great grand children,

i have laid thousand of feet of pvc water lines all over So. Cal. And the L. A. Basin as long as not exposed to sunlight and you have a ground rod for
the main panel !

Licensed calif. Contractor since jan. 1989

Switching to copper when there's nothing wrong with your current line seems like alot of work for nothing. Upsizing won't do a whole lot for you either. If your current line into your house is 3/4" there's a good chance your existing meter is a 5/8" meter, then your existing line into the house is 3/4". Upsizing won't do anything for you. If you have a 1" line coming into the house then upsizing will help somewhat.