Installing underground water line to horse barn?

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barnfield

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Looking for advice and best method of running water to my new horse barn.
The goal is to rent a ditchwitch to trench a waterline below the frost line (2ft here) to a series of frost-free hydrants/spigots both at the barn and adjacent paddocks.
The house and well are located together and are about 200 ft from the barn & paddocks.

Should waterline originate from the house or the well?

In either case, I really want to have a main shutoff in the event that any of the hydrants has a failure, and I'm not sure how that would be possible if the line originates from the well.
Also, how do I get pressure if the line generates from the well? (Well has submersible pump, 1/2 HP I believe, and house has an oversized Well-Xtrol pressure tank.)

If the waterline originates from the house, the trench would have to navigate past (under? over?) the buried electrical from the street to the house. No way around it!

What's the best piping? I like the idea of ease of installation using a flexible line of some sort (since 200 ft is pretty far), but also need something the groundhogs/gophers can't chew through, so plastic/PVC conduit of some sort?

Another concern about ensuring enough water pressure: does terrain matter? The barn is downhill from the house, but there's a valley between. So from the house, the trench would go downhill then back uphill to get to the barn.

thanks for any suggestions....
 
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Rancher

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I was going to first say run from the well to the barn, but there are some questions that need to be answered, how far is the house from the well, and what size pipe is run between them, what is the pressure at your tank, how much money do you want to spend... 200' isn't very far, you probably could get by with 3/4" PCV schedule 40 for the run, however I always try to run the largest that I can afford. If you run from the house to the barn, call the blue stake team to mark the electrical, it should be buried at least 4' down, however ask you elec company what they require, hand dig when you cross it.

Rancher
 

Bob NH

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As long as you don't have a check valve between the well and the tank, you can tee off at the most convenient place to run your line to the barn. You can put a valve underground and operate it with a long handle.

The pressure is so close to the same everywhere in the system, especially with a 1/2 HP pump and your big tank, that it won't matter to you or the horses where you tee off.

Figure the maximum flow rate that you want in the barn and run a big enough pipe.
 

barnfield

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Rancher said:
I was going to first say run from the well to the barn, but there are some questions that need to be answered, how far is the house from the well, and what size pipe is run between them, what is the pressure at your tank, how much money do you want to spend... 200' isn't very far, you probably could get by with 3/4" PCV schedule 40 for the run, however I always try to run the largest that I can afford. If you run from the house to the barn, call the blue stake team to mark the electrical, it should be buried at least 4' down, however ask you elec company what they require, hand dig when you cross it.

Rancher

The well is quite close to the house, the supply line coming into the the house is black poly, looks to be 1 inch.

Will definitely get utilities marked, had them marked 2yrs ago which is how I know their general location.

RE size of pipes, not sure - Since this is going to barn & paddock I don't want to spend all day standing around filling buckets & troughs...

You say the electrical should be 4 feet? Or the water?
 
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Rancher

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barnfield said:
You say the electrical should be 4 feet? Or the water?
In my area, the electrical company requires underground electrical to be buried at54", however I have seen it as high as 24". Water should be below the freeze level, not sure if there is a code for depth, 2" would work for me.

Rancher
 

Bob NH

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Depth to your water is up to you, based on protection of the pipe.

Electrical circuits should be buried as follows, per NEC Table 300.5:
Direct burial cables, generally - 24 inches
Rigid conduit or intermediate metal conduit - 6 inches
Nonmetallic conduit - 18 inches
Residential branch circuits at 120 Volts or less with GFCI protection - 12 inches
Control circuits for irrigation and lighting limited to not more than 30 Volts and installed with Type UF or other identified cable or raceway - 6 inches
 
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Rancher

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Bob, yeah I remember it was 24" for the low voltage side of the xmfr. But they wanted 54" on the high side... 13.8 KV?

Rancher
 

barnfield

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Bob NH said:
As long as you don't have a check valve between the well and the tank, you can tee off at the most convenient place to run your line to the barn. You can put a valve underground and operate it with a long handle.

How do I know if there's a check valve between the well and pressure tank (which is in the house) ? And if I do, then what?

Is it more $$ to put in the underground shutoff valve than to just put a hole thru the foundation wall (cinderblock) & run the waterline to the house instead? (Cost of parts, labor is DIY hubby&me). House and well are only short distance apart.

Trying to choose between the 2....
 

Bob NH

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Since the house is close to the well, I would put the tee in the house. Put a valve in the line off the tee so you can shut off the water to the barn.

If you think you might need to drain the line to the barn, you should put a drain tee with valve in the pipe between the new valve and the place where the pipe goes through the wall to the barn. That way you can drain it if there is a risk of frost, and if the drain is open it will prevent any backflow contamination if you are ever working on the main system between the pump and the tank.

You can find if there is a check valve by looking at the pipe between where it comes into the house and the tank. It will usually be a brass cylinder with with pipes connected to both ends. It might have a bulge on one side (usually the top) if it is a "swing check valve" which contains a flapper on a pivot. You probably don't have a check valve.

If you have a check valve, the tee to the barn must be between the check valve and the tank so water can flow back from the tank to the barn.
 
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