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Long Distance Water Ideas

8.8K views 32 replies 16 participants last post by  wally2q  
#1 ·
I’m looking for suggestions on getting water to a part of my property that I just mowed for the first time in 20+ years. (Only broke a tail light lens, so felt good about that!)

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There’s about 1.5 acres of flat, mowable ground at this part of my property. Plan is to clear the alder trees, plant a second orchard and keep some animals over there. The problem is it over 1000 feet from water or power.

How would you get water there? Lots of hoses? A more economical water line? A tractor-based option? Something else entirely?

Thanks in advance for sharing your ideas and experience!
 
#3 ·
Good questions.
My hose bib is about 30 feet vertically uphill of the site. Site slopes slightly down away from the hose bib.
My creek and pond are further away from this site than the nearest hose bib, so pumping from that would still require moving the water a thousand feet.

It rains most of the year here (foothills of the Cascades), so watering is really just a July-September/Oct endeavor.
 
#6 ·
I would agree although I'd run the bigger pipe in case future needs open up. We ran a 1 1/4" line about 500' to a cattle waterer with about half of your drop. The drop means you will have plenty of pressure at the other end.

1000' is 50 sticks of 20' plus fittings plus trenching. It's definitely possible to do it yourself by renting a trencher. Check for leaks before filling the trench in, lol.
 
#5 ·
My brother-in-law runs a 10,000+ acre ranch in Montana and watering is always a challenge for him. Most of the time for long runs like you are describing he uses a trash pump to draw from the closest creek / pond and hooks it to an elevated tripod sprinkler to get the farthest throw possible.
 
#11 ·
What makes you say that? PVC is the standard irrigation material anywhere around here and seems to work well. Granted, you must bury it well under the frost line to avoid rupture. PEX and other related PE-based pipes are more forgiving, though you should still set them under the frost line. I have 300' of 4" PVC that actually winds its way down a curving path without any issues. (Of course, tight turns use elbows and are encased in thrust blocks. 1" pipe, though, should not need thrust blocks.)
 
#12 ·
What ever you do if the system is going to be charged with a hose bib is remove the frost free faucet and replace with a ball valve. When I put drip irrigation for my orchard, replacing the frost free with a ball valve increased flow from 6 GPM to 15 GPM. In order not to freeze in the Northern climate here, a 2nd valve valve on the 3/4" line was installed inside, the pipe was slope for drainage and a petcock installed for draining in the Winter.

I went from only being able to water 100 trees on a zone to 300 at once
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. This is pushing water through 3/4" hose into 1/2" drip line a good 700' from the house and 30' uphill. I normally run a good 30 PSI, at the time this pic was taken, too many 2 gallon per hour emitters were running.
 
#13 ·
okay. a subject I know a little something about. Every market is different, but around here, the cheapest common pipe would be SDR21 (or numerically higher) glue pipe. This is what is common in irrigation systems. Some people do use sch40, but it is more expensive, and is far more brittle. SDR IPS sized PVC pipe is forgiving, you could run it over and it would deflect, maybe crease, but wouldn't break. Sch40 pipe would crack or shatter. Personally for 1000' I would use 2", it doesnt cost that much more, the real cost is installing the pipe. Also, I dont like glue pipe, get gasketed pipe if you can find someone to sell it to you, PVC pipe is not as easy to get as it used to be. Where I work we don't typically do cash sales for PVC pipe, it is a supply chain issue. Also, PVC pipe is expensive now, 3 times more expensive than just 18 months or so ago. PEX and poly are excellent products too, I am not sold on PEX for direct bury yet... the fittings are the weak part and certain soils can shorten their lifespan considerably.

OP, for your application, a portable water source maybe appear to be a good choice, same as several long 1" hoses, but if you are buying for the long haul, buy pipe and trench it in. Install "yard hydrants" and read the instructions for them, they drain when off so they need a sump to drain to (typically a 5 gallon buckets worth of washed stone). If you tee off for multiple locations, use valves at your tees and use a turf box to access them.

I live in the south, so if you are up north, sounds like good advice above /\

Good luck and let us know what you do, and get a few pics. We all do projects and enjoy seeing what others do.
 
#14 ·
okay. a subject I know a little something about. Every market is different, but around here, the cheapest common pipe would be SDR21 (or numerically higher) glue pipe. This is what is common in irrigation systems. Some people do use sch40, but it is more expensive, and is far more brittle. SDR IPS sized PVC pipe is forgiving, you could run it over and it would deflect, maybe crease, but wouldn't break. Sch40 pipe would crack or shatter. Personally for 1000' I would use 2", it doesnt cost that much more, the real cost is installing the pipe. Also, I dont like glue pipe, get gasketed pipe if you can find someone to sell it to you, PVC pipe is not as easy to get as it used to be. Where I work we don't typically do cash sales for PVC pipe, it is a supply chain issue. Also, PVC pipe is expensive now, 3 times more expensive than just 18 months or so ago. PEX and poly are excellent products too, I am not sold on PEX for direct bury yet... the fittings are the weak part and certain soils can shorten their lifespan considerably.

OP, for your application, a portable water source maybe appear to be a good choice, same as several long 1" hoses, but if you are buying for the long haul, buy pipe and trench it in. Install "yard hydrants" and read the instructions for them, they drain when off so they need a sump to drain to (typically a 5 gallon buckets worth of washed stone). If you tee off for multiple locations, use valves at your tees and use a turf box to access them.

I live in the south, so if you are up north, sounds like good advice above /\

Good luck and let us know what you do, and get a few pics. We all do projects and enjoy seeing what others do.
Isn't SDR21 just another rating for PVC? At least around here, you can get PVC in SDR21, Sched 40, and Sched 80. Along with CPVC.
 
#17 ·
Was looking around to see what's spec'ed for community fire hydrants in the area. Looks like it's the C900 spec you mentioned in passing, @ridesdirt ! Haven't found the actual code for residential hydrants on fire-prone land like mine. I'm guessing it's a looser code, but haven't located it yet. Was running everything in the previous message from memory when I researched this a few years ago, so it's possible I get a detail here and there wrong.
 
#20 ·
does the US have an equivalent to our Australian poly pipe?

we have “rural greenline” which is imperial sizes and the fittings are a bit more annoying to use and “metric blue line” which is metric sizes and the fittings are super easy to use especially modifying the plumbing later on to add new risers or taps.

can backhoe a trench and drop it in or a single tine ripper with a “pipe layer” which is a bit of relaxed radius 2-3inch steel pipe.

we’ve put miles of the stuff under ground and it’s bullet proof, just fill the trench back in and never worry about it.

personally I always use 1 1/4” for pressure systems and 2” for gravity. seems to do the job irrespective of distance.

3G Metric Compression - Philmac

PE Pipe - Vinidex Pty Ltd

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#22 ·
does the US have an equivalent to our Australian poly pipe?

we have “rural greenline” which is imperial sizes and the fittings are a bit more annoying to use and “metric blue line” which is metric sizes and the fittings are super easy to use especially modifying the plumbing later on to add new risers or taps.

can backhoe a trench and drop it in or a single tine ripper with a “pipe layer” which is a bit of relaxed radius 2-3inch steel pipe.

we’ve put miles of the stuff under ground and it’s bullet proof, just fill the trench back in and never worry about it.

personally I always use 1 1/4” for pressure systems and 2” for gravity. seems to do the job irrespective of distance.

3G Metric Compression - Philmac

PE Pipe - Vinidex Pty Ltd

View attachment 862625
Can't speak to the exact standards you're quoting, but this appears to be the PE we're arguing about. So, yeah, the material is definitely available and in wide use. There are no metric sizes on pipes of any variety here. Metric would certainly make us more integrated with the global market, but having both sounds even worse. Double the chances for not having the right fitting or right tool!
 
#24 ·
If it were me, I'd go low-tech. You say the site where you want to get water to is 30' lower than where you currently have water.

I'd be tempted to get a couple IBC totes. Put 1 or 2 at the house to collect rainwater or to be filled form the house's water supply. Then put 2 to 4 of them down where you want water. Connect them all together with some cheap 3/4" or 1" drip irrigation hose. None of this would be under pressure so you don't need anything fancy. You can get 500' rolls of the drip irrigation hose for ~$125 from Lowe's or HD so you'd only be looking at ~$250 + fittings costs..

When it rains, the upper IBCs could collect roof run off and store enough of it until they drain down to the lower totes. If you don't get rain, you can fil the upper totes from the house and they'll drain down from there.

Then you grab a cheapo Harbor Freight 12 volt pump to run from your tractor if you need water pressure down below. If not, you can just use drip irrigation straight from the unpressurized tanks

Come winter you can roll up all the hose and put it away.
 
#25 ·
Excellent ideas and information, thanks everyone!

You all got me thinking more about current and future plans. This made me realize the next few years will probably include a lot of digging, tilling, stump removal, and grading in this area… so I probably shouldn’t bury any water lines until the stumps are out, and grade and planting locations are final.

Watering my existing garden beds and orchard involves dragging 400’ of hose around my yard, which is quite a pain. My interest in IBC totes has been piqued!
 
#26 ·
Whats the story with that coiled up black plastic pipe thats 1" or a bit less.

Is it cheap?...idk

I know nothing about it but have some buried up here at an old spring that fed a log cabin several hundreds of feet away.
Maybe it don't exist anymore..idk.
 
#27 ·
Whats the story with that coiled up black plastic pipe thats 1" or a bit less.

Is it cheap?...idk

I know nothing about it but have some buried up here at an old spring that fed a log cabin several hundreds of feet away.
Maybe it don't exist anymore..idk.
It's still available. I've got 100' of it in my shed that I bought for a project and decided to do something else, lol. I will say that while the pipe will last a long time, I've fixed a fair number of leaks at fittings. The good news is that you can just cut a foot or so off the pipe and reconnect. The bad news it always underground so you have to dig a big enough hole to work in. Of course, it's usually easy digging because it's mud from the leak.
 
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#28 ·
I've tried a number of things for water. Trash pump from the pond to garden hose works good if you have a big filter before the pump. Rain water to jet pump to garden hose is OK to about 500 feet. Rain water to garden hose with tanks up about 5 feet is slow. PTO water pump to garden hose, something always went wrong with that.

2 IBC Totes full of water in the back of a Deuce and a half with a trash pump to garden hose works the best for us. We have access to high volume water from a fire hydrant off site.
 
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#30 ·
I’m looking for suggestions on getting water to a part of my property that I just mowed for the first time in 20+ years. (Only broke a tail light lens, so felt good about that!) View attachment 862551 There’s about 1.5 acres of flat, mowable ground at this part of my property. Plan is to clear the alder trees, plant a second orchard and keep some animals over there. The problem is it over 1000 feet from water or power. How would you get water there? Lots of hoses? A more economical water line? A tractor-based option? Something else entirely? Thanks in advance for sharing your ideas and experience!
Buy a 1000 foot roll of 1 inch pex (or 2 500 foot rolls) and couple them. The less joints the better. Depending on your location you can shallow bury it or winterize it with a drain on the down hill side (or blow it out in the fall with compressed air). Drive a T post and bring the end up and clamp it to the T post with a valve at the end. If you want to feed from your hose bib get a washing machine hose with 2 female ends and and a male pex hose thread fitting.
 
#32 ·
I’m just in the process of having a new basement sump drain pipe installed outside for sump and downspout drainage. The junk schedule 20 that was installed was busted up everywhere I dug it up to inspect. The installers talked me out of 4” schedule 40 and into schedule 35 instead. They said 40 is way more expensive and not much difference in strength. Nobody here recommended schedule 35, so I thought I’d mention that. Trenching and installing 180’ in clay soil plus fittings is costing me $6000 for sch. 35. Ugh! A lot of money for pretty much no value added. And, no, I don’t have a backhoe.