I am thinking about doing a project in my yard. We have a garden out back which is about 75 feet from a
hose faucet that comes out of the house. Whenever my wife needs to water the garden she has to drag a hose out to it. I would like to put in a hand well pump (if that's what it's called) but instead of running it down to where the water is (who knows how far that is?) I would like to run a pipe off the faucet. I would have to dig a ditch for the pipe of course. What type pipe should I use? The faucet gets turned off inside the house each winter anyway so freezing shouldn't be a problem. And perhaps there is a different hook up instead of a hand well pump. Looking for ideas. Thanks, Rich

(Let's play two!)

 

You probably want a yard hydrant (a type of outdoor faucet) and I would properly tie it into the house's water supply and not try connecting to the spigot on the side of your house. With the pipe buried underground and yard hydrant you won't have much concern with freezing.

 

As long as you get it below the frost line, probably 40-42" in your area!

 

For that run, I'd get a roll of 3/4" PE (black) pipe. Connections use barbed plastic or brass fittings and stainless steel hose clamps. Really easy to run.

I too would connect it inside the house or separately to the outside faucet, but not actually to the faucet.

The big question is if you want to make it maintenance free, you'd have to come into your basement at about 36" deep and run the pipe below the frost line (around 36" in Southern PA). Then attach to a frost-proof hydrant . It's a lot of digging, but you can leave the water on all winter and not worry about freezing.

The second option would be to bury it 8-12" below ground, and come up out of the ground to a standard spigot attached to a post. You'll need to drain or blow out the pipe every winter to ensure it doesn't crack. Much less work upfront, but ongoing yearly maintenance.

 

I kind of like that idea. I worked with that black pipe once for a guy who ran a water line about 100 feet. He had me use that pipe. It was easy to work with and the ditch didn't have to be so deep. I'm 74 and I'm not too into digging deep ditches anymore. I was thinking about hooking it up to a faucet that is closest to the area where I want it. The faucet comes out of my laundry room and every year I turn off the water inside the laundry room. Haven't had the faucet freeze over yet. All the answers are excellent. I just have to make up my mind what I want to do. Thanks.

 

The black poly pipe is highly resistant to freeze damage so if you don't get all the water out of the line the pipe will just expand and contract instead of bursting. The fittings are a different story but you could create your system so all the fittings are above ground where they will drain.

If you go the black poly pipe route it REALLY helps to heat the pipe before shoving in the barbed fittings. I use a heat gun (not a hair dryer) or propane torch and heat 2-3" of the pipe then the fittings slide on easily.

 

Great suggestions! Thanks.

 

I have two runs of black poly pipe that runs to three separate gardens. At each garden, I have connected the poly pipe underground to some rigid galvanized pipe. Then, the galvanized pipe comes up to above the ground and I installed a coupling and a 101 series boiler drain valve that I can connect a hose to. At the house, I have PVC stubbed up that I connect a short 3' hose to and then connect that to the house sill connection. That also provides a vacuum breaker.

At one of my pipes, I have the galvanized pipe coming up a 4x4 post. That one I have coming out of the ground about 3' so I thought the extra support would be a good thing. I also have a hose hanger and a box to home some small garden tools.

The black pipe is only buried about 12" in the ground. One I hand dug and the other one I had a sprinkler system guy come out and pull in the pipe using a vibratory plow, which only cost $150-$200. (I posted a wanted ad on Craigslist)

I have to blow out these pipes in the fall but I do that with only a 20-gallon air compressor and a handy fitting that has a quick connect air fitting on one end and 3/4" MPT on the other.

I hope all this makes sense. I will upload some pictures if it doesn't.