Irrigation question- kind of

[PedroOhare]

I have a detached garage on a zero lot line and a narrow gap between the house and the garage. My driveway runs between the lot line and the house back to the garage. So there isn't a lot of room. I have a spigot in the back corner by the garage that I use for watering the back lawn and garden. But, running it across the driveway and around the garden means I have to continually disconnect the hose or else it gets trashed by bikes and wheelbarrows etc. My question is; can I bury black pipe underground so that it then comes up and I can then hook up the hose in a more accessible place? I would have a 'jumper' hose to hook the spigot to the black pipe every spring and disconnect it in the fall (I shut off all the outside spigots every fall). My concern is that water would sit in the pipe all winter (we occasionally get a hard freeze her ) leading to problems but the black pipe would be open at both ends allowing for expansion. What say you?

A second question just occurred to me. So long as I am digging the trench, could I make it a little deeper and last down some wiring in conduit for an eventual garage sub panel? Would the city inspectors allow it and give me an approval even if I don't plan on finish wiring for a year or two?

Thanks in advance.

Pedro

[crokett™]

Blow the water line out when you shut it down in the fall, same as they do with sprinkler lines. My shop vac did a pretty good job blowing out the intake and return lines or the pool. If your compressor is big enough you could use it.

[Wild Turkey]

Plastic would be my choice over metal -- cheaper and quicker.

[Robert Adams]

Bury pex for your water line e and like said just blow it out for winter. As for black pipe you can't bury it. Well you can if it's epoxy coated and the joints are sealed but that is never done anymore as pex (pex for gas)is used for buried gas usually in a sleeve of pvc so the black pipe sticking up isn't in dirt.


The electric conduit typically needs to be buried 18" below the undisturbed surface. Now for inspecting it now and doing the rest later you will have to ask your inspector. If you do run it use 2". It's cheap and bigger pipe is easier to pull through.

[Willyou]

Terminate your water line at the bottom of the trench with a plastic ball valve. Then, just upstream, tee up for your spigot or hose connection. Now put a plastic hand hole with cover (or make one from an old bucket) over the ball valve. Make sure all of your piping slopes slightly toward the terminus. Each fall, you can reach into the hand hole, open the ball valve, and the water will drain from the upstream pipe into the ground. Close it in the spring.

[Scouter]

With regards to the electrical run, use UF feeder, conduit not needed. Just leave enough on the one side to make your run into the garage, and enough on the other end to make the connection (don't actually do the connection). They should approve, but will likely want to reinspect after the final work is done.