A friend of mine used to thaw water lines with a welder. He has stopped as while thawing a homeowners pipes the neighbor came out of the house saying his house smelled of smoke. Being they had extra help they ran over to find the meter socket smoking. His insurance man said no no no ever again. If the neighbor had not been home no one would have had the slightest idea of any problem. We dig in a few water lines, and it seems that most of our projects are very expensive, but we take alot of judment that if you can afford us why not do the following. When we dig up your yard why not toss in 4-5 extra plastic pipes out to the center of your gravel so you only have to dig that far for future projects, and not bust yet another hole in your basment, and avoid digging up your wifes lawn. Why not run a additional line alongside just in case fifteen years from now you have troubles? The cost of digging is the same anyhow, just extra pipe for cost. If we dig where concrete is or will be It will be inside a 4" drain tile so we can pull the old line out and the new one in. If for instance you are doing multiple cattle waters each water will have its own seperate line---no exceptions--thus if one water goes down, you still have the other waters up and running. Only one farmer probably thirty years ago insisted on a big pit --6ft x 4ft wide and 6 ft deep under each cattle water that you could acess and stand under the water if necessary. Yes it was expensive for making the precast top etc. but he used very little electricity to keep the water from freezing. We also put two foot of washed rock under the 6ft deep pit to get rid of any moisture. It at the time seemed to be a bit of a pain, but golly it was sure a good idea in the end, especialy replacing a rusted out water. Also rats and mice had to be realy dedicated to cause problems. And also a valve was placed to every line, we have alot of lime build up that usualy locks up the valves, but it sure gives a person a fighting chance to fix a problem in years to come.
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