DIY Plastic Pipe

[User]

 

[slowmotion]

It's been a while since I specified laying blue MDPE water pipe but I think that you are supposed to ensure that there are no sharp stones when you back-fill the trench so that the pipe avoids being punctured. I think that you should surround it with smooth gravel and sand. That's the official advice, I think. In your case, there will be no vehicle loads on it so I would just lob the dirt back in and forget about it. MDPE is blooming tough.

E&OE

Edit: BTW, how was the trench cut? It's really neat!

 

[biggs682]

sand would be my guess

 

[MikeG]

Surround it with sand, (not shingle) and ensure that it is at least 450mm below ground level (unless it is the main supply pipe for your house, in which case refer to the supply company: Some require it to be 750 or even 900 deep). If you are being REALLY careful, you might lay a strip of coloured plastic above it, a warning tape, so that anyone digging in the area knows to be careful.

Mike

 

[Garethgas]

Surround it with sand, (not shingle) and ensure that it is at least 450mm below ground level (unless it is the main supply pipe for your house, in which case refer to the supply company: Some require it to be 750 or even 900 deep). If you are being REALLY careful, you might lay a strip of coloured plastic above it, a warning tape, so that anyone digging in the area knows to be careful.

Mike

This is the correct answer.
However, as the pipe is not in a place where you'd normally encounter it, I would put more emphasis on laying warning tape over it

 

[MikeG]

The 450 depth isn't about protecting it from digging or traffic. It is about protecting it from frost. A long hard frost in the UK will penetrate to almost that depth, and frozen pipes mean burst pipes.

Mike

 

[slowmotion]

[QUOTE 2961764, member: 9609"]
I cut the trench with a spade then scooped it out with a gardening trowel, I do have a home made tool for loosening it all up, you can see it stuck in the grass next to the spade, the end of a pick axe jammed into a piece of heavy pipe - it's pretty useful.[/quote]

Brilliant idea for a tool! Just brilliant.

 

[mr messy]

If your'e in Scotland to protect from frost bury to just to above China......

 

[mr messy]

"Blue" pipe is strong stuff. For your usage just be sensible with laying

 

[Over The Hill]

Around here any hole becomes full of water in a few minutes. Not far from me they have had a flood for 3 weeks an there are about 10 tankers on turnaround pumping it out.

The River Loddon has decided to rise about a mile before it usually does and we have some fairly flat and normally dry bits that just have water coming up out of the ground.

 

[Davidc]

With light well excluded there shouldn't be a problem with things growing in and blocking the pipes, but you'll need good fine filtering at the entries to them to keep out muck from the rainwater source and from the pond. (I didn't on a 'water feature' some years ago and had fun cleaning out the result).

 

[slowmotion]

With light well excluded there shouldn't be a problem with things growing in and blocking the pipes, but you'll need good fine filtering at the entries to them to keep out muck from the rainwater source and from the pond. (I didn't on a 'water feature' some years ago and had fun cleaning out the result).

Good point about an accessible filter. We built an outdoor test rig which used about two cubic metres of water each day. Our landlord installed the needful. He paid him a small fortune for his meter and about 80 metres of mains MDPE and its trenching. He didn't include a filter, some gravel got into the meter, it jammed the mechanism and we had exceptionally low water bills for four years.