Plumbing street to house

[dlminehart]

Does one need a permit to run a new service line from the water meter by the street to one's house? Is there a valve on the meter to enable one to turn off the water to make the connection? Is this a DIY job?

I ask because I've been given what look like pretty huge estimates of what I'll be charged to run a pipe from curb to house. As in $1500-$2000. Distance is about 45' straight back, plus about 30' to the right.

[jonmulzer]

That is pretty reasonable, especially in California. I would not call it a DIY job. Depending on utility locations and depths you may have to cross under power, phone, cable, gas, god know what else. You are going to have to dig a trench 4' deep (that is code here at least and they prefer 54"). If you hit anything, it is your butt. It is definitely not an easy job. Best to leave that to the licensed, bonded and insured contractors out there.

To answer one of your questions directly, yes there is a shutoff in the meter pit. How do you think they shut off your water if you don't pay the bill? Why does it need replaced?

[pelligrini]

Around here, permits would have to be pulled by someone having a proper license.

Yea, there should be a shutoff and backflow preventers near the meter end of the city tap.

I can't comment on the cost, but it's not exactly a DIY job.

[eccentrictinkerer]

It's a DIY project if you're young and dumb!

37 years ago, city water and sewer was piped through our neighborhood in the 'burbs. I was a young and dumb 24 year old who could do anything.

My dad was a plumber, but he lived in California, at the time. With his help, over the phone, I ran both water and sewer 158' out to the street.

I got a local backhoe operator to trench for me. Here in Minnesota you dig deep! The trench was 8' deep at the foundation and 13' at the street. The guy it dug it one bucket wide. It was hard clay and totally dangerous.

There was a severe copper shortage at the time, so the city inspector allowed me to use that new-fangled plastic pipe, but I had to have 7' feet of copper at the house and connection ends. I remember that the transition fittings from copper to plastic were incredibly expensive.

My dad cautioned me to watch the slope. If I went straight down along the trench bottom the angle would be too steep. He warned me that if I had too steep an angle I'd have to put my fingers under my butt to break the suction when I flushed the toilet.

I took a week of vacation and got the job done for about $700 vs. $2800. As I was making only about $140/week, it was a good investment.

Sometimes I have nightmares of being in that deep two foot wide trench with dirt starting to slide in.

A year later, we moved back into Minneapolis and promptly had the water line break at the curb. I hired it done.

[Crash2510]

That is pretty reasonable, especially in California. I would not call it a DIY job. Depending on utility locations and depths you may have to cross under power, phone, cable, gas, god know what else. You are going to have to dig a trench 4' deep (that is code here at least and they prefer 54"). If you hit anything, it is your butt. It is definitely not an easy job. Best to leave that to the licensed, bonded and insured contractors out there.

To answer one of your questions directly, yes there is a shutoff in the meter pit. How do you think they shut off your water if you don't pay the bill? Why does it need replaced?

Hey jon im pretty sure that it they could just lay the pipe on the ground in san jose

i don't think they worry about frost heaving like they do around here

depth around here is determined by the frost line which I doubt they have

seriously though hire a plumber and save yourself the headache

[Tom Slick]

There is a shutoff at the meter
you would have to get a "USA" or whatever they call it in San Jose to dig safely and legally http://www.digalert.org/ they will mark where the pipes/conduits enter your property but not where they are on your property.
you would need a permit to do the work and play by the rules. a permit is not needed for "emergency work." getting a permit is not a big deal, around here it is $20 and a form to fill out. then you will have to schedule an inspection before you cover up the pipe.
the plumbing part is really easy, you can use 3/4" PVC or copper.
the pipe needs to be 24" below grade, not for frost but for protection from any other digging activities you might do like digging for flowers or irrigation.
digging is the terrible part
digging is the terrible part
digging is the terrible part
rent a machine if you can.

I had to replace the main to my house because it sprung a leak in the middle of the night in my yard. Emergency work, no permit required. It took 2 days of digging with a shovel in very soft soil to dig up the old pipe and recover the new pipe.
my old galvanized pipe was so corroded that it might have had a 1/4" passage through it. it went form just enough to run half the sprinklers in my lawn to all of the sprinklers and I had to turn down the regulators. it was one of the best maintenance things I have done to my house.

[iceman61]

Does one need a permit to run a new service line from the water meter by the street to one's house

Call your local water dept. and ask. Most Municipalities will have their hand out wanting money. They might require a licensed plumber to make the connection only. You can probably do the rest. While you're at it ask your local water dept. how deep it has to be.

Is there a valve on the meter to enable one to turn off the water to make the connection?

Yes that is where your water main cut off valve is. Along with a corp stop & curb stop.

Is this a DIY job

Yep, if you like back breaking work. Depends on your area soil also. If it's rocky, you will wished you hired it out. If it's just a dirt/clay mix, it's just back breaking work lol. You could look into renting a Ditch-Witch (trencher), but it will cost you major bucks to rent. $400 probably for 2-3 hours, which is about all you will need it. I just dug a 45' trench 18" deep in dirt with a shovel & pick & it S-U-C-K-E-D.

[LinuxRandal]

Around my parts, for new construction a permit is required. However, normal existing homes, it is normally an emergency repair situation.

[TheRic]

Depth can vary even in the same town, not to mention the same region or state. Have heard of many municipals that require a licensed person to tap into their lines, to many DIY that had no clue what they were doing causing problems later. I would not call this a DIY. As mentioned there are many possible headaches. Hate for you to get a water leak next winter / spring, no one to blame. For this last reason when I hire things out I like to go thru 1 person not several. It really cuts down on the finger pointing!!

[Rand]

We had our water main replaced a couple years ago. Very little digging was necessary.

They have a machine that uses hydraulics and water pressure to burrow under the ground. All it takes is a narrow trench about 6 feet long to get started. The digging head has a blade on it that they use to steer. The digging head also has a transmitter of some sort on it. There is a hand held sensor unit that is used to figure out exactly where the head is underground. The operator told me they could go all the way around the perimeter of the house if they wanted to. It's a very cool machine and a very expensive one.
It cost 1400 bucks in Washington and it required an inspection from the city.
I'd get a couple more quotes but it's definitely worth paying for. They didn't destroy any landscaping or concrete work and they were done in a couple hours.

btw: The new water main is Wirsbo.
Good luck!

[cabinetman]

We are already hooked up to city water, but are in the process of going from septic tank to sewer hookup. It took the city about a year and a half to install the sewer, and we have to run our own line to their hookup at the front of the house. The cost to hook up is a flat $1000. We need to run a line from the house to the hookup. We also have to pump out the septic tank, fill and cap. We need a permit, and a licensed plumber has to do the hookup.

About the only part of this I considered doing was the trenching, but after thinking about it, don't want the hassle. Some DIY is better left to those that have the expertise. I might have taken a shot at it 25 years ago. We figure the costs will be somewhere about $3000 - $4000.
.

[rnelson0]

I ask because I've been given what look like pretty huge estimates of what I'll be charged to run a pipe from curb to house. As in $1500-$2000.

Is that from a contractor or the city themselves? My municipality will run a line to my house for probably a bit more than a contractor (and probably without as much ability to negotiate). The upside is that they can't come back later and say, "hey, you ran it, not us, go pound sand." This means if the basement floods because there was a leak in the outside pipe and the hole wasn't sealed, the municipality is responsible. Far easier to take them to task for $$$ than a contractor. All-in-all, I think it's worth the extra money to avoid the finger pointing down the line.

I'm going to have to get this done sometime soon for the sprinkler system. The previous owner who installed it did not have a unfiltered line put in and that gets expensive, real quick.