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Do-it-yourself winter plumbing in the country can be done in two ways:
- bury it so that it does not freeze (below the freezing depth);
- lay shallow, but with insulation and / or heating.
Insulation of a water supply system is an event that requires not so much money as labor – digging trenches, laying pipes, wrapping them up, throwing and compacting the soil, all this takes time and considerable effort. But the result is the presence of water in the house at any time of the year.
Laying pipes below freezing depth
It is advisable to use this method if in winter the soil freezes no deeper than 170 cm. A trench is dug from a well or well, the bottom of which is 10-20 cm below this value. Sand (10-15 cm) is poured to the bottom, the pipes are laid in a protective casing (corrugated sleeve), then they are covered with earth.
This is the easiest way to make winter plumbing in the country, but it is not the best, although it is the cheapest. Its main drawback is that if repairs are needed, you will have to dig again, and to the full depth. And since it is difficult to determine the place of a leak with this method of laying a water pipe, there will be a lot of work.
In order to have as few repairs as possible, there should be as few pipe connections as possible. Ideally, they should not be at all. If the distance from the water source to the cottage is greater, make the connections carefully, achieving perfect tightness. It is the joints that leak most often.
The choice of material for pipes in this case is not an easy task. On the one hand, a solid mass presses from above, therefore, a strong material is needed, and this is steel. But steel laid in the ground will actively corrode, especially if the groundwater is high. The problem can be solved by well primed and painted over the entire surface of the pipes. Moreover, it is desirable to use thick-walled ones – they will last longer.
The second option is polymer or metal-polymer pipes. They are not subject to corrosion, but they must be protected from pressure – they must be placed in a protective corrugated sleeve.
One more moment. The depth of soil freezing in the region is determined over the past 10 years – its average indicators are calculated. But firstly, very cold and little snow winters occur periodically, and the ground freezes deeper. Secondly, this value is the average for the region and does not take into account the conditions of the site. Perhaps it is on your piece that freezing can be greater. All this is said to the fact that when laying pipes, it is still better to insulate them, lay sheets of polystyrene or expanded polystyrene on top, as in the photo on the right, or lay them in thermal insulation, as on the left.
You may be interested in reading “How to do automatic watering”.
Pipeline insulation
When making water supply to a private house from a well and a well, the pipeline can be laid at a very shallow depth – 40-50 cm – this is quite enough. It is only necessary to lay pipes in such a shallow trench insulated. If you want to do everything thoroughly, then lay out the bottom and sides of the trench with some kind of building material – brick or building blocks. From above everything is covered with plates.
If desired, you can fill up the soil and plant annuals – if necessary, the soil can be easily removed and free access to the pipeline is provided.
Insulation for water pipes
You can use two types of heaters:
- special energy-saving shells molded in the form of pipes, they are also called “pipe shells”;
- roll material – a common insulation in the form of rolls, which is used for walls, roofs, etc.
Thermal insulation for pipes in the form of a shell is made of the following materials:
- Expanded polystyrene – multiple granules are fused together. It turns out a rather rigid and durable material with good heat-insulating characteristics.
- Extruded polystyrene foam – material cells have a closed structure (small balls). This gives the material also water-repellent properties, as well as higher thermal insulation properties. It is one of the best highly insulating materials, but its disadvantage is the high price.
- Styrofoam – one of the options for expanded polystyrene – has good thermal insulation characteristics, but is notable for its low strength. Therefore, he needs protection – he cannot stand pressure. But it costs a little. If you lay pipes in a trench with brick or concrete walls, it can be used.
Nobody bothers to play it safe and use two layers of insulation - Polyurethane foam – in terms of characteristics and price, it is between polystyrene foam and polystyrene foam. It is he who is most often used for pipe insulation.
- Foamed polyethylene (of the “Energoflex” type) has good characteristics due to the high content of air in the bubbles.
- Glass wool is a roll material with good thermal insulation characteristics and a relatively low price. Its disadvantage is that special measures are needed when laying: fiberglass is very prickly, and it is unrealistic to remove microscopic particles from the skin. You also need a respirator and goggles – small particles are volatile and are harmful to health.
- Stone wool. It is made from basalt or slag. Basalt wool has the best characteristics, but is expensive. Slag is a cheaper material, but its characteristics are worse – you need to take a larger thickness, which often reduces material benefits to a minimum.
Mineral wool – glass wool and stone wool – have one significant drawback: they are hygroscopic. By absorbing water, they lose most of their heat-insulating properties. After drying, they are restored only partially. And another very unpleasant moment, if wet mineral wool freezes, after freezing it turns into dust. To prevent this from happening, these materials require careful waterproofing. If you cannot guarantee the absence of moisture, it is better to use a different material.
How to make drip irrigation systems for greenhouses and gardens with your own hands is written here. An article about manufacturers of ready-made kits for drip irrigation is here.
Heating
When planning a winter water supply, you need to keep in mind that insulation only helps to reduce heat loss, but cannot heat. And if at some point the frosts turn out to be stronger, the pipe will still freeze. Particularly problematic in this sense is the section of the pipe outlet from the underground sewer to the house, even if it is heated. All the same, the ground near the foundation is often cold, and it is in this area that problems most often arise.
If you don’t want to freeze your plumbing, do pipe heating. To do this, use a heating cable or heating plates – depending on the diameter of the pipes and the required heating power. Cables can be laid lengthwise or wound in a spiral.
The heating cable is good for everyone, but it is not uncommon for us to have power outages for several days. What will happen to the pipeline then? Water will freeze and can burst pipes. And repair work in the midst of winter is not the most pleasant experience. Therefore, several methods are combined – and the heating cable is laid, and insulation is placed on it. This method is also optimal from the point of view of minimizing costs: under thermal insulation, the heating cable will consume a minimum of electricity.
Laying a winter water supply in the country can be done using this type of thermal insulation, as in the video (or you can take the idea into service and do something similar with your own hands).
The development of a scheme for laying a water supply system in a country house is described here.
Winter plumbing in the country: new technologies in insulation
There is an interesting option, a flexible polymer pipe insulated at the factory. On top of the insulation there is a layer of waterproofing, and along the pipe there is a channel for laying the heating cable. Such pipes are called non-freezing pipelines or insulated pipes. For example, even in the northern regions, it is possible to make winter water supply in a country house on the surface using ISOPROFLEX-ARCTIC pipes.
Operating temperature – up to -40°C, operating pressure – from 1,0 to 1,6 MPa, pressure pipe diameter – from 25 mm to 110 mm. Can be laid in a channel or on the surface. They are flexible, supplied in coils of the desired length, which allows us to minimize the number of joints.
There is also a new way to insulate winter plumbing in the country – liquid thermal insulation or thermal insulation paint. It can be applied to an already installed plumbing, which can be a good way out.