I have built a new garage for my cousin and the waterline runs across the new driveway. Now I know that continuous driving across it will drive the frost down to it. Any ideas on how to insulate it? If I dig it deeper, will it matter having a dip in the line? The well has a submersible pump. Thank you in advance.
We live in Vermont (-35 F for a couple of weeks at a time) and our waterline runs under the driveway, about 4' down, to 6" below the surface as it pops out on the other side. What makes this work is a cistern in the basement which allows for a continuous drip year 'round. Any overflow is routed through our long suffering leach field, but if we balance the drip carefully we usually can maintain a level just below the overflow pipe. In other words, what is coming in is equal to what we use on a daily basis. The cache doesn't have to be all that large, I've seen some very small basins, just large enough to allow the water to keep moving. We're on a springhouse... I don't know how this would impact a well... but we've never lost water due to a frozen water line. And you've just got to think the frost sinks well below 6" up here in northern New England.
Around here we just run the waterline thru a 20 ft section of schedule 40 pipe. The air space acts as insulation. May be colder in your area.
We have all our lines (2 inch) buried 4 feet down in clay loam soil. We're in E Ontario and it can get cold _30s for more thna week. We drive heavy farm equipment over it and plenty of cars. Not been a problem in over 30 years but perhaps in a lighter soil it would need protection.
