Water Line Replacement

This is not a picture of my pipe but my pipe looked exactly like this inside. Gross.

I had a surprise thing-to-do this summer when someone dug down to the water main (the water line that connects the street to the house) and found that it was really old. Like, probably 1940s old. The house was built in 1948.
 
They were galvanized pipes, which apparently have a life expectancy of 50 years. Decades of exposure to water will cause them to corrode and rust on the inside. This restricts water flow and causes low water pressure. Eventually, they can start leaking. The good news was that the pipe hadn’t failed yet. If it had, I would have had to turn the water off completely and wouldn’t have had running water until it was fixed! The bad news was that I really needed to replace it before it failed, which could have been any day.

All that dirt has to go somewhere. Poor plants.

The house sits far back from the street, so there was a lot of line to replace. The companies that came out to estimate measured anywhere from 80 to 100 ft of new line.
 
There are basically two options for replacing your water main: a company with a machine that will tunnel the entire new line underground (think Bertha but smaller), or digging a trench. I had several tunneling companies out to give me quotes. Most said they would put a camera down the sewer line to make sure they didn’t accidentally hit it in the process. Pros for tunneling: fast – only takes a day or two, they won’t have to dig a huge trench and tear up the garden, maybe free sewer scope. Cons: expensive. The quotes I got for this ranged from $4,500-$5,900 before tax.
 
The guy who discovered the problem (he was originally there to install irrigation) also offered to replace the water main the good ol’ fashioned way: digging a trench and dropping in a new PEX line. While it ended up being quite invasive to the garden (several plants had to be moved out of the way), I much preferred the price tag of $3,200. He did accidentally smash the sewer line in the process, but he fixed it at no charge.

An unexpected hiccup was that the water connection at the house was inaccessible behind siding. In order to hook everything up correctly, he had to cut a big hole in the siding. This led to the follow-up DIY project of sealing the cut with wood putty. Eventually this siding will be replaced… probably right before I want to sell the house haha.
 
Overall, I didn’t love running into this problem but I’m glad the line was replaced before it caused any real issues. Now I won’t have to worry about it again, and honestly the water pressure inside the house is a lot better.
 
 
Total cost: $3,200 + tax + wood putty ($10? don’t remember)
 
Total time: About a week, probably faster depending on who you hire
 
Frequency: Depends on type of pipe, approx every 50 years