Things you don't look at when buying a house

[transpomgr]

Not really garage related, but there seems to be a pretty substantial brain trust here so I'll try you guys first.
When we bought this house, we didn't notice that there wasn't a water spigot in the back yard. There is one on the other three sides. No sprinkler system. The house is a concrete slab, with the existing faucets coming through the brick walls. I currently catch rain water to use for the dogs and limited watering, but would like some ideas to get city water into the back yard, as a long hose is getting frustrating.

Is it as simple as digging underneath an existing faucet to find the pipe, tapping that, and running a pipe to the desired location?

 

[Zeke]

Pretty much. Unless there is a bathroom or some other plumbing on the backyard wall. Fortunately these days you can run flexible line. Put a shut off at the source.

 

[sublimate]

You need to put your location. What works for penetrating pipes through outside walls in Florida doesn't work in North Dakota.

 

[transpomgr]

Sorry, I should have said I'm in Arlington Tx.

 

[Zippercat]

Digging outside probably won't help. Most likely the hose bibs are fed from a line either through the slab or inside the wall. You didn't say where you are but I would be concerned about freezing.

My neighbor had almost the identical problem. He solved it by running a hose against the house to the back where it hooked to this:

http://www.lowes.com/pd_220030-37309-HCF-3_0__

 

[nicksnothereman]

Not really garage related, but there seems to be a pretty substantial brain trust here so I'll try you guys first.
When we bought this house, we didn't notice that there wasn't a water spigot in the back yard. There is one on the other three sides. No sprinkler system. The house is a concrete slab, with the existing faucets coming through the brick walls. I currently catch rain water to use for the dogs and limited watering, but would like some ideas to get city water into the back yard, as a long hose is getting frustrating.

Is it as simple as digging underneath an existing faucet to find the pipe, tapping that, and running a pipe to the desired location?

Bad I'm a conspiracy fact-ist though, lot's of bad stuff in that rain water.

So...how cheap/much of a hillbilly are you? You could just run pvc piping to the back (either running it on the side of the house or dug into the ground) connect it to a side faucet with a length of hose and run the pvc into the backyard where you use a hose to do what you want. Neighbors won't like it but who cares about them.

Total cost: maybe 30-40 bucks if you got the hoses. Much easier to do, similar utility to actually "tapping" a pipe. I'm not a plumber though.

 

[transpomgr]

Code enforcement is no joke.

 

[8man]

Check the attic for plumbing runs. You may be able to come off the feed to a water heater (yes, in Texas we sometimes put water heaters in the attic) or a feed to another plumbing appliance. Are your water pipes copper (newer homes may be Pex) or galvanized? I don't know the age of your house, so it could be one of the three most likely suspects. If you are comfortable working with the pipe, you can shut the water off where it comes in and run a pipe down the outside wall. Tight quarters, but it can be done. A plumber can do it for you in 1/2 a day.

The other alternative would be to run PVC underground from where you want the hose bib in back to the nearest hose bib on the side of the house. Add a T to the line coming out of the house and tie it in. Again, a plumber could do this in short order if code would allow. Good luck.

In Arlington you have high plasticity clays, so you need to keep your foundation watered to keep the house from moving. You don't want the soil around the house to get too wet or too dry.

 

[transpomgr]

Single story water heater is on the ground. That's an interesting idea though. I saw some pipes that looked like galvanized when I was in the attic to run security camera wires. The house was built in the 70s, does galvanized make sense? It may have been the hot water line from the water heater that I saw.