Trenching

[Viperman]

Do most of you rent Trenching machines to put your lines in and do you put the lines in
before you set your boiler in place?  What do you use to bore through a cement foundation?
Do you bring the whole pipe through or just the pex lines.

[thecfarm]

I dug mine by hand,maybe 18 inches deep,after the furnace came.  My lines are inside a plastic drain pipe,like used around a foundation. Than I filled in with sand.
I rented a special drill,hammer drill? I just went to a rental place and told them what I was doing. Than I use hyd cement to fill the hole. I put some used oil on my so called plywood forms. Came real easy.

[Mike W]

How deep is the bottom of the footing from finish grade?  If done right, your footing should be excavated to below your regions frost line.  I would trench under the footing and route the lines at that depth to ensure if something fails or if an unexpected event takes you a way for a period of time, you don't have to worry about the lines freezing, I suppose that is if you are running water system with no freeze protection in such.

[thecfarm]

Sorry Mike W,the lines will freeze where they come out of the ground.That is why I did not go deep with mine.With the rocks I have,I doubt I could do it. Would need quite a wide trench.  
I was dumb enough to have a so called trench dug down to the garden for a water line. Would of been much easier just to have it a few inches under ground. If was dug with a excavator with a wide bucket. Had some good size rocks in that mess. Where it comes out of the ground it will freeze. I did not buy a dry hydrant. I left that mess for a whole year,before I put the line in and pushed everything back into the trench. I'm surprised that line had not broke yet. Been almost 20 years.
I used sand in my lines for the OWB,Did not want the rubbing of rocks against the lines.

[DDW_OR]

a trencher is usually rented.
most will only go down 24 inches.

if you have a LOT of trenching to do then look at what a rental for a month vs buying a used one.
i bet you will rent.

also add an empty black plastic pipe, 1.5 inch, in the trench for future use. put this on top of the other stuff in the trench. they come in 300 ft rolls

if you have to go deeper than 24 inches then either a bigger trencher or Excavator. Excavators are great, even better with a thumb.

[DWyatt]

I put in my 150' of line with a trencher I rented. The lines are in corrugated drain tile. The local rental company has a Hoss of a trencher, 6" wide x 4' deep, 35 hp gas, all set on tracks. I Ran 150' of trench for the OWB lines with the stick completely buried, and 400' of downspout tile through what was a full blown woods less then two years ago. This thing wil cut through anything. Put about 7 hrs on the machine, just shy of a 1 day rental, ~$250.

[Busysawyer]

I rented a trencher attachment for my bobcat. 250 ft of boiler line. 300ft trench for electric and a separate 300ft trench for water to my barn. The only issue I had was the trench collapsing due to sandy soil. I ran my lines before the cement pad was poured. 

[Bruno of NH]

You could hire a concrete cutting contractor to bore a hole through the foundation or rent a hammer drill and do it your self .