Looking for semi-flexible tubing to replace PVC outdoors

[CruisinGA]

My families' lake house has a looong wooden staircase down to the water from the house. Currently, there is a run of PVC down these stairs so we have water at the grill/gazebo and on the dock.

The pvc looks bad and cracks every winter. (was very careful to drain before this past winter-still cracked).

We would like to replace with a semi-flexible black tubing/hose. The stuff they used to use for residential water mains came to mind.

Found Polyethylene tubing on Mcmaster w/ 3/4" ID for $0.28/ft. Item number 5180K77 . I was planning on purchasing whatever we end up with from a plumbing supplier, probably be cheaper.

Any suggestions would be great. This picture shows gives an idea of the situation.

 

[D'Animal]

Look into the Black Poly line that is used for landscape drip irrigation.

You can get the Toro brand at Home Depot. DIP brand is at Sears. Lasko is sold at Ewing Irrigation. Im not sure what John Deer Land Scape supply or Horizon LandScape supply offer in other brands.

It is cheap enough you can replace it every few years. It is also easy enough that you could roll it up at the end of the season.

 

[jjbodean1970]

do they make pex in black? i have only seen white, blue, red. black pex would work well i would think, if it exists.

 

[bigndn]

Look into the Black Poly line that is used for landscape drip irrigation.

You can get the Toro brand at Home Depot. DIP brand is at Sears. Lasko is sold at Ewing Irrigation. Im not sure what John Deer Land Scape supply or Horizon LandScape supply offer in other brands.

It is cheap enough you can replace it every few years. It is also easy enough that you could roll it up at the end of the season.

This is what I would recommend. It's very easy to work with. We ran 1.5" poly the 200ish feet to my shop for the feed line. It comes in a roll and you just unroll it and cut to length. Great stuff.

 

[bigdaddy]

I am not sure on the pressure rating for the black pipe commonly used for sprinklers but make sure if you are connecting to potable water that it can handle the load(45-75psi).

My advice would be to take some time and bury a soft copper line with drains on both ends. You can get it in the length you need (I have seen rolls up to 300 ft). And if you drain it during the winter you should not have a problem with freezing/expansion. It sounds like you have an exposed line which leaves it susceptible to not only freezing but UV breakdown. i would take the time one year, bury a line wrapped in foam, and you could even add heat/pipe tape. and put a drain on both ends. Then you could spend the next 20 years BBQing and enjoying that great view!

PEX would be another good alternative(buried and wrapped), but make sure to follow instructions. You cannot allow PEX to be exposed to direct sunlight or it will fail.

Another quick connect method would to use hosing (like Goodyear industrial hosing) and create a line that you could rollup at the end of the year and store out of the elements.

Just $.02 worth

 

[D'Animal]

The Poly Drip line pipe will handle 65psi. The connectors will handle 65 psi for a few years.

 

[HopLite]

What about Pex tubing? I have personally never used it as my home is older and all copper. Others I work with have used Pex and swear by its ease of installation.

generic link to see available diameters:
PEX Tubing , Plumbing PEX Tubing , Aquapex Tubing , PEX Pipe - PexSupply.com

technical link:
Cross-Linked Polyethylene PEX in Residential Plumbing Systems

 

[CruisinGA]

Thanks for the suggestions. Exactly the sort of info I was hoping to get.

D-Animal- that irrigation drip tube looks like it might be the ticket. Home Depot has the "Blue Stripe" Toro stuff for ~$.13 a foot, which is great. Claims it is at least relatively UV stable as well. Need to go check out their fittings. The line will only have 4 fittings- to a PVC line at the house, a junction at the gazebo for the spicket there, and a spicket at the bottom of the stairs which is just out of sight in the picture.

Bigdaddy-
I hadn't really considered burying a line, just because of the amount of work, and I'm still not sure it's worth it. Draining a flexible line tucked up under the stairs should be easy and solve freezing problems.

The thought of rubber hose (high quality garden hose?) also crossed my mind, but the high cost is a deterrent, and I have no need to roll up the hose at the end of the season. (would rather drain so I could still have water in the winter if I needed it).

Sounds like the "PEX" (which I was originally thinking of) probably wouldn't be such a great idea since it would degrade quickly in the sunlight.

The last concern is pressure-
We are on a small community well with booster pump situated about 20 ft higher than our house, and then the drop from there to the bottom of the line is at least 50 ft. Ought to result in a pretty significant pressure head by the bottom of the line. I'm a little concerned that it may be more than the irrigation fittings could handle...

 

[Johnnymiz]

i've been closing up and draining a beach house here in new york for 35 years and i can tell you what the problem is.....you will always get broken pipes if u have to blow them out . pipes need to be able to be drained by gravity...period. no matter how much u blow them out, or what they're made of, if they aren't pitched properly, some water is gonna pool in them and crack them somewhere. looking at that stairway, seems to me u might wanna put a tee and a valve pointing down at some of those landings....anywhere the water could puddle inside the pipes. costs more, takes more time to do it...but it WILL work. and if u intend to have the house in the family for a loooong time....might be worth it to just do it in copper. copper is a 50 year fix, and it can handle any house water pressure u give it.

 

[haystax]

I would look for HDPE rather than the landscape poly. Any real plumbing supply house should carry it in large rolls and it is pretty cheap. It is also bulletproof, should be able to withstand some freeze cycles and you will never get enough pressure to blow out any fittings.

I seem to recall that the drip line I used was also non-potable. Some of the garden hose you buy also claims that you shouldn't drink from the hose

Copper would be a nice solution and would age with a nice patina that may make up for the added hassle. With the proper tools and torch, hard copper is pretty easy to work with and will last forever in your application.

Good luck.