A welcomed "Mole" in my side driveway and backyard......

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I wanted the galvanized domestic water lines to our house replaced with copper. Our house was the middle house of a series built and everybody else has had their galvanized domestic water line rust out. Our galvanized "irrigation" water line has already rusted out.

So....I hired this guy to replace them. He digs a 3'x3'x3' hole every 30'or so and uses this pneumatic mole to drill a hole and when it comes up at the other end, he puts a rope in the hole at it's nose. He then reverses direction and it backs out with a line attached to pull a steel cable through the hole. To that he attaches the copper line and pulls it through. To reverse direction, he twists the air hose about 4 turns in the other direction and it reverses it's direction.

Pretty neat.

mole1.jpg mole2.jpg mole3.jpg

[Bruce Page]

That's pretty cool, I've never heard of such a thing. It sure beats tearing up the whole yard with a trencher.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

The guy bought the tool new for approximately $6,000 and of course he has one of those huge trailer-mounted air compressors. He thought the tool was made in Holland or maybe Germany. He layed out tarps...one in the side driveway....one at rear corner of my house...and one in the middle rear of my house. He and an assistant dug 3 holes....and he has connected them with the mole. He will pull the 1" copper pipe and tomorrow when the utility company digs the trench and installs the newly located meter box...he'll mole to it....finish pulling the copper tubing..make the connection at the meter and it's done. Fill in the three holes. The gravel in the driveway, the dirt and sod are all piled on tarps. The contractor is drilling a hole through the basement wall and a plumber will tie into the existing domestic water system. Very little damage to the property and about 1/3-1/2 the cost of having it dug and trenched like my neighbors. I was surprised!

[Ken Garlock]

Hi Ken

Isn't 3 feet a little shallow for a water line in your neck of the woods? As I recall, having grown up in northern Ohio, the code called for at least 40 inches to get below the freeze line. I suspect that you have just as much ground freeze as we had in the Cleveland, Akron, area.

BTW, Here in north Texas, we have PVC pipe from the street to the house, a run of over 400 feet. At the house it becomes copper in and under the slab.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Ken,

If I was up out of the valley, the 3' might be a little shallow. Here in the Lewis-Clark Valley, we live in what is commonly called the "Banana Belt" where all the local farmers on the prairies north ad south of here retire. Our temps are pretty mild and most winters we don't even have snow. 3' is code level here.

[Bill Cunningham]

The utility companies use those things around here quite a bit. Gas company, and phone companies use them to run lines under paved driveways etc.. They don't call them moles though.. They have another name for them, and I just can't remember what it is.. They work pretty slick though..

[Phil Thien]

When I was younger they had to replace the water line at my parent's house. The ran a cable through the existing line and attached it to copper in the basement. Then they use the back-ho and pulled the new copper line and the the old lead line through at the same time.

I was impressed and turned to one of the guys and said "I'm surprised that works."

And he looked at me and said, "often, it doesn't."

It was a shorter distance, maybe 40' altogether.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Neat idea. I doubt if it'd work very well in NH though. We have so much rock in our soil that it would be a real challenge. 22 years ago when I put in a mailbox it took me almost 1 1/2 hours to dig the hole. Much of the time was spent on my belly with a trowel and lots of time was spent with a 20 pound 6 foot long chisel bar prying and pounding to get rocks to move. Ask any NH farmer, his best crop is always granite.

[Callan Campbell]

\. Ask any NH farmer, his best crop is always granite.

Too Funny!!!!!!

[John Shuk]

We use those bullets(proper name) a lot for shooting buried house service wires in under existing driveways and walks. They work really well most of the time. However, I live and work in a glacial "dump zone" and large rocks can send it in strange directions!

[Greg Portland]

Neat idea. I doubt if it'd work very well in NH though. We have so much rock in our soil that it would be a real challenge. 22 years ago when I put in a mailbox it took me almost 1 1/2 hours to dig the hole. Much of the time was spent on my belly with a trowel and lots of time was spent with a 20 pound 6 foot long chisel bar prying and pounding to get rocks to move. Ask any NH farmer, his best crop is always granite.

A major fiber trunk line goes through my parent's property and the utilities come through every now and then to increase capacity. Solid rock starts @ 1-2 feet under the ground and they use a 'mole' without any problems. This is preferred because the old method involved digging a 5-6' deep trench. Now they use the mole, pull tubing, and then blow the cable through.

[ray hampton]

the people that operate these machines are call "sand hogs " and some of their toys will dig a 20' tunnel as far underground as they need the tunnel, what is the smallest tunnel rat machine in inches ?

[Rod Sheridan]

. They don't call them moles though.. They have another name for them, and I just can't remember what it is.. They work pretty slick though..

Bill, we call them directional boring machines...............Rod.

[Ken Garlock]

Golly, Ken. I had no idea that you had the perfect retirement area. Don't broadcast it too much or you might have an invasion of those east coast folks.

[David G Baker]

Ken,
It started me thinking. Ah, another possible retirement location with agreeable weather, I 'll have to put that on my list.