Comfortable life in a country house or in a summer cottage implies the availability of water supply and sanitation. If there are no central communications in the SNT or cottage village, it is necessary to install the water supply on your own or with the involvement of a contractor. The owner of suburban real estate must clearly understand what materials you need to choose. Instead of metal, came plastic pipes for the water supply in the country. Their consumer qualities are well suited for laying external and internal routes and the device irrigation routes for the garden.
Types of water supply
The purpose of the water supply in a country house can be conditionally divided according to the seasonality of use and the field of application. If the house is designed for year-round use, then the water main is used year-round. When the house serves only for summer holidays, it is subject to autumn conservation, during which it is necessary to drain the water from all consumers and drain the water supply. Those who live in an arid climate, or grow vegetables, fruit and ornamental plants on a personal plot, will need to replace the heavy rubber garden hoses with a neat and practical plastic pipe for summer water supply.
According to the requirements for operation, you can differentiate the water supply for summer, winter, street. From the purpose of the line follows the selection of material.
Types of pipes
Plastic products are used relatively recently. In old houses, water was supplied using steel pipes. The main advantage of this material is mechanical strength. The list of disadvantages is much longer:
- low corrosion resistance;
- installation complexity;
- high price;
- tendency to occur deposits and narrowing of the diameter.
Low frost resistance of the metal system leads to its failure during freezing. Plastic products are free from these drawbacks. In order to meaningfully choose which pipes to use for the water supply in the country, you should familiarize yourself with their characteristics.
Metal-plastic
This kind of pipe can be used in cold and hot water supply devices, as well as in the installation of a heating system. The connection cannot be made by gluing or soldering, you need to use compression fittings, crimp or press. Both varieties are expensive. You can save on fittings due to the flexibility of the pipe, bending it to bypass the obstacle. Press fittings can be used in hard to reach places, but crimp need constant access, because during operation of the water pipe made of metal-plastic, they can weaken, causing a leak.
Polyethylene pipes
To conduct water into the house from a well or a well, a pipe of low pressure polyethylene, or HDPE, is most often used. Polyethylene pipes are sold in bays. On each running meter of the product is marked, allowing to determine:
- appointment;
- work environment;
- manufacturer;
- outside diameter;
- minimum wall thickness;
- pressure limit;
- release date and batch number.
In addition to alphanumeric marking, pipes have longitudinal stripes. The blue lines imply the use of the product for cold water supply, the yellow lines indicate the purpose of the pipes for the gas pipeline.
HDPE does not tolerate heating well, therefore it cannot be used for installation of heating and hot water supply.
The disadvantages include reduced strength compared to metal, so you should not lay a route from the HDPE in the place of the site where the cars drive.
List of advantages of polyethylene pipes:
- low price;
- chemical resistance;
- biological neutrality;
- perfect smoothness of the inner surface;
- long warranty period;
- the possibility of low-temperature operation - the product withstands t0 to -60 C0;
- installation by welding or threaded fittings;
- simple disassembly and the ability to make changes to the circuit.
HDPE water supply can pass along the surface of the soil. For aesthetics, it can be buried in the ground a few centimeters.
When designing a water supply route, it is necessary to calculate the length of the pipe so that it goes under the ground in a whole piece. Fittings can be twisted by hand, without the use of tools. Their design allows you to withstand the water pressure in the system. Due to the elasticity of the material, when the water freezes, the pipes do not burst, after thawing they return to their previous shape and size. The PND pipeline can be used for water supply of seasonal dachas and for cottages year-round. Despite the fact that polyethylene is a frost-resistant material, in order not to be left without water at the most inopportune moment, the laying of a winter water supply system needs to be carried out below the freezing point of the earth. This value is a reference, it differs for each specific region of the country.
PVC pipes
Polyvinyl chloride is used to produce these systems. The material does not support combustion and is chemically neutral. Non-pressure products are applicable in the installation of wastewater systems, and for the installation of a supply water pipe it is necessary to use a pressure pipe that can withstand fluid pressure. The connection of the individual elements of the system is carried out using cold welding. A properly glued seam can last half a century. The cost of water supply from PVC is higher than from HDPE, and consumer qualities are slightly worse:
- temperature range from -15 to +45 С0;
- negative reaction to freezing, the material becomes brittle and less elastic;
- decrease in operational properties with prolonged exposure to ultraviolet radiation.
- complexity of disposal.
The occurrence of scratches sharply reduces the strength of the products, so the use of PVC pipe in external routes is impractical. It is impossible to cut threads on pipes made of polyvinyl chloride, which makes the process of strapping equipment difficult.
Advantages of PVC pipe:
- simple installation;
- smoothness of the inner surface;
- chemical neutrality;
- incombustibility.
The main field of application is a sewage device.
Polypropylene pipes
Manufactured by industry in two versions - for cold and hot water, as well as for heating. Marking with a blue strip along the length of the product indicates the possibility of use in a cold environment, and a red strip allows the pipe to be used in hot water systems and for transporting coolant. Reinforcement of the pipe with aluminum allows several times to reduce the coefficient of thermal expansion. Polypropylene is very hard, it is impossible to bend products from it, so the system is assembled using fittings by soldering. For soldering, a special soldering iron is used, which can be rented at a hardware store. The heated tube is inserted into the heated fitting and fixed. After a couple of minutes, the connection becomes seamless.
During installation, the connection depth must be observed: if insufficient, leakage is possible, if excessive, narrowing of the inner diameter is possible.
The material has all the advantages of plastic pipes:
- low price;
- surface smoothness;
- chemical neutrality;
- corrosion resistance;
- long service life;
- wear resistance and reliability.
The disadvantages include the need for soldering, but this process is not so complicated. To master the technique, just practice on pipe scraps.
Selection recommendations
Based on the properties of each of the considered materials, we can give a recommendation on the installation of a water supply system:
- For watering routes on the street and for water supply going from a well or a well to the house, it is better to use HDPE pipes.
- The internal cold and hot water supply system can be mounted from polypropylene pipes, choosing products with the corresponding marking.
- For heating, take reinforced polypropylene pipes.
- For water disposal, it is worth using PVC products.
Observing the rules of installation and operation, you can ensure uninterrupted water supply and sewage in a country house.
