My daughter's well point is badly clogged and the well driller suggested that before we proceed with point replacement or drilling a new well that we check for nitrates. Sure enough the test came back right at the high limit and the option now is to hook up to city water. I need a plumber to run the line into the basement from the tap about 40 feet. Do you guys have any tips to watch for when hiring a plumber for this type of thing? I am fronting the money on this and do not want to get ripped off. Thanks in advance Bob Another point that hasn't been mentioned yet. If you do decide to hook up to the city, how much are rates going to increase? As an example: Headlines on our local newspaper,, City may raise water rates 15. We're already paying more than any neighboring towns and now this great news. Now it's going up 15% yearly for the 4 years. Could this happen in your area? We never thought it would happen here, but it is. So you might consider other options before you sock a bunch of money into a city hookup if there's a posability it's going to cost you even more in the future. Something more to consider. I hooked up to city water and sewer three years ago in Minnesota. I had to pay a five thousand dollar hook up fee. But part of that fee was for sewer. The water line had to be down seven feet and it had to be copper. I have over one thousand feet of road frontage and had to pay for the installation in the street, blacktop, plus a one thousand dollar stub fee to my property so the street would not have to be opened up when hooking up to city utilities. You might be getting a deal if the seven thousand goes to the city. We all know that the city holds a monopoly on such services and makes no bones about robbing it's citizens. The cost of actually connecting the tap to your daughter's house isn't included. If it was me, I'd probably see if I can do the work myself, but I'm a cheapskate. You would have to rent a trencher, but there would be a lot of hand-digging to be done where the water line enters the house. Have you done any digging around this place? If it's typical Michigan clay, you'll probably want to let someone else do the digging. The water line needs to be at least 42 inches deep; the deeper the better. While putting in the water line, this might be a great time to add a yard hydrant or two. If you're going to be tearing up the yard, you might as well get all your trenching done. Ditto if any outbuildings need electrical service. Howdy, Good question Bob, I have been wondering about that myself. They widened the road out front a couple years ago and put in sewer and water lines. Someone told me that if I was to hook up to the city I would have to pay by the foot for the mains that they installed, I have over 200ft of frontage and that might get expensive along with hooking up to mains and bringing lines into basement. Sorry to butt in on your post but if what I was told is true maybe that would explain some of the high cost. Bob I do this for a living. You are getting ripped off majorly. That includes a membership fee and installation of 100 ft. Plumber hooks up from there. They have their own crew that comes out and does it. Small town I build in once in awhile has the water line stubbed past the curb and I have the guy that does the excavating dig it and the sewer line in. I thought it was terrible that it was 750 here for a meter and tap. We dont have much choice, its either city water or cistern water in this geology. If you are stuck under those kinds of codes you can bet you are getting taken, just a question of how bad and how much control you have locally. Here at least you can connect your own without having a plumber... How much is the 'tap' fee? It could be multi-thousands by now and all that provided was a curb-cock at the street. From there it all belonged to the property owner including permitting, adhereing to all the city codes and inspections. I would be hard pressed to get all options to do this lateral connection to the water main. You have to find out what the city code is, in regards to acceptable materials, copper tubing, or alternate, backflow preventer, gate valve- with sleeve shut off to house and meter. Sounds like the city has a monopoly on doing connections, I have a good friend in the water dept in the adjacent city, he does taps all the time, after hours, stubs out to the main, extra cash, fair and reasonable. That said, I've excavated around same, using care, never had any problems, but always realize it can happen, excavation insurance is very expensive, but if you know that trench can be dug with care, its worth doing on your own. I believe around here the city provides the meter, you do the plumbing work, they inspect the lateral to the main, accepts same, then you can backfill and restore the area. I can't believe you have to go through the city water dept, to get this done, around here they will expose the main and your stub out lateral needs to be close to the main, city does not stub to the foundation, as its off city property. I've done miles and miles of water main, laterals and connections, very familiar with the work, do some research if you can and have time to do so, hopefully you can figure out the most cost effective option here. Yes, insane amount of money in my opinion. What do low income folks do with a situation like this? The fact is that these people do not care. I had the pleasure of going to the board of review to get her taxes lowered to reflect what she paid for the house. Government not for the people. From your nearest city, I would go to the building permit department and see if they have literature on specifications on doing this. Other than that the only thing you could do is get references and get two or three estimates. How about a drinking water reverse osmosis unit? Water softener and RO unit is about half the 7K. Can the well point be back flushed to save the well? Does the plumber make the tap or the city? Watch your electric ground if you use plastic and disconnect from the well. You could end up with a neutral failure. If the plumber makes the hot tap, he would need to be licensed around here. Do you need to trench or tunnel through the road? I don't have the complete story yet. I have to take a drawing of the lot with the house and septic system shown on it to the township office. They then will deternine where the tap will go. The well guy said that the plumbers can shoot a line in the short distance and we can then avoid trenching. I would get 3 estimates from licensed plumbers to see what they will charge. My wife's sister had her whole house replumbed with pex in Florida. Since her home owner's association was paying the bill due to the original piping failing, she had to get 3 estimates. One man did the job digging and installing new piping.
