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I'm planning on redoing the irrigation system in the back yard and considering extending it to cover the front yard as well. My only problem, the house is completely surrounded by a concrete patio. My best run would be from the rear beds to the front beds under about 30' of concrete. But the front beds are only 2 feet wide, so the target is pretty small.

Is it even possible to bore that distance under the concrete and get it in the front bed? Both beds are in a line and 2 feet deep. The soil is loamy with with no rocks. My method of attempting to do this would be with a water hose attached to the pipe i'm sending under the concrete. If it is not possible to hit the target with pvc pipe, would galvanized fair better?

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  • Have you considered running it through the house instead? – longneck Dec 18 '14 at 17:16
  • @longneck - my house doesn't have any landscaping next the house so running a new irrigation line for the front will require breaking the concrete patio. Just trying to find a way to avoid that. And the pad goes to the property line on the sides. – diceless Dec 18 '14 at 20:41
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I am not saying there is no way you can do this, but there is basically no way. It would not be worth the time or effort and quite possibly you could spend a lot of time and effort and accomplish nothing. Going across a double driveway from experience is super iffy and you are adding at least another 10 feet. I don't see how you are going to keep adequate pressure for 30 feet and I don't see how you are going to keep it from veering up or down (if it goes up you could get stuck and compromise the stability of the pad and if it goes down you might never find it).

I would rather dig 100 feet out and back then do this. There has to be a better alternative. Another would be going through the house or picking an area where the pad could be busted up. I know this is a long comment but could answer better with pictures.

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  • My method was a last ditch method to avoid having to redo the concrete on the side of the house. Thanks for the answer, this just confirms it is not possible. – diceless Dec 18 '14 at 20:42
  • Would your neighbor care if you dug up their yard and promised to make it look nicer (throw in some landscaping in the deal)? I would not care at all if my neighbor dug lines in my yard as long as they don't change water runoff and made it look normal after. – DMoore Dec 18 '14 at 20:52
  • Their side yard is concrete as well so that option is out. I'm just going to have to remove some concrete to do the front. – diceless Dec 18 '14 at 21:19
  • Nothing wrong with calling a concrete place and asking if the drill under - often they do. You might get a lower quote if you say they have the option of going under or digging up a section. – DMoore Dec 18 '14 at 23:35
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I have water jet drilled in the past using Sch 40 PVC pipe. It works pretty good except that water has to flow back along the pipe as you push it in. This ends up making a much larger hole than you may think from first consideration. If the hole gets close to the concrete or has to go under a foundation you can cause a serious loss of under support for the concrete.

A far better approach would be to use a boring type scheme where the hole size can be controlled without super saturating the ground under the concrete.

There are also special devices made for use in installing underground utilities that use an impact bullet that is attached to a long hose that can literally hammer a hole along under the ground. I have seen them used for installing cables under streets and along a street in the parkway. In the parkway application the contractor doing the work was able to run his impact bullet up to about a half a block between access pits.

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