Trenching for water, sewer, and electric lines in Canandaigua

Trenching sounds simple until you're doing it 48 inches deep, 300 feet long, across a slope, with a gas line somewhere in the way. We trench for new water services, sewer laterals, electrical conduit, gas lines (with the utility), geothermal loops, and irrigation mains — anything that has to run underground from point A to point B.

The details are what matter: depth below frost for anything carrying water, proper bedding so pipe isn't lying on rocks, tracer wire and warning tape where code requires it, and backfill in lifts so the trench line doesn't become a sunken stripe across your lawn next spring.

Every trench starts with a Dig Safely New York locate. We schedule the 811 ticket, wait the required time, and hand-dig near marked utilities. It's the law, and it's the reason our trenches don't end with a gas leak.

Trenching through Ontario County ground

Frost drives everything. A water line above 42 inches in this part of New York will freeze in a hard January, so we trench water services to 48 and deeper under driveways where the plowed surface has no snow cover to insulate it. Sewer laterals follow the grade they need to drain, which sometimes means deeper still.

Old sewer laterals are a big part of our repair work in the city of Canandaigua, Geneva, and the villages of Victor and Clifton Springs. Clay tile from before the 1960s cracks and lets roots in; Orangeburg pipe from the 60s and 70s simply collapses. If the plumber's camera shows a belly or a break, we excavate that section — or the whole run — and replace it with SDR-35 PVC.

Rock again: shale is close to the surface in Bristol and along the lake's east side. A 300-foot water line that's a morning's work in Farmington clay can take two days with a breaker in the Bristol Hills. We'll tell you if we expect it.