I have a new garage that is separate from my house. I'd like to have a water supply out there for washing the car, etc. It is wired with electric heat but I am not planing to heat it 24/7. How can I run a feed from the house without having it freeze up in the winter. I'm in southern Canada and sometimes we get short bursts of -20 weather.
The short answer is-you can't. I have a similar situation and when freezing weather arrives I blow the water out of the line with compressed air.
You can - but it'll have to be buried below the frost line and come up inside the building where it will need insulation (after all, your house supply copes OK).
The first thing you'll need to do is find out what the frost depth in your area is. It's only about 12" here in Washington state, but it can be
3 to 4 feet deep in other parts of the country (and Canada).Then you'll have to dig a trench deeper than your frost depth to run the water line out to your garage. I prefer to dig down and run the pipe under the house footing, but that's just me.
On the house end, you'll need to protect the pipe from freezing down to the frost depth. Depending on your house (crawlspace, basement, slab, etc.), you may be able to just wrap the pipe with insulation. If the pipe is in a more exposed location (next to a foundation vent, or your house sits on piers, you may have to install heat tape around the pipe before insulating it. Obviously, you'll need an electrical outlet near the pipe if you install a heat tape.
On the garage end, I would install something called a "yard hydrant". It mounts in your yard instead of on the building, though you could probably install it close to the building if that's important to you. Basically it's a faucet that shuts the water flow off down at the frost level, instead of up where the pipe is exposed. They usually have a drain at the bottom that lets the water in the stand pipe drain off when you shut off the water. You would normally install gravel at the bottom of the hole for drainage.
If you prefer to have the faucet mounted on the garage wall, you have two options.
I may be overlooking a thing or two, but this should give you a good starting point...
Take care,
Anthony
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