Relative Labor Costs of Installing Different Pipe Materials

[longhorn213]

I'm trying to design a project outline for a potable water pipeline for a class project. I need to decide on a material and include information on the cost-benefit analysis.

I'm interested in using some sort of fiberglass, either GRE/GRP/GRV. I know rough material costs, but I don't know much about labor costs and I can't seem to find anything online.

Does anyone know how labor costs for pipe installation compare across piping materials? Maybe RTR vs HDPE vs steel vs iron

 

[crshears]

Please re-post in one of our appropriate forums, and delete this one.

Thank you.

 

[btrueblood]

Um, no. He's a student, CR, and is supposed to post for help here, not on other forums.

Longhorn, you should be able to compare relative labor costs of welded vs. bell-and-socket type piping, i.e. the type (skill level required) and amount of labor required per pipe joint.

 

[3DDave]

The labor to place the pipe will be an insignificant part of the cost.

If needed, the main cost will be digging of a trench to place the pipe or otherwise clearing the path for the pipe, regardless of material.
If a trench is required there will also be a cost to fill the trench, preferably with gravel to decrease subsidence, but that depends on where the pipe is placed. It also might be second depending on the ease of creating the trench, the cost of operating equipment, and the cost of local labor.

The next cost is the cost of the pipe itself vs. the long term life of the pipe. For buried pipe the lifetime is very long; above ground I would not expect exposed plastic pipe to last nearly as long as welded steel, though thieves might cut the steel pipe almost immediately. While steel and iron do rust, lifetimes are usually measured in multiple decades away from salt or other corrosives. Plastic buried pipe will not be affected by salt. However, if not buried deeply enough plastic pipe can be damaged by heavy traffic or people digging with hand tools.

The next cost will be surveys. One for above-ground planning to determine which property the line will be placed on, then a geotechnical survey to see what kind of stability the ground has and what the underground conditions are. In some places one might have a very easy time digging a trench until a large rocky expanse is encountered. Finding out there might be a need for a blasting team before finding the rock can lower the pricing from "any time in the next few months" to "it has to be done by the end of the week." It might also be valuable to avoid sinkholes; easy to dig through, if the construction crew doesn't lose any equipment down the hole, but expensive to fill with possibly thousands to millions of yards of gravel, though usually that would mean simply calling the geotechnical survey people one should have called to start with to find a sink-hole free route.

The next cost is transportation and handling. Plastic pipes will win this every time. they will be far lighter weight allowing a greater amount of pipe to be carried on each trip. Any cranes or other handling aids will be lighter, more easily placed and removed for putting plastic pipe in place. In difficult terrain the weight of the pipe may predominate, as will access to power equipment.

In the US almost all such things are done with power equipment so one would be looking at the operating and investment/rental costs for the machines.

Many times the joint in plastic pipe is a slip fit with rubber gasket, requiring little time and only some care with no exceptional skill involved. For steel pipes of sufficient size a skilled welder will set up automated welding equipment; not sure about waterlines, but high pressure welded lines get x-rayed to locate any defects that might corrode or just break.Long ago for iron pipes they would use a packing material that is pounded by hand into the bell (wide opening of a pipe) and then secure that/protect that by pouring lead into a flexible mold and then pound that lead into the joint with a chisel to force the lead to expand and lock into the pipe. It takes little practice to develop sufficient skill under skilled teachers. It think iron pipe with bell ends they use rubber gaskets as with the plastic pipe.

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I would recommend that any project start with a plan that includes an estimate of the path length, the typical terrain, and any obstacles like hard rock or roads. You can then ask suppliers of the materials what a sufficient amount of material for that distance would cost and ask local contractors what placing each material would cost. Let them know you are a student and are looking for very rough numbers. You might help the contractors by including the weight and number of joints to be made. I expect some will ignore you, but if you can reduce the request to one that takes only a few minutes many will be willing to help.

For extra points, ask what their projections for cost are for the next year and next five years. Often material acquisition and construction planning will be delayed by the amount of time to get the funding arranged. This could affect things like offering extra payment in return for earlier completion.

The same needs to be looked at for the benefit side. If it costs $500 more a day, but the project is completed 6 weeks earlier, then is it worth that expense; likewise if you take a loan to buy the material now (after being very certain it's what you want) vs. the risk of the material price going up in a year or two when formal funding is made available, will the cost of the loan be higher or lower than the anticipated cost of material?

One of the beautiful things of large projects is that whatever you plan for there is always the chance of things going wrong in an expensive way.

I was on a project where it was build-to-print, fixed price, while the unit was still being designed - primarily steel plate and steel rolled shapes. The acceptance of the design done by the contract partner was delayed. At one point, due to world events the price of the steel doubled. Fortunately things went wrong the other way and, by the time the client approved, the price of steel had dropped back to a lower priced.

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For example of the range of installation - in California is a neighborhood build on a landslide. All the pipe is above ground because all the buildings are moving several inches a week. That is both water and sewer lines. This is an entirely different cost then is when done when the system is to last a century.

Look up Palos Verdes landslide.

Also https://laist.com/news/climate-environment/rancho-palos-verdes-land-movement-slows