Airline from shop to garage

[kf4zht]

Need some ideas/feedback on how to get air from my shop to my carport/garage. Shop is plumbed with the rapidair basic stuff - just normal pex and PTC fittings. It doesn't need to go far but I don't want something that will become a leak quickly

Here is the span

Shop is on the right. Air is already near that corner. About a 12" knee wall, unknown thickness slab. Carport on left. All brick, 2 layers deep. Those windows will open with some cajoling.

On the other side is a stone patio

So I see two main options - I can go up and over or down. Up and over is easier, easier to inspect but I do carry longer stuff through there and would hate to bust something while fighting a ladder around.

Down seems easy other than getting through the concrete. Would it be legit to just concete drill down at ~45* till it broke through, then trench? If so what kind of pipe - will the 1/2 blue pex that rapidair uses be enough or do I need to swap to something else?

 

[92 Green YJ]

What about just putting in a hose reel next to the garage door? Get one long enough to reach the carport then you have air there when you need it, spool it up when you don’t.

 

[Etyler2]

Don’t go overhead. Looks like shit. Why not down one wall, under the gravel, up the wall past the footing and punch in through the siding and paint?

 

[kf4zht]

What about just putting in a hose reel next to the garage door? Get one long enough to reach the carport then you have air there when you need it, spool it up when you don’t.

That would need a long ass hose reel to get around to where I work on cars

Don’t go overhead. Looks like shit. Why not down one wall, under the gravel, up the wall past the footing and punch in through the siding and paint?

Thats option 3, if I go that route I need to make sure whatever I use won't degrade in the sunlight

 

[RPS1030]

That would need a long ass hose reel to get around to where I work on cars

I have a 75’x1/2” reel.

Old house, I’d run that all the way out the door and a couple 25’ extensions to air up trailers and such on the parking pad on the far side of the yard.

Are you working in the shop or the garage?

 

[Duc]

Why not use black pipe for the outside part. Run down the wall, under the dirt and then back up.

A coat of paint on the pipe will make it look alot better.

 

[AK_F250]

How often do you need air in the garage/carport? If it's not an everyday thing stub a male QD out the garage wall plumbed to a hose reel inside. When you need air run a line out of the shop door to it, or stub one out on the shop side and make a small hose that you can hook up as needed. Not the prettiest but you'll only have to look at it when you're using it.

 

[Dethmachinefab]

I'd go underground. How does electricity get there? Any conduit available to fish some poly air line through?

 

[SomeGuyFromOlympia]

when I lived in town
I had a shed in the back corner that the compressor lived in

took a plain ol airline, spade shovel
jam the shovel in the ground, push to spread the sod, (leave the shovel in the ground), jammed the hose in there, repeated all the way there, stomp it back shut

it lasted 15+ years until i pulled the hose out of the ground when I moved out
The hose is still working fine

I actually have another version of that going from the shop out to a shipping container currently

don't overthink this

 

[arse_sidewards]

Bury 3" conduit. You can just barely cram a 90deg bend (with the reinforcement plate thing that keeps it from kinking) into a 3" conduit body. You won't have any below ground leak points that way.

That's how I did the run between my shop and house. Well, the conduit was already there, I just used it.

 

[[486]]

underground air runs suck, they plug with frost unless you go as deep as you would for water pipe

 

[ThePanzerFuhrer]

Get a second air compressor? Maybe a small portable one so if you need to toss it in the truck for moblie air you can.

 

[aczlan]

Get a second air compressor? Maybe a small portable one so if you need to toss it in the truck for moblie air you can.

Always a good option, I have one like this one: 6 gallon 1.5 HP 150 PSI Air Compressor but its branded Husky or something, seems like everyone had that model for a while. Mine was free on the side of theroad with bad reed valves, $35 got me a new "upgraded" head with a replacement piston lid and seal and its been good to go. My bother has one that I found on FB for $60ish.

Its small enough to pickup and throw in the truck and my 2000W inverter generator will run it, but big enough that it will run my 1/2" "Earthquake" impact (at least for one bolt at a time).

Aaron Z

 

[[486]]

I'd just run some pex across from soffit to soffit, at least if it freezes up then you can heat gun it. Valve at the compressor end in case it does blow up.

Hell, could even go so far as to put a chicago claw fitting at each building, then just make up a 3/4" rubber hose just the right length so it is removable when it needs to be

 

[kf4zht]

How often do you need air in the garage/carport? If it's not an everyday thing stub a male QD out the garage wall plumbed to a hose reel inside. When you need air run a line out of the shop door to it, or stub one out on the shop side and make a small hose that you can hook up as needed. Not the prettiest but you'll only have to look at it when you're using it.

Not very often, but most often its to air up tires so I want it right now. Every now and then if I need an air hammer

underground air runs suck, they plug with frost unless you go as deep as you would for water pipe

Laughs in georgia weather. What is this frost you speak of?

Get a second air compressor? Maybe a small portable one so if you need to toss it in the truck for moblie air you can.

I have a CO2 tank that I use if I am too lazy to drag hoses around and for trips. The carport only has a single 15a circuit and that is questionable at the upper end. The shop doesn't have room to fit a vehicle (12x24 full of tools)

 

[[486]]

Laughs in georgia weather. What is this frost you speak of?

I hate you thiiiis much

I'd prolly do pex buried a couple inches then, it'll still get water in it but long as you aren't using it on the plasma or painting with it it don't matter

 

[billybob_81067]

I just ran a 300' run of pex-al-pex underground from my shop to my attached garage. I don't have a compressor in my shop at the house yet, but will eventually. I put it 3+ feet deep.

 

[Benny]

I just ran a 300' run of pex-al-pex underground from my shop to my attached garage. I don't have a compressor in my shop at the house yet, but will eventually. I put it 3+ feet deep.

Let me know how it works out. I want to do the same thing, but I am worried about moisture in the lines adding up over time. Maybe just a small tank at the end of the line to collect the moisture before use would be enough

 

[kf4zht]

Let me know how it works out. I want to do the same thing, but I am worried about moisture in the lines adding up over time. Maybe just a small tank at the end of the line to collect the moisture before use would be enough

I've had good luck adding "drip legs" below delivery points. Even with a screw off cap they only need to be drained every now and then

 

[bgaidan]

Let me know how it works out. I want to do the same thing, but I am worried about moisture in the lines adding up over time. Maybe just a small tank at the end of the line to collect the moisture before use would be enough

Make the low spot near one of the buildings and put a tee pointed down with a ~1/4" or so line out to a ball valve. Should collect enough that you can blow most of it out by opening the valve once in a while. You could probably put a length larger diameter pipe pointed down as a sump to collect more, just put the blow off line at the bottom so any collected water is forced out first.

 

[Yotota]

Bury some 1/2" SCH80 pvc, and do this:

Don’t go overhead. Looks like shit. Why not down one wall, under the gravel, up the wall past the footing and punch in through the siding and paint?

 

[Gravy]

I would bury it under ground in black pipe

 

[Etyler2]

I would bury it under ground in black pipe

Why black? Gonna rust out.

 

[Benny]

Why black? Gonna rust out.

Because galvanized flakes off and ruins your air tools.

 

[Etyler2]

Duh, good point. But rusting out in 5 years isn’t a strong plan either.

 

[M92PV4U]

Because galvanized flakes off and ruins your air tools.

Put a filter in the garage, rust is going to flake off too.

 

[arse_sidewards]

Because galvanized flakes off and ruins your air tools.

Not this century. Galvanized is even approved for gas in a lot of places these days.

 

[Benny]

Not this century. Galvanized is even approved for gas in a lot of places these days.

Yeah, but the COVID vaccines are approved too. Doesn't mean I am taking them.

 

[arse_sidewards]

Yeah, but the COVID vaccines are approved too. Doesn't mean I am taking them.

There's a big difference between the system approving something that stands to make the industry that benefits from the regulation lose money vs gain money.

None of the air tools we run are gonna care about dust. Plasma cutters and stuff like that get their own filters. Throw a drip leg on the run if you're worried about it.

 

[Landslide]

I ran mine underground 36” (same ditch as water line and electrical stuff) I rand the water line in 1” ID blue pex and the same for my air line. Compressor is in my basement under controlled environment. Shop is 130 feet from my house. I ran both the water and air pex lines inside the 4” black drain tile pipe with no holes in it to protect the pex Clean and nothing above ground to get damaged.