We ran a line 3 feet deep from house to the barn, 100 feet.hooked right to the same lines as feed the home, just put a T in a line and directed 1 to the barn thru a hole in the wall. Plenty of pressure, use a frost free hydrant in the barn, never froze. Our home is late 1700-early1800s, the original barns are long gone. wells of that era were dug wells or springs, much livestock was sent to streams.

I had 3 lines. One going to the house, one to the barn, and one out to the garden. All three had a separate cut-off. That was a life saver!! Should a pipe burst somewhere I only had to cut off water to one area. Also during a severe freeze I could shut off the water and drain the pipes. I would much rather do that then sit there and hope they don't freeze.
How much a new well would cost depends entirely on your area - around here it would start at about $1200 and that would be for a well that is not very deep.

I would suggest you use a check valve between your barn and house, keeps water from siphoning back to the house if there is a pump failure. Seems some jurisdictions require this even if you're going to a shed with NO animals.

Mike Cassidy

Ideas above are good ones. Certainly a check valve or back flow prevention is very important to prevent contamination of the well or source of water.

For a line outside, buried, I would check with the local older farmers, older plumber. Ask how deep they would lay their line to prevent problems. A frost free hydrant is only going to work if the water coming to it is unfrozen. Here in MI we plan to lay buried pipe at least six feet deep, for use in winter. If line goes under a driveway, it should be 8ft deep. For some reason when you drive over the line regularly, it seems to "push" the ice and cold deeper than other places in the dirt. A six foot line under the driveway often freezes. Pennsylvania gets pretty cold in winter, just like MI. If you might have animals in that barn, you will need water that works, all winter.

Summer before last I had the old house well drilled deeper, we are on county water now but I use the well to keep my pond full and to use in the garden and the greenhouse. Since it was an existing well it cost 300.00 for set up and 15 dollars a ft to drill it. I took it from 42 ft down to 100 ft. If it was a new well it would have been 15.00 a ft no set up and that includes 20 ft of casing which is what is required here to get into the rock. Hope that helps.

Bob in North Alabama

I have my 1000 ft. line only 12" under the ground here in Pennsylvania... I have an air line fitting next to my compressor so I can blow it out every fall... Its worked for 20 years with no problem...

In all cases except possibly where bedrock is too shallow to lay an underground line, extending water lines from and existing well will be -way- cheaper than drilling a new well. Check with the county building inspector who can tell you what the frost line depth is in that area, lay you line below that, terminate in one or more frost-free hydrants and you have water where you want it.

A water line of several hundred feet is nothing. I used to have one over 1/4 mile long.

Harry K

We have a big stone bank barn,1700s,we have an artisian well in barn yard.Years ago People lived on top of barn with animals underneath.Can you imagine.