Cost to Run a Water Line 100, 300 or 500 Feet to a House

In open, diggable ground, running a water line from the meter to a house costs roughly $3,240 for 100 feet, $5,920 for 300 feet and $8,600 for 500 feet, including a typical tap fee (which usually covers the meter) and permit (national estimate). Rock can double or quadruple the trench cost, a road crossing adds about $4,000, and past a few hundred feet the pipe usually has to go up a size to keep pressure at the tap. And if no main runs along your lot, many utilities require a main extension instead of a long service.

This article prices long runs line by line. For short suburban services and what each city charges for the street side, see water service line cost.

Why a per-foot price breaks down on long runs

Our all-in national estimate for a contractor-installed service line is $30 to $150 per foot, typically $50. Those figures come from replacement jobs of roughly 40 to 70 feet, where setup and pavement repair are spread over few feet; $50 × 500 feet = $25,000 overstates a rural run through open soil. On a long run the budget is better built from its parts: trench, pipe, and a handful of fixed charges that are paid once.

National estimates used below (benchmark method). Pipe cost is a single figure, not a range: the RSMeans 2024 installed price for polyethylene service pipe ($5.40 per foot) quoted in the method note of our service-line benchmark. The meter row applies only where the utility bills the meter separately; the tap fees behind the low and typical figures are charged by meter size with no separate meter charge (Charleston Water System says its tap fee covers meter installation; Hartselle Utilities lists one “tap or set” fee), so the meter is not added again there.

Line cost per foot is therefore $4 + $5.40 = $9.40 low, $8 + $5.40 = $13.40 typical and $15 + $5.40 = $20.40 high. Fixed charges add $600 (tap fee + permit), $1,900 (tap fee + permit) or $7,300 (tap fee + separate meter + permit, as at Raleigh Water, which bills its meter apart from the tap). Impact or capacity fees are separate and are not included; see tap fee vs. impact fee.

Worked costs at 100, 300 and 500 feet

Open ground, normal soil, no pavement, 3/4- to 1-inch polyethylene, tap fee, meter and permit included (national estimate).

Soil and road crossings change the answer more than the extra footage does. Our trenching guide multiplies normal-soil trenching by 1.5 for rocky soil or heavy clay (typical) and by 4.0 for solid rock (typical), and prices a road bore or street cut at $4,000 per crossing (typical).

The same runs at the typical rates, with harder ground or one street crossing (national estimate).

For example, 300 feet in rock is 300 × ($8 × 4.0 + $5.40) = 300 × $37.40 = $11,220, plus the $1,900 of fixed charges, for $13,120. These tables leave out landscape restoration, sealing an old well ($300 to $1,500, national estimate) and pipe upsizing.

Pipe size: long lines lose pressure

Friction pressure loss grows with length. Utilities that publish design rules put numbers on it. Denver Water’s Engineering Standards (17th edition, effective May 28, 2026) set a 3/4-inch minimum service, cap velocity at 10 feet per second at peak demand, and limit the total pressure drop from the main to the building to 25 psi without a backflow preventer, or 35 psi with one while keeping at least 20 psi at the building. The same standard lets the line step up one pipe size starting 5 feet past the meter to meet the pressure-loss limit, while the tap and meter stay at their original size.

To show why distance matters, we calculated friction loss for polyethylene pipe with the Hazen-Williams formula at a flow of 10 gallons per minute. These are our calculations for illustration, not a design; meters, fittings, backflow devices and uphill runs add more loss (every foot of rise costs about 0.43 psi).

Friction loss at 10 gpm, polyethylene (C = 150), pipe only, using inside diameters of 0.824, 1.049 and 1.380 inches (ID-controlled pipe). Thinner-walled or copper-tube-size pipe of the same nominal size has a smaller bore and loses more. Our calculation, illustrative only.

Against Denver’s 25 psi limit, a 3/4-inch line is already near the ceiling at 300 feet and fails at 500, while 1-inch pipe clears both with room for the meter and elevation. That is why long runs are usually drawn at 1 or 1-1/4 inch. The extra cost is in pipe and fittings, not the trench. Ask the plumber for the sizing calculation, based on the static pressure the utility reports at your address.

When a booster pump comes in

If the house sits well above the main, or the main runs at low pressure, no pipe size fixes it and a booster pump is the fallback. Utilities regulate them. Denver Water allows pumping facilities only where it authorizes them, and requires booster pumps to sit downstream of the backflow preventer so they cannot push water back into the system (Engineering Standards §5.10). Wisconsin’s drinking water rule goes further: individual pressure boosting systems are allowed only where street-level static pressure is at least 20 psi, are capped at 10 per service area, and must be owned and maintained by the water system, not the homeowner (Wis. Admin. Code NR 811.79). Denver’s operating rules also make protecting pressure-sensitive equipment the customer’s job, at the customer’s expense (Operating Rules §9.03.6, effective Aug. 28, 2025). We found no government price schedule for residential booster pumps, so we publish no cost for one.

Frost depth sets the trench depth

A long line in cold country has to be deep along its whole length, which is where northern budgets pull away from southern ones. The rules come from state plumbing codes and utility specifications, and they differ a lot:

• Minnesota: the state plumbing code requires building supply and yard piping at least 12 inches below the maximum local frost depth, and never less than 12 inches below grade (Minn. R. 4714.0609). Saint Paul Regional Water Services requires services with 8 feet of cover from the main to the property line, or 6.5 feet in solid rock with insulation as its inspector decides (SPRWS Standards, Jan. 16, 2026, §2340).
• Colorado: Denver Water requires service lines 4-1/2 to 6 feet below the ground line (Engineering Standards, 2026).
• Texas: the state public water system rule requires waterlines below the frost line and never less than 24 inches below the surface (30 TAC §290.44).

Our trenching estimate assumes a trench about 4 to 6 feet deep, which fits Denver. An 8-foot Saint Paul trench moves more soil per foot and often needs shoring, so budget toward the high end of the range there. Saint Paul also requires copper for service connections 2 inches and smaller (§2350), which costs far more per foot than the polyethylene priced above.

When the utility requires a main extension instead

Distance matters most before any digging starts. Many utilities will only connect a service to a main that runs along the property being served. If yours does not, a longer private line is often not an option, and you are buying a piece of public main. Three published rules:

• Veolia Water Idaho (Boise area): the company connects to mains that front the property. Where they do not, the applicant must sign a main extension agreement. The main has to run in the public right-of-way to the far property line of the lot, is priced as an 8-inch main, and the company covers the first $500 per service connection (Veolia tariff, Rules 7 and 66–69, effective June 1, 2025). See Boise.
• Denver Water: no connection may be made except in a public street, or in a paved easement Denver Water can drive into as freely as a street (Operating Rules §9.03.2). Denver Water may also require new or larger mains at the applicant’s full cost (§8.03.1). See Denver.
• El Paso Water: when the property is not adjacent to an existing line that services can come from, the customer pays the total cost of the off-site or approach main, with possible refunds later (Rules and Regulations No. 7, Sec. II(F)). See El Paso.

Plumbing codes add their own limit. Minnesota’s version of the plumbing code says a building supply may not be located on a lot other than the one it serves, apart from listed exceptions (Minn. R. 4714.0609, UPC §609.6). The costs, front-foot charges and refund arrangements of main extensions are covered in utility extension cost.

The meter usually sits at the property line

On a long run, the location of the meter decides who owns the long pipe. Utilities generally want meters where their crews can reach them from the street:

• Denver Water requires outdoor meters in a frost-proof pit, either within a public street or easement, or in front of the premises no more than 5 feet from the property line (Operating Rules §10.03.2).
• SAWS requires meters of 2 inches and smaller to be in the public right-of-way, a water line easement, or a separate meter easement of at least 5 by 5 feet, and outside any fence (2024 Utility Service Regulations §10.6). See San Antonio.
• Veolia Water Idaho places the meter box inside the curb line or its right-of-way and owns the service up to and including the meter box (Rule 7).

With the meter at the road, all 100, 300 or 500 feet up the driveway is private pipe. You pay to build it and to fix it. A leak anywhere along it also shows up on your water bill.

Related guides

Water service line cost · Utility trenching cost · Utility extension cost · Cost to bring utilities to land · Water meter installation cost · Well vs. city water cost · Utility connection cost calculator · Colorado · Texas

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