The plumber has been busy, He determined the leak was outside the foundation and jack-hammered a hole in the sidewalk to get at it. He dug and found a split in the pipe near where it passes through the foundation. He made a "temporary" repair with a vinyl sleeve and clamps and left it like that awaiting further instructions.
Brooks talked to the plumber and the recommendation is to replace the entire 150 foot line down to the road and up to the pressure reduction valve in the crawl space. A big ($) job.
The cheapest way to do it would be for Brooks to come up for a couple of days. hire a bobcat, dig a trench, buy a roll of water line, place it in the trench leaving a coil long enough to go into the house, cover it up and call the plumber back to make the final connections.
In the meantime my friend John is going to try to find something to cover the 3' by 3' hole in the sidewalk and make it safe and that will give Brooks and I time to decide what to do. In the meantime I have water to add to my scotch!
Sounds like a pricey repair either way. but water to your scotch? Is that allowed?? Not for me.
ReplyDeleteIt was a figure of speech. Maybe one ice cube.
DeleteI had the very same problem 15 years ago with the pipe coming from the well. A split just before the pipe entered the wall. I figured it was vibration from stuff going on and off in the house. I cut back to solid plastic, heated a splice into the plastic and while it was smoken hot, I torqued down two stainless steel hose clamps on both sides of the splice. I ran new pipe from there into the house plumbing. I had to break into the finished wall where it came into the basement but it's just drywall.
ReplyDeleteI doubt you need to replace the pipe. If it is brittle, then yes, otherwise leave that sleeping dog be. Repairing a pipe does not pay as well as replacing a hundred and fifty foot run, people need to eat but maybe not as well as they might like.
The copper pipe is of unknown age (I replaced a lot of it 30 years ago) and is a "non standard" thin wall size so it cannot accept any standard connector. I am not there to see for myself but the plumber reports the pipe is "swollen" perhaps from on increase in pressure caused by the city's recent replacement of the water distribution system. I am not the only one suffering from burst pipes.
DeleteThe repair would be under the concrete sidewalk and would not be easy to get at if it failed again. Lots to consider.
They are drilling pipe here in Ohio, no one is digging up the whole run, just a hole on each end. It is done with a pump with a rotary bit and a supply of drilling mud. My mother had a thousand foot run of natural gas pipe run back to her cabin with only three holes dug for access, two years ago. I don't know if that kind of thing is done in your bailiwick but it was under two grand, pipe included for a thousand foot run. They ran it down the bedrock which is about 20 feet below the surface to keep it from getting snagged down the line by someone putting in a house out front. The drilling unit is no more than twenty foot long and a small excavator is requited to dig the entry and exit hookups.
DeleteYikes that certainly was unneeded...
ReplyDelete