Plumbing question

Loganwayne

Loganwayne

#BTL
Joined
Feb 15, 2013
Location
Clyde, North Carolina
My main line from my house to the meter busted on friday. I waited till Monday to have them come fix it while I was at work already had it dug up all they had to do was fix the leak. (I wasn't home alot over the weekend and didn't want to pay a crazy high service call) got home last night and I have a trickle of water. Call the guy comes back out today And tells me my line has rusted shut causing it to only allow a trickle of water threw.

1. First question could you not blow the line out and force the rust out. I know this isn't the right way to fix it, but it would be a temp fix. I'm tearing up and redoing my driveway this spring and the old line is under it and was planning on replacing it then anyways.

2. Since old line is under driveway , was told best thing to do is trench a new line in and re run the water line a different way. So let's say 60ft trenching and maybe 80ft of pex line and hole cut in my block to run the new line. He's saying two days and 2 grand. I think that is steep. I think it could be done for about half.

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Utility company isn't going to touch anything on your side of the meter.

Just trench it in. Should be done in a day, easy. $2,000 may be steep. I'd guess $1500 max.

2 guys a day plus equipment will run $1,000-$1500 with materials.
 
I knew utility company won't mess with it. They didn't want to mess the leaking meter after they changed it out last year.

Im on the same page as you I figured two days and a trencher. They would go threw my front yard so I dont see that part taking more than 2-3 hours. I really think they could do it in 5-6 hours if the guys were on the ball.
I could do it myself but by the time I take off work and rent a trencher it would cost me as much as letting them do it

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You can't blow the rust out, it's on all sides of the pipe and will just continue to clog.
That price is way steep. Get a couple more quotes or rent a trencher and buy some pipe...
Call and get your cables marked NOW Single Address Ticket to avoid delays
 
Loganwayne said:
I knew utility company won't mess with it. They didn't want to mess the leaking meter after they changed it out last year.

Im on the same page as you I figured two days and a trencher. They would go threw my front yard so I dont see that part taking more than 2-3 hours. I really think they could do it in 5-6 hours if the guys were on the ball.
I could do it myself but by the time I take off work and rent a trencher it would cost me as much as letting them do it

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Yes you can trench that in an hour or two at most.
 
Loganwayne said:
My main line from my house to the meter busted on friday. I waited till Monday to have them come fix it while I was at work already had it dug up all they had to do was fix the leak. (I wasn't home alot over the weekend and didn't want to pay a crazy high service call) got home last night and I have a trickle of water. Call the guy comes back out today And tells me my line has rusted shut causing it to only allow a trickle of water threw.

1. First question could you not blow the line out and force the rust out. I know this isn't the right way to fix it, but it would be a temp fix. I'm tearing up and redoing my driveway this spring and the old line is under it and was planning on replacing it then anyways.

2. Since old line is under driveway , was told best thing to do is trench a new line in and re run the water line a different way. So let's say 60ft trenching and maybe 80ft of pex line and hole cut in my block to run the new line. He's saying two days and 2 grand. I think that is steep. I think it could be done for about half.

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Click to expand...



Something about that sounds fishy..... you had perfectly good water pressure before the pipe burst and then after the line is repaired, he says it's rusted shut? I wonder if something worked it's way down the line and is stuck in the pressure reducing valve. PRV will look a little like a bell with a bolt on the top. It will have pipe coming in from supply and out to the rest of the house. Before trenching and running a fresh line to the house, I'd test that connection first. Disconnect the PRV from supply and SLOWLY open the gate valve at the road. Have someone observe there to see if you have pressure. If you do, I'd suspect the PRV has failed. Relatively easy to replace. It's looks something like this:

7502042d-5935-4ac3-82dd-ab5c90704b42_1000.jpg
 
ManglerYJ said:
Something about that sounds fishy..... you had perfectly good water pressure before the pipe burst and then after the line is repaired, he says it's rusted shut? I wonder if something worked it's way down the line and is stuck in the pressure reducing valve. PRV will look a little like a bell with a bolt on the top. It will have pipe coming in from supply and out to the rest of the house. Before trenching and running a fresh line to the house, I'd test that connection first. Disconnect the PRV from supply and SLOWLY open the gate valve at the road. Have someone observe there to see if you have pressure. If you do, I'd suspect the PRV has failed. Relatively easy to replace. It's looks something like this:

7502042d-5935-4ac3-82dd-ab5c90704b42_1000.jpg
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Here's the kicker. My house had two... One by the meter, where the leak was. And one in the garage where the line came in. I suspect they put the one in the garage in when the house was redone and they couldn't find the original. As of right now both have been taken out and replaced with pex to see if I could get any pressure.... That's a negative ghost rider still no water flow

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Only other thing I could try is undoing the line in the driveway near the meter and hope it's in the line between the meter and the old Prv that was in the driveway

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Dig up at the meter and run a hose and hook it to a spigot on the house. You'll still have to cut it off at the main shut off in the house, if you have one, but that will get you through until you get it fixed right.
 
Replaced my mom's waterline a few years back. Three of us did it in maybe 5-6 hours. 80ft meter to house, used black pipe. Rented a walk behind trencher for a half day for about $75. Whole project cost maybe $300 tops.

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Get a second opinion. should be mostly done in one day. if your willing to do the clean up, straw and seed then most definitely done in one day.
 
I'll come sit on my tailgate and supervise if you need some direction.:D

I've helped with more of these than I care to admit. One competent person and a drunk monkey should be able to do it in a day for less than half of what you were quoted initially.

If you call in a locate...they won't locate anything private so depending what utilities you have underground be careful.
 
I'm with ManglerYJ. Can't really wrap my head around what could have happened here. You had water just fine. Then the pipe leaked. They replaced it now you have no flow. What did they do?
How did the guy know you have a rust clog? Where did that come from? Did he cut off the old bit of pipe at the break, look inside it and say to himself, Hey, there's a lot of rust in there clogging this guys line... oh Well! and plug in his fitting and cover it up?
Sounds to me like he's just guessing to push any blame off of him... how do you know he didn't F up the fitting and clog it?

maybe I'm crazy but I'd think that after reconnecting it he'd go and turn on a spigot or something to make sure it works after he did his job?

Maybe while the line was broken and somebody was digging, some dirt got into the broken pipe and pushed down a bit?
 
RatLabGuy said:
I'm with ManglerYJ. Can't really wrap my head around what could have happened here. You had water just fine. Then the pipe leaked. They replaced it now you have no flow. What did they do?
How did the guy know you have a rust clog? Where did that come from? Did he cut off the old bit of pipe at the break, look inside it and say to himself, Hey, there's a lot of rust in there clogging this guys line... oh Well! and plug in his fitting and cover it up?
Sounds to me like he's just guessing to push any blame off of him... how do you know he didn't F up the fitting and clog it?

maybe I'm crazy but I'd think that after reconnecting it he'd go and turn on a spigot or something to make sure it works after he did his job?

Maybe while the line was broken and somebody was digging, some dirt got into the broken pipe and pushed down a bit?
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I have the same questions my dad was apparently there when he fixed it, why no one checked to see if it work the f#$k if I know. There wasn't any digging to the leak I had it completely dug up. Anyways phone died after I read your thoughts and really made me second guess the guy and wonder why he kept wanting to cover it all back up..... So in the garage there is a main ball valve turned it off and cut the water line coming in below it turned water on nothing. Took apart the pipe fitting fix near the water meter a metric ton of pressure. So went back to garage end and hit it with 140psi of air going towards the meter. Idk what the hell was in there but it's gone now about flooded my garage when I turned the valve back on. So gotta go to Lowe's and get a couple fittings to fix it. I'm now considering pouring some CLR down the pipe with the meter end disconnect and capped let it sit a little bit blow it out again and put it all back together

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rockcity said:
So did you have a BFP on there before blowing air in the line towards the meter? If not, whatever was in there is likely now in the main traveling to the neighbors.
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The line was disconnected from the meter and main line. Blew whatever it was into the hole I dug with what water was in the line.

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Loganwayne said:
The line was disconnected from the meter and main line. Blew whatever it was into the hole I dug with what water was in the line.

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Kind of what I kept wondering, > back flush & see if it runs. As for replacing temporary, could run black plastic pipe around driveway. Only problem other than looks, would be it freezing this winter.
 
rodney eppes said:
Kind of what I kept wondering, > back flush & see if it runs. As for replacing temporary, could run black plastic pipe around driveway. Only problem other than looks, would be it freezing this winter.
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I asked the guy today when I came home for lunch if he had back flushed it he said ya but obviously that's bull shit. I'm going to put it back together in a way that if it gets clogged again it will be easier to back flush. Hopefully it will get me threw till about end of may

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