The Z Machine
Footballguy
I'll try to keep this concise with the details...
I had a leak in my main supply line from the water meter to my house. This is a rowhome where the walls are concrete block and houses are built wall to wall. The water line runs about 40' from the alley behind my house under the slab of the garage floor an into a small workshop in the basement where the main hose shutoff is located. I "discovered" the leak when I saw a river of water flowing out of the water meter at probably a gallon/minute. After a week of back and forth with the city, it was determined that the leak was on my side of the meter and thus my responsibility. I got a number of quotes for repairing it (including like $8k for pulling a whole new line) and settled on me doing the concrete sawing and excavation to expose the water line and a licensed plumber pulling a permit and replacing only a section of the main supply line.
I excavated two holes: one right at the meter, and the other maybe 10' into my garage (about 15' from the meter). The plumber pulled the old copper line (only 10 years old...
) and found a galvanized union between a short copper pigtail at the meter and the long run to the main shutoff. Needless to say this union had multiple large holes in it due to galvanic corrosion, which I thought was causing the leak. The plumber pulled a new line (about 15') from the hole in the garage to the hole near the meter and used "Ford Couplings" to join the new copper to the older copper, which is 100% to code (unlike sweated copper elbows and galvanized unions).
Anyway, things were looking good until I noticed that the excavated holes were filling up with water. It's not coming from the repaired section and the amount of water is like 100x less than before, but it still gives me pause. You can see it here in this image: http://imgur.com/a/BbZz4
Water is weeping from the wood (pilings?) under the slab and filling the hole. Now this wood is under the drain tile which (I think) runs the perimeter of the foundation, so if water does come up through the ground, it should run into this drain tile and into the sump pump pit to be pumped out. However, I'm concerned that I'm seeing another, smaller leak from the remaining section of main supply line and not rain water. If there's another galvanized union in that line it might be on it's way out, and I'm going to be in the exact same position soon. I hesitate to refill the hole and patch the concrete until I can conclusively answer whether there's another leak.
Thoughts?
I had a leak in my main supply line from the water meter to my house. This is a rowhome where the walls are concrete block and houses are built wall to wall. The water line runs about 40' from the alley behind my house under the slab of the garage floor an into a small workshop in the basement where the main hose shutoff is located. I "discovered" the leak when I saw a river of water flowing out of the water meter at probably a gallon/minute. After a week of back and forth with the city, it was determined that the leak was on my side of the meter and thus my responsibility. I got a number of quotes for repairing it (including like $8k for pulling a whole new line) and settled on me doing the concrete sawing and excavation to expose the water line and a licensed plumber pulling a permit and replacing only a section of the main supply line.
I excavated two holes: one right at the meter, and the other maybe 10' into my garage (about 15' from the meter). The plumber pulled the old copper line (only 10 years old...
) and found a galvanized union between a short copper pigtail at the meter and the long run to the main shutoff. Needless to say this union had multiple large holes in it due to galvanic corrosion, which I thought was causing the leak. The plumber pulled a new line (about 15') from the hole in the garage to the hole near the meter and used "Ford Couplings" to join the new copper to the older copper, which is 100% to code (unlike sweated copper elbows and galvanized unions).Anyway, things were looking good until I noticed that the excavated holes were filling up with water. It's not coming from the repaired section and the amount of water is like 100x less than before, but it still gives me pause. You can see it here in this image: http://imgur.com/a/BbZz4
Water is weeping from the wood (pilings?) under the slab and filling the hole. Now this wood is under the drain tile which (I think) runs the perimeter of the foundation, so if water does come up through the ground, it should run into this drain tile and into the sump pump pit to be pumped out. However, I'm concerned that I'm seeing another, smaller leak from the remaining section of main supply line and not rain water. If there's another galvanized union in that line it might be on it's way out, and I'm going to be in the exact same position soon. I hesitate to refill the hole and patch the concrete until I can conclusively answer whether there's another leak.
Thoughts?
