So just a quick background. I live in a 1969 house, and I seem to have a water leak somewhere. I know since with all the water off, looking at the meter, I'm still using roughly 1 cubic foot of water every 25 minutes. Which means I'm loosing well over a gallon every 5 minutes. Right now I'm pretty sure that it must be outside in the main line, since I've crawled under the whole crawlspace, tracing all the pipes, and didn't see any sort of signs of a leak. The crawlspace is dry. If the leak was inside, I'm pretty sure being it leaks more than a gallon every 5 minutes that it would be very noticeable. The water company says the water has over 50 PSI, so I'm pretty sure it would be noticeable. I also leak tested the toilots, and they are not leaking. So that leads me to believe it has got to be outside somewhere, however after an entire day of digging all over the place, exposing the main line in various places, I still don't even see the slightest traces of a leak, so I was thinking it might be good to just try and double check. I know I can turn off the main shutoff valve to the house, and that would let me indeed know if it was on the main line, but theres the problem. The main shutoff valve is very old, looks like its probably the original 1969. I've dug down to expose it, its about 2 feet down, and it has a square rod that sticks all the way up out of the ground. I was advised by a couple people that turning it likely would cause it to leak. Despite that I figured I'd give it a try, I clamped some vice grips on it and gave it about medium force both directions, but it didn't want to budge, so I'm afraid to try any harder. I was wondering if it would be a good idea since I've got everything mostly dug up anyways to either replace it, or just leave it be and put another one next to it? I can shut off the water at the meter to perform the work, and that way I'd have a working shutoff valve to isolate the house from the yard, but the problem is I don't know how difficult it would be. The pipes in the house are copper, and the underground pipe seems to be black plastic (not sure if its pvc or something else), and the shutoff valve that is there seems like its probably galvanized or some sort of metal. I've worked with pvc and other types of plumbing pipes before, but the biggest thing that confuses me is this. Normally with pipes you need to have some leeway for them to move each way. Either your slipping the ends of pvc into a coupler, or screwing into a coupler or whatever. But if your just presented with a part that is undergroudn just exposed in a hole. Neither end will be able to move away from each other to give room to slip your coupler or whatever sort of thing on? Same type of question, I had talked to a guy at a leak detection company (I might hire one, they are just way too expensive, trying to solve it myself), and he said an option to test it could be if I found the middle of the main line, I could cut it and put a cap on, to help isolate which side of the pipe it was on. But how could I possibly cut a pipe and cap it, and then put them back together again when both sides are underground, and there is no room to pull them apart to fit on a coupler? Thanks. Just an update since some people are confused. The main valve is different than the meter. there are about 40 feet between the meter and where the pipe enters the house, where the stuck main valve is located. I'm pretty sure the leak is in those 40 feet but I need to know the best way to replace, or add another main shutoff valve? I don't see how you can add a valve to an underground pipe without having to seperate the two halves.
No comments:
Post a Comment