ampsucker
Platinum Member
well, not a week after finishing up the first phase of our foundation drain at mom's house, the main well pipe between the pump house and the main house started leaking. i knew in the back of my mind that it was gonna go soon. everytime i've exposed it for working on something it has been very rusty looking and i was dreading the project. that was before the kubota entered the picture, though!
this time, i dived right in. the line was old, 1" galvanized pipe that had been in place about 40 or so years. it served us well (pun intended, i suppose) but it's time was up. the pipe ran diagonally between the pump house and entered the main house below grade about 18". about midway, it had been T-d off to put in a hydrant and then the T was spliced in to serve several other buildings and yard hydrants over the years.
instead of replacing the old pipe which would have required hand digging under a second floor deck and steps, i decided to just cut it at each end and at the T, then dig a new trench and put in new 1.25" line in the new trench avoiding the deck area.
the plan worked out pretty good. the main problem i ran into was hitting shelf rock. i knew it was there but was hoping to keep everything at least below 15" deep to avoid problems if we have an extra cold winter here and there. normally, we are really safe at that depth here in zone 6/7 border. there was one section about 5 feet long that i couldn't get deep enough. my choice was either to add extra top soil to get my depth, or break up the rock. i didn't particularly want a berm in that section of yard, so my BIL and i went to work with a good hammer drill and chisel and busted up a trough for the line to lay in. that got me my 15". then, just to be safe, i laid 1.5" EPS blue foam board in on top of the line before back filling to get a little extra insulation.
while we had it all apart, i added a spin down filter in the pump house to catch any sand or other sediment coming from the well. this is sometimes a problem in the summer when we do heavy watering and the pump drains the well down to the bottom and spins things up. normally, not a big deal, but i figured what the heck, it was all apart anyway.
so, enjoy the pics. it's a pretty easy home repair project for the do-it-yourselfer if you have some confidence. i considered calling a plumber to have them lay in the fancy new thermally welded seamless pipe, but decided to go with pvc after considering the cost plus the ease with which i could repair a pvc leak myself if it ever does leak again. i hate putting in things i can't work on myself without a lot of special tools.
i'll be filling in the rest of the trench next week. it was supposed to rain and i wanted the dirt to settle around the pipe before i completely filled in the hole.
this time, i dived right in. the line was old, 1" galvanized pipe that had been in place about 40 or so years. it served us well (pun intended, i suppose) but it's time was up. the pipe ran diagonally between the pump house and entered the main house below grade about 18". about midway, it had been T-d off to put in a hydrant and then the T was spliced in to serve several other buildings and yard hydrants over the years.
instead of replacing the old pipe which would have required hand digging under a second floor deck and steps, i decided to just cut it at each end and at the T, then dig a new trench and put in new 1.25" line in the new trench avoiding the deck area.
the plan worked out pretty good. the main problem i ran into was hitting shelf rock. i knew it was there but was hoping to keep everything at least below 15" deep to avoid problems if we have an extra cold winter here and there. normally, we are really safe at that depth here in zone 6/7 border. there was one section about 5 feet long that i couldn't get deep enough. my choice was either to add extra top soil to get my depth, or break up the rock. i didn't particularly want a berm in that section of yard, so my BIL and i went to work with a good hammer drill and chisel and busted up a trough for the line to lay in. that got me my 15". then, just to be safe, i laid 1.5" EPS blue foam board in on top of the line before back filling to get a little extra insulation.
while we had it all apart, i added a spin down filter in the pump house to catch any sand or other sediment coming from the well. this is sometimes a problem in the summer when we do heavy watering and the pump drains the well down to the bottom and spins things up. normally, not a big deal, but i figured what the heck, it was all apart anyway.
so, enjoy the pics. it's a pretty easy home repair project for the do-it-yourselfer if you have some confidence. i considered calling a plumber to have them lay in the fancy new thermally welded seamless pipe, but decided to go with pvc after considering the cost plus the ease with which i could repair a pvc leak myself if it ever does leak again. i hate putting in things i can't work on myself without a lot of special tools.
i'll be filling in the rest of the trench next week. it was supposed to rain and i wanted the dirt to settle around the pipe before i completely filled in the hole.
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