Found water main!

[fishman]

Well, I needed to put up a better fence around my garden to keep the resident army of deer at bay. One problem, the water line was an "unkown". Where was it? The utility company didn't know because it was put in when the utility was owned by another company (all of 4 years ago). The easement showed it coming in from the corner, but that didn't seem logical, as the water meter was at the bottom of my drive. At least the electrical and phone were on a pole.

First hole was at the corner of the garden. My brother-in-law from NC was helping me (you see where this is going). Wife's sister is there, daughter, son, dog. Everybody going to watch the fence posts go in. Start drilling with the digger I bought from Centex (thanks! works great). Digging fine, when all of the sudden "snap" the shear bolt goes and water starts welling up out of the ground like I struck oil! Run down to the water meter. . . whoops need a screwdriver to get in. Run back to the house, and run back. Pop the cover and the meter is buried! Run get a shovel. Notice sister-in-law filming me, the water running around my tractor, dog getting a drink. Mental note to keep cussing to a minimum. Go back and dig, dig, dig. Finally find shutoff and the flood stops.

Move tractor and assess the situation. Not that bad, just a broken pvc pipe. So I replace the shear bolt in the digger, we dig the rest of the holes, and then head to the hardware store. Along the way brother-in-law and I discuss the intelligence of the guy that buried the water line 12" below the surface. I also ponder his parentage at length.

But happy day. End result, pipe repaired and posts set by noon. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Would have posted this in the picture forum, but the wife was too busy laughing to get any /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[Dozernut]

That sounds like my kind of luck! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif Don't you hate it when mr. Murphy rides shotgun! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[Bird]

Sounds like a great day, John. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif When I was on the board of directors for our water company, we had a guy who made an appointment to come appeal his case to the board. He had been billed for the repairs to a water main (not his own line) because he drilled into the water main with his post hole auger and had not called to have the water line marked. It turned out that he didn't call because he wasn't building new fence; he had a fence post rot out and he was replacing it with a new post in the same hole, but since the old post was only in the ground 2', he decided to set the new one in exactly the same spot, but deeper. The water main was about 26" deep. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif Under the circumstances, we let him off without paying for the repairs. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[cowboydoc]

12" deep??? My gosh that wouldn't last past October around here before it was froze up!! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Bird]

That's 'cause you're too far north, Richard. I found that none of my water lines were deeper than 12" on the little farm we had, and never had anything freeze. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif I suspect 4" would have been safe. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Boondox]

Hooray for the sister-in-law! That footage will bring laughs in your family for years to come! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Pete

 

[jsnitz]

No - you don't want those water lines only 4" deep. That is about what we had where I grew up in Arizona - spent half the year geting hot water from both spigots!! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Bird]

/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gifI can imagine.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

<font color="blue"> Under the circumstances, we let him off without paying for the repairs.</font>

That almost sounds like my experience in Celina, TX. I put my gate posts at least six (6) feet deep when I can. The folks had a fire and when they moved back in the moving van crunched the overhead pipe and gate posts. I got the job of repairing my own work, never fun.

The posts and overhead were four inch pipe in an eight inch hole six plus feet deep. Not a problem. I have found over the years that the easiest way to pull old posts is to dig a hole next to it. Then you just pull it over into the new hole and lift it out.

At three feet I severed a four inch PVC main. It was in the late afternoon, stuff never happens in the morning when folks are at work, and of course the water company's closest cut off was a mile a way. We'd taken out the whole subdivision plus and it was like a Friday evening. When we got it all exposed it was evident that in the original hole I'd missed the line by fractions of a fraction of an inch.

They didn't charge me because their marker flags from the original locate on the fence was still in place and was off just a little bit. I also suspect that me being in the pit as the hardest working and muddiest soul around helped.

BTW in Texas gawd alone knows where the right of way for the water lines are. Just because you're digging fence posts in your garden behind the house and over the hill from the road doesn't mean there couldn't be a water main around. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Texas gawd alone knows where the right of way for the water lines are )</font>

That's a fact! Most folks just wouldn't believe some of the things they've done. The area I lived in didn't have a water system until 1970 and when they initially built the system, they just ran water "mains", in some cases actually 1" PVC although 2" in most places, across pastures, through yards, etc. The 2" one that ran across my yard and between the house and shop building was 2' deep, but I found some places where pastures had eroded and the "mains" were actually exposed on the surface. And in many cases, they didn't keep their maps very well up to date either. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif