LONG Water Line Question

[midlf]

consider yourself lucky. Around here water lines are buried in excess of 4' deep.

 

[ByronBob]

Don forgive me but why didn't you go with a roll of polyethylene line with maybe 1 splice in it?

 

[memenzel]

My line is the same pipe 2" sdr-21. 6000 feet from meter to my house. Recieved water bill Jan 8 ,used 2.4 million gallons!!! A leak for sure, 20 gallon per minute for two months. Took two days to find leak due to extreme digging conditions. What I did was cut the line and installed a temporary valve, pressurize the line. Then you will know what side of the valve the leak is on. Remove the valve, put a block of wood on cut end of line and hit it with a hammer. This will tightened up any loose joints. In the last 17 years I have added 4 feet to my line. Use 2 repair couplings and a piece of pipe to fill the gap. Repessurize the line and see what happens.

Mike

 

[woodchuckie]

I laid almost a mile of 2" pipe. Because my supplier didn't have enough of either kind, the glue joint and the gasket type, I have half of each. I've had one leak in over twenty years and it was a glue joint. It probably had set up too much preventing me from pushing the joints far enough together. The dirt on the pipe keeps it from working apart. It will come apart without the dirt.

 

[3RRL]

DUMBDOG,
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( It will be in the last place that you look....Guess it did not make a lot sense to me then or now.)</font>
....There's no reason to continue looking once you found it. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Moms are always smarter than kids...

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Don, the fact that we had a decent shower last saturday is not helping look for "wet" dirt. My waterline is about 600 feet long with the same type of pipe used. I originally watched the meter a few times to see how much it moved. It seemed to coincide with demand and I haven't checked it since.

I recommend 2 ways to look at/for it.
1)Wait for the ground to dry out 1st to help look for it. Which, if it doesn't dry up(due to rain), you can singlehandedly claim responsibility for ending the drought.
2) At least you got the sendero cleared out!

I'd be afraid of hitting the pipe with the sharpshooter and creating another leak with my luck.

I'd put a backflow preventer in place close to the meter, then give it some time so you can collect some data on total usage.

If it is leaking in the black gumbo dirt, you'll have a mud puddle because water doesn't penetrate gumbo hardly at all. You'll have a mud puddle as wide as the trench and it will try to fill the trench in both directions.

PS. I can see why you'd want to clear up this matter before the real heat sets in...good luck...Kyle

 

[turnkey4099]

Ah so. I knew about their use on large water mains. Didn't know they existed for small diameter pipe.

Harry K

 

[turnkey4099]

Or you can do what I did. I bought this place in the spring and in middle summer the 1/4 mile line to the community well sprung a leak. I trenched and laid a new line bypassing all but 150 ft. Glad I did as about 5 or 6 years later that section also sprung a leak. In digging it up and replacing it I found that it was galvanized so eaten up with corrosion you could shove a nail through it. I figured it was lot easier to replace the line than to dig looking for a leak.

Harry K

 

[txdon]

Egon, this looks like a good place for a midpoint cut off valve.

Don't ask. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

At least I had water back on by midnight.

I'm tired.

Thanks everyone for all the good suggestions, I'll re-read them again tomorrow and decide which way to proceed.

 

[Egon]

Good to hear you are making progress. That sure is a nice looking machine you have sitting there. My Litlle orange B7100 is thinking it needs a Big Brother!

If the sizing and volume capabilities are in the proper range you could pull a linner pipe.

Egon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[jinman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">(
Some people pay money to a gym to get the kind of workout I'm getting. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif )</font>

Call it an "Exer-Shovel" and sell it on ebay as the next get-fit-quick craze. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[mikim]

Wish I could be there to give you a hand ......BUT I AIN'T RETIRED YET! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif good luck ...we'll be up this weekend - gotta clear a spot we picked out for a well....driller plans on doing it by end of month...... ~500 ft and $10K /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[EddieWalker]

Don,

I'm really suprised that you haven't found any wet spots with a steady leak like you have. I heard of stories of leaks running into gopher lines, but those are just stories.

I'm wondering about those 3/4 inch valves you have along your 2 inch main. What type of valves are they? PVC ball valves? Those are the worse. Are they brass gate valves? These are the best, but they have pipe threads on them that might be leaking.

I'd check those valves to be sure they are actually closed. Then I'd look at the valve itself to see if they are dry. Some valves will leak out the stem. Next step would be the T that comes off the 2 inch line. Is it glued in, or did you put a sleeve over it and tap it? My guess is glue since it's easier and cheaper on a new line. What type of glue was used? My water company only allowes clear glue with purple primer. Any other type has been known to fail according to them.

Sounds like you're enjoying your retirement!!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Eddie

 

[cowboydoc]

I know things are different in different places of the country but why wouldn't a water line that long just be run with heavy duty pvc 1" pipe that comes in 300 - 1000' sections instead of numerous joints like that? We have water lines that are 30 years old like that. They have never gotten a leak. When there are problems you know exactly where to look as there are usually only a couple of joints. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[txdon]

Woooo Hooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Found it....

...not by accident but with an accident, Mom was totally wrong! got to fix it by sunset. I will post with details and pictures tonight!

 

[PSDStu]

Way to go TXDon!

I know you will be glad to get this repair over with!

Can't wait to hear the details!

 

[txdon]

Thanks TBN members! All the advice and thoughts you have given me have been going through may head as I was trying to find the leak. I checked about 50 slip connections starting with the ones closest to the cabin. This was the sandy hilly area with a slight turn and a tree and some rocks. Since there was a leak here 2 months ago it seemed the logical place to start.

I got down the first hill and saw all the connection, including the first slip joint past the cutoff box I had repaired 2 months ago, had not moved. I then thought it would be where the soil change and the beach sand becomes black gumbo. After the second hole in the hard hard black gumbo/red clay the wife told me to hook up the back hole or we would never finish.

Well On the fourth hole the last hole of the day on the last scoop of the day, just to clear out the hole, and not dig any deeper, I heard the wife scream.

Water came bubbling out of the hole. It was 7 PM. All the local stores were closed. Darn Darn Darn... I was cussing all the way to the front gate to turn off the water and all the way to the the hill to tun off the water at the cabin. See attachment for the damage I did to the water main. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[txdon]

It was about 10 PM when we got back from the closest Home Depot with a temporary union to install. (The cut off valve would have to be installed in the daylight.) As I was standing in knee high water bailing out the hole by flashlight I thought about what Jim said about liking the night sky. I looked up and saw the stars on this moonless night and then coyotes started yelping in the distant and I thought this is almost as bad as country life get and it is not too bad. In fact I kind of enjoyed the experience. At least it was 69 degrees and not 39 degrees. The wife and I flushed out the lines and I installed the union and stopped the leak by midnight. See Attachment.

 

[txdon]

When I cut off the water by the cabin, right after the backhoe incident, I heard a sucking gurgling sound. I moved some of the gravel from the connection and did not see anything and thought nothing of it at the time. When I woke up this morning I remembered that sound and went to investigate the connection at the cabin and this is what I found.

 

[txdon]

The area around the connection was filled with water and I could see the water moving from the pressure of the leak.

During the last 4 days this connection box lid has been open and I have walked by and inspected it many times. It was the FIRST place I checked. The box is on a high spot on the hill with about 3" of pea gravel over sand so the box appeared dry until I moved the gravel the night before when I cut my main with the BH.

The accident caused me to discover the leak.

After closely inspecting the GLUED joint I found only about 1/4 of the glue was actually holding the pipe together and when I started moving the box I had a major leak. The box was holding the joint together.