Repairing a PVC pipe submerged under water

[bcp]

Cut the pipe on dry land, pull it out of the water to find and fix the leak, then put it back.

Bruce

 

[plowhog]

Well, I will confess I succumbed to doing an ugly, but effective, repair.

I found the gate valve is leaking-- no surprise given it is decades old and rarely used. There are rocks and cattails under the immediate area where the gate valve is. So it didn't look like much fun to try to dig down far enough to remove it and replace it.

But .... drum roll .... the gate valve is threaded onto the PVC. The other side had nothing attached to it. So I threaded a PVC male adapter onto the outlet side of it, then added a few bushings or reducers, and finally threaded on a regular hose bib. Once I closed the hose bib-- no more leak. Ahhh.

Obviously I compromised the flow rate by reducing the pipe size. But since it is just a drain -- used only once per year --- compared to the other options -- I'll take it!

 

[Diggin It]

So, this is temporary and you'll be replacing the bigger valve?

 

[plowhog]

Likely. I only use this drain once per year at the end of the irrigation season-- which is now. But, I hope to draw the pond down next Spring to remove some accumulated silt. If I do that, I will replace it with a new (ball) valve.

 

[D2Cat]

When you get back to it to replace the valve you can use one of these PVC compression fittings. Cut the existing PVC ahead of the valve and eliminate all that. Just put the compression coupling on, add any thing else you need like additional pipe, valve, etc. You simply tighten both ends onto the rubber bushing inside.

PVCC2 - Bluefin PVCC2 - 2" PVC Compression Coupling