How To Repair Poly Pipe Underground

Ethan

Nosotros're back with our next Pro-Follow, and this ane hits close to home. If you entered Fred'due south Husky Tool Tote Giveaway, you probably read the brief update at the end where he shares that today's Pro-Follow comes to yous from my business firm.

Before this month, Jocie and I noticed that our h2o bill was significantly higher than usual.

Seeing nothing amiss in our home, we called the utility company expecting there had been a clerical error or perhaps a malfunctioning water meter. Instead, they suggested we might have an clandestine leak between our firm and the meter, and they were right. I called a plumber I trust, and this article explains how he and his coiffure repaired the underground leak.

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Steps to Repair a Cleaved, Underground Pipe

The plumbers presented 2 strategies for fixing the leak. One approach would be to supervene upon the entire length of copper piping between my house and the meter past securing a cable at 1 finish and pulling the one-time pipe and a new 1 (attached at the other end) through the ground. This would require minimal digging and less labor; nonetheless, copper is expensive and this solution would exist too. I opted for the second approach, which was to dig down to the pipage at the leak location and replace a minor department of the pipage.

Pro-Tip: On newer construction, you may meet black, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe in lieu of copper, considering it is less expensive.

Pro-Tip: Copper water pipe has an expected lifespan of 50-sixty years.

Step i: Have All Undercover Utilities Marked

Upon closer inspection of my yard, the general location of the leak was pretty obvious because of the mud, but before work could offset, the plumbers needed all the undercover lines located. Hither in Maryland, we call Miss Utility before every dig. An Emergency Excavation Notice was filed, and inside a few hours, all hush-hush communications, gas, and power were marked.

Step 2: Turn off Water at the Chief on the Street

First, they needed to turn off the water supply at the meter found at the sidewalk. This picture shows the meter, which has been completely submerged past the leak. Judging by how fast the meter was moving, the leak was sizable.

[See as well: How to Plough off the Water at the Street]

Step 3: Hand Dig Down to the Leak Location

Unfortunately, power, water and communications all enter my house at well-nigh the aforementioned point (correct effectually the leak), which meant that they needed to dig very slowly and advisedly to avert damaging anything.

Pro-Tip: Communication lines similar telephone and cablevision service are unremarkably found within 24″ of the surface. Water supply lines are typically buried 36-42″ deep, or deeper if yous live in an extremely cold climate.

Pro-Tip: When excavation, orient your shovel along the buried line (rather than across) until it has been fully exposed. Y'all're much less probable to inadvertently crusade damage. It should get without saying: never use mechanical tools to dig virtually underground utilities.

In time, they plant blackness ability lines, and they excavated around them to provide adequate clearance.

Step 4: Pinpoint the Location of the Leak

The plumbers would turn on the h2o supply for brief moments to help determine the location of the leak.

Eventually, they found the water line within a PVC sleeve. Builders would often run h2o supply lines through a brusque segment of PVC as information technology passed through the foundation, so it was odd that we should find the sleeve extended nearly 7′ away from the firm. Upon turning on the water supply, information technology was found that the leak occurred somewhere inside this PVC sleeve.

Pro-Tip: While non the instance in this habitation, in the belatedly 80s builders oftentimes used a textile called polybutylene for water piping. This textile was once idea of as "the pipe of the time to come" because information technology was flexible, easy to work with, and cheap. Unfortunately, the lifespan of polybutylene turned out to be relatively short (xv years). One repair method for failed polybutylene pipe is to run copper piping through the polybutylene. If y'all run into a leak in an secret supply piping that looks like PVC, and your house was in the 80s, yous should be aware of this potential situation.

Step 5: Cut Abroad and Remove the Old Pipe, Install the New Pipe

This shut to the house, they adamant it would exist all-time to replace an viii′ department going all the way inside. They cut the pipe just before the PVC sleeve, and nosotros headed inside to cutting and remove the erstwhile pipe.

The crew attempted to push a new piece of copper pipe through the hole and PVC sleeve, simply it would non go. To feed the new line, they snaked a cable through the PVC sleeve. The plan was to solder a softer, more flexible copper pipe onto the cable and pull it through (much like the alternative approach I shared at the beginning.)

Here's a picture of the new 3/four″, M copper supply line.

Pro-Talk: Copper pipe wall thickness is designated by letter K, Fifty or G. Type K copper piping is much thicker than L or Grand. Type L is the 2nd thickest.

They soldered the piping to a coupling fitted on the cable, and setup a winch exterior to pull the pipage through.

Pro-Tip: See our full tutorial to learn how to solder copper piping.

When everything was prepare, the crew began pulling the pipe through, and it really dislodged the PVC sleeve. If you look closely at the movie below, you'll meet a sharp curve in the PVC. The plumbers are not sure how that occurred, only that is definitely the reason why they could not feed the replacement pipe through by hand.

Pace half dozen: Make Connections with the Existing Pipe

Stride 6a: Outdoor Joints

A solder joint isn't appropriate for a buried line, then instead they used a pack-joint coupling to connect the new pipe to the existing supply line in the ground outside. Unfortunately, I don't take a moving picture of this step, but yous tin Google for pack-joint coupling and discover a skillful amount of information on it. Adjacent, they turned on the water to flush out any dirt or debris.

Step 6b: Indoor Joints

Next, the coiffure went about connecting the new line inside my house, which involved simple copper soldering. If you're curious near that fitting in the middle, it's a pinch fitting called a SharkBite. When they installed the new, 90° elbows, one of the joints wasn't properly soldered. When they turned on the water, a modest pin-hole leak was evident. Unfortunately, it's impossible solder a pipe when it's total of h2o. To address this, they cutting the pipe in the middle, tuckered the water, re-soldered the elbow then used a SharkBite (which doesn't require soldering) to repair the cut. In Maryland, SharkBite fittings are fully code-compliant for indoor use.

Pace 7: Seal upward the Pipe Archway Points into the Firm to Preclude Leaks

Hither's a closeup showing where the pipe enters my business firm. You can see the plumbers placed a new PVC sleeve that extends a few inches beyond the foundation, and they used a clear, silicone sealant to fill the space around the copper pipe. They as well used a hydraulic cement to repair the expanse around the PVC sleeve.