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Dottleshead

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1 minute ago, wilbur said:

Pro tip..  Look for the wet spot, dig there.  :) 

My husband repaired our sewer line, after it cracked.  He put a collar on it, and hooked us back up.  Poor guy.  Sounded like an awful job.  We had some plumbers out digging in the wrong spots, standing on shovels complaining about how hard the digging was.  They said it would be thousands to run a new line from the street through the sidewalk and up to the house.  My man fired them and told them all to leave.  He then repaired it with an inexpensive collar.  Works fine now.  My man knows how to dig.  He had it fixed in about a day.

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39 minutes ago, Dottie said:

Looks like I get to call a plumber to locate my water leak in my yard. There goes $$$ of buckaroos. My line from the meter to the house is leaking. Thousands before all this is done. My water bill continues to rise. $250 last month. 

You'd think, living in Washington state, that a rain-fed cistern would be your best and cheapest option.  That deck you built surely could have supported a heckuva cistern!

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6 minutes ago, Dottie said:

It's an old house and naturally most are saying I should replace the line. Enter the world of shiesters.

Our house was built in 1923, but there is no way I would have found a plumber to patch the line, the way we did.  There is no money in that.  

They wanted to bulldoze the front of my yard, tear out the sidewalk, and replace the line for 3 grand. My husband literally fixed it for about a hundred bucks and a lost fay from work due to digging and installing the sleeve.

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Plumbing trouble?  

 

Welcome to the freaking club.  Serve Pro will be here in just a bit (at dinner time no doubt) to analyze the situation for water damage mitigation (mold, wood damage etc.)  At least the insurance company is on that mucho quick.  As to the actual pipe repair........I'm not so sure as they may reject it as "old" and "regular repair". as if one can check on pipes inside a wall void.

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8 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

Dig up the leak and repair it, you’re good at digging. Examine the line while repairing it and decide if you need to replace it in the not too distant future.

I know where the line comes in from the street but I have no idea where it is in the yard.  I was on the phone with the county for about an hour switching to 6 different departments before I finally reached one that said they don't have records of it on my property if the house was built before 1980.  I did get my septic tank's original schematic but it's a joke.  I mean a joke.  It's impossible to identify where the eff the tank is.  And it's got dashes throughout the property which mean nothing to me.  So the problem is it could be under my house for all I know.

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Just now, Longjohn said:

I don’t know how much city water costs but $250 worth has to leave a wet spot. I fixed many a water leak when I was the maintenance supervisor at the retreat center. It helps if you have a backhoe. A home waterline shouldn’t be too deep.

It's Seattle, In fall.  Everything is wet.

I am in the desert and my ground is all saturated right now and I have not watered.  

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11 minutes ago, Dottie said:

I know where the line comes in from the street but I have no idea where it is in the yard.  I was on the phone with the county for about an hour switching to 6 different departments before I finally reached one that said they don't have records of it on my property if the house was built before 1980.  I did get my septic tank's original schematic but it's a joke.  I mean a joke.  It's impossible to identify where the eff the tank is.  And it's got dashes throughout the property which mean nothing to me.  So the problem is it could be under my house for all I know.

My husband just started at the house main and dug, until he found it.  Sadly, the break was almost at the street, so lots of digging.  He is a good digger.

We were happy that the breach didn't happen under the sidewalk.  $$$$$

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2 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

The only place I ever lived with city water was my dad’s house. His meter was at the house. If it leaked anywhere before the meter it was not our problem. We never had a leak.

The way it works from what I understand is that if the problem is past the curb, it's you, outside the curb, that is city.

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1 minute ago, Longjohn said:

I try to avoid city water. I don’t consider it safe.

Wells can be unsafe too.  Do you test your water periodically?  Arsenic comes to mind with wells.

I am quite pleased with the quality of our water.  We are quite lucky, but I don't know where you are at.  Best city water I ever had was SF water dist.  Their water is straight out of Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite park.

Some areas of the country are not so lucky though.  I heard things about Flint and other areas of the country that is near lots of industrial.

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I already spent $800 on Saturday to have a new main shut off valve installed in my home as the last one was buried in plaster and impossible to reach behind the hot water tank. With the house water shut off, the meter kept flying. I had the county redig my yard where they displaced the meter up to the street. No leaks. So the leak unquestionably is between the meter and my house. Only problem is nobody knows where it is... though I think it's wrapped around my house or worse underneath. My backyard has gotten really soft in places. If that's the area then it's flooding underneath the house or some dumb mofo wrapped it around the house. Either way it's a money pit.

 

One guy wants $750 just for leak detection. 

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41 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

I don’t know how much city water costs but $250 worth has to leave a wet spot. I fixed many a water leak when I was the maintenance supervisor at the retreat center. It helps if you have a backhoe. A home waterline shouldn’t be too deep.

I can't get a backhoe in my yard. And I saw the depth of where it came from the street. About 3 feet.

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20 minutes ago, Longjohn said:

I try to avoid city water. I don’t consider it safe.

 

16 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

Wells can be unsafe too.  Do you test your water periodically?  Arsenic comes to mind with wells.

I am quite pleased with the quality of our water.  We are quite lucky, but I don't know where you are at.  Best city water I ever had was SF water dist.  Their water is straight out of Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite park.

Some areas of the country are not so lucky though.  I heard things about Flint and other areas of the country that is near lots of industrial.

We have some of the best, purist drinking water in the states. If I lived in PA, I would understand John's concerns.

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17 minutes ago, Dirtyhip said:

I am super bummed about your house stress.  Expenses like these are so exhausting.  Sorry.  ?.  

Thank you so much, DH.  We just invested a bunch of money in other areas and I was not expecting this.  My line is 3 feet deep and nobody knows where it comes in at.  My guess is it comes in under the house or wraps around the back. And they can't get a backhoe in here as my house actually is below the street.  Off the top, it's going to be at least $3k best case scenario but realistically probably around $6K and worst case even more.

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7 minutes ago, Dottie said:

Thank you so much, DH.  We just invested a bunch of money in other areas and I was not expecting this.  My line is 3 feet deep and nobody knows where it comes in at.  My guess is it comes in under the house or wraps around the back. And they can't get a backhoe in here as my house actually is below the street.  Off the top, it's going to be at least $3k best case scenario but realistically probably around $6K and worst case even more.

This crap is never expected.  

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Have you ruled out “under the platform” as the approach of the waterline to the house? Because it would seem fitting for the pipe to chose to break just under your new construction.

Does anyone pay for the water/sewage line insurance offered by the water company? That pays for any repair from the main all the way to your house? We had a HUGE water main break nearby on Friday which left us with water boil advisory all weekend. Making me reconsider the age of all the pipes nearby and if the insurance may be a good idea. Although my house was built in the mid to late 1980’s. Lots of much older construction in the area.

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16 minutes ago, Prophet Zacharia said:

Have you ruled out “under the platform” as the approach of the waterline to the house? Because it would seem fitting for the pipe to chose to break just under your new construction.

Does anyone pay for the water/sewage line insurance offered by the water company? That pays for any repair from the main all the way to your house? We had a HUGE water main break nearby on Friday which left us with water boil advisory all weekend. Making me reconsider the age of all the pipes nearby and if the insurance may be a good idea. Although my house was built in the mid to late 1980’s. Lots of much older construction in the area.

My plan is to get that right before it breaks. 

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1 hour ago, Dottie said:

Well this is going to set me back at least a year or more financially. Probably two.

I'd swing you a low interest loan, but I've read enough "interesting" stuff by (and about) you here that it wouldn't be a wise thing to do.

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1 hour ago, Razors Edge said:

I'd swing you a low interest loan, but I've read enough "interesting" stuff by (and about) you here that it wouldn't be a wise thing to do.

Such as?  I bought a nice shed.  You could argue the base of that shed was about $800 more than what it was supposed to be.  If you question anything else -- my pit stops at coffee shops for example -- then let me remind you I don't buy or drink beer and/or any other alcohol.  I'll bet you spend more on that than I do a week on coffees.  In fact, based on what I've read on these forum walls -- a lot of folks here easily top my coffee expenses.  

 

Hmmmm... come to think of it... I don't think it'd be wise to take a loan from you.

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1 hour ago, Razors Edge said:

I'd swing you a low interest loan, but I've read enough "interesting" stuff by (and about) you here that it wouldn't be a wise thing to do.

 

15 minutes ago, Dottie said:

Such as?  I bought a nice shed.  You could argue the base of that shed was about $800 more than what it was supposed to be.  If you question anything else -- my pit stops at coffee shops for example -- then let me remind you I don't buy or drink beer and/or any other alcohol.  I'll bet you spend more on that than I do a week on coffees.  In fact, based on what I've read on these forum walls -- a lot of folks here easily top my coffee lists.  

 

Hmmmm... come to think of it... I don't think it'd be wise to take a loan from you.

You smart man.  Not take loan from stranger when your friend Jon can take care of your cash trouble quick yes.  Please you contact Jon your friendly IT guy and I will fix everything.  I do deposit from here right into your bank.  Send number and how much an I fix.

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2 minutes ago, Jon KITguy said:

You smart man.  Not take loan from stranger when your friend Jon can take care of your cash trouble quick yes.  Please you contact Jon your friendly IT guy and I will fix everything.  I do deposit from here right into your bank.  Send number and how much an I fix.

Are you cheaper than these Microsoft clowns?

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Find some old retired guy who used to do this sort of work and still has some equipment. He'll know what he's doing, and he won't charge you an arm and a leg. And it will get done ASAP. This is how we replaced our water line from the alley to the house when we bought this house. I held up a 6' piece of the old pipe and tried to look through it at the sun.  It was so plugged, I couldn't see the sun!

Good luck, @Dottie. This sort of thing sure takes the wind out of our sails, eh?

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On 9/23/2019 at 3:47 PM, Dirtyhip said:

My husband repaired our sewer line, after it cracked.  He put a collar on it, and hooked us back up.  Poor guy.  Sounded like an awful job.  We had some plumbers out digging in the wrong spots, standing on shovels complaining about how hard the digging was.  They said it would be thousands to run a new line from the street through the sidewalk and up to the house.  My man fired them and told them all to leave.  He then repaired it with an inexpensive collar.  Works fine now.  My man knows how to dig.  He had it fixed in about a day.

You can get away with that on sewer lines because it's not under pressure.  Water lines are a little more difficult, though not much.  Probably a plastic water line, just cut out the bad section and splice in a new, make sure you use the right clamps, tighten everything backup and call it a day.  The hardest part is convincing one of the several I know, that I need to burrow their backhoe and get them to bring it down for me.

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On 9/24/2019 at 12:56 PM, Dottie said:

1971 and the county's response is I have 'old' pipes. 

UGH!!!  You probably have old galvanized steel pipe ran the entire way.  That sucks as you are probably talking all new pipe from the meter to the house.  I redid my parents (well to the house) lots of digging and pipe laying.  What a PITA!!!

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