Water
Either too much or not enough seems to be the standard. Bit of rain today just got the ground (that I had graded yesterday) damp. Not enough for mud, at least for now.
But back to the reason for this post. Last Friday (I think?) Steve G came over to borrow a laptop cable adaptor and after talking a bit at the yard sale trailer, we walked over to the qhut to get the adaptor. Cat detoured to get the mail. She handed me a letter from the Calhoun County Water Authority which I opened, to discover that we had used over 21,000 gal of water in the last month and as this is 4 to 5 times our usual they felt we might have a leak. Steve and I went out and started looking but didn’t find any obvious wet spots, so went on to the meter, to discover that it was in fact turning at about a gal a minute. I went down and cut off the line to the qhut and it quit turning. The 1/2 inch line runs inside a 3 inch pipe under the concrete floor and we didn’t have water in the floor inside so I figured it must be between the cutoff and the building where it entered the pipe. This left about 20 feet of line to unbrush, there being solid privit, sawbriars and blackberry vines over where the line went. Steve (being the bright person he is) swiftly exited stage north to attack problems of his own, while I went in search of tools of mass destruction.
Got the yellow toyoto (farm truck/tool hauler) from the yard sale trailer and drove back to the qhut (over a block) and proceded to cut at said saw briars, blackberry vines, privit, honey suckle, and assorted small trees of various kinds until I could see the ground. This also required moving an old refrigerator that I use for storage, assorted engine parts, and pieces of lawn mower and rock. But I perservered and upon locating ground started clearing the surface of leaves and assorted vines. Once I could see the actual dirt it did look wetter than elsewhere along the road. Took a shovel and locating the dampest looking spot dug in. First shovel full of dirt out and water started filling the hole. Another 2 and it was spraying out. Cut the valve off at that point and continued digging to expose the pipe. Only about a foot deep so no biggie. The crack was in the flair or curve at the first connection from the valve. 1/2 inch pvc schedule 40 (I think). Crach was only about 3/8 inch long. Stress crack from the look of it. We had a tree fall in the area of the valves during the last major storm so may have started it then.
Anyway the problem is to stop the leak. Went to the barn and looked in the usual places but was unable to locate either any fittings or any undried pvc glue. So cut a piece of heater hose about an inch long and found a screw type hose clamp and split the heater hose, wrapped it around the cracked area and put the hose clamp on and started tightening until it quit dripping. This is with the water still off at the valve but still coming back down line from that left in the pipes. Then another turn on the screw to set it and turned the water back on. No leak!
Now, several days later, the hole in the ground is still there, waiting for me to get the stuff to fix it for real, but the crack still ain’t leaking. Love the primitive repair!
Themocracy
Glad that:
A. It didn’t take long to find/fix the leak.
B. You didn’t really need me to do it.
Smart Steve of the North
Seriously, glad the leak is stopped. Having lived in a double-wide trailer for more years than I care to add up at the moment (not any more, thank God! Paying a mortgage beats living in a double-wide. MANY things beat living in a double-wide….) I know all too well from many personal experiances just what a PITA a water leak can be. Even got a little jolt from lightning while working on one once…….life can be strange…