No updates today …. Sunday evening we were watching some TV when our sewer alarm sounded from our crawl space … oh joy of joys! After some investigation, I figured out that it wasn’t the sewer that was the problem, but rather the alarm box was being triggered due to excessive moisture from a pipe that was leaking.
Lovely …. cue the water-shut-off-dry-camping-at-home protocol, something we just did last month when the well shut down during the cold spell. Rather than tackle the issue Sunday night, I decided to run the shop van overnight in the crawl space to evaporate some water and address the problem on Monday.
Sunday night I didn’t sleep well, so when I got up early Monday morning, I made some coffee and sat on my Mother-in-laws white couch, which she babied to the point that almost no one could sit on it while she is alive . Now that she has passed, we own the couch and we often drink coffee and do puzzles on our phones while sitting on it in the morning. Unfortunately, Monday morning’s coffee ritual was overturned when my phone cord caught my coffee cup, tipping the cup and splashing a full cup of coffee all over the couch. UGH! Great start to the day!
After a morning of arduous cleaning, I tackled the leak. I will wind up this story, as I am falling asleep writing it! I was able to get the copper pipe removed, replacing it with pex. The pex should be better able to handle our softened water and, now on our third leak in a year’s-time, we think this 20+ year old copper may need to be fully replaced, certainly the hot water recycler will need it, as we have had two leaks on that line.
Once I got that leak fixed, I turned on the water and, success, no leak from that pipe.
However, as I was packing up my tools, Ann discovered that the laundry hookups valve was leaking (a single valve closes both the hot and the cold), dripping water within the wall. Fortunately, because I had removed the drywall, we could see the leak real-time. Hopefully, I can get that fixed tomorrow!
And that is my sad tale of woe from the last few days!
So, no Tuesday updates. Not sure if there will be any Wednesday or not.
Been there. Feel your pain! Good luck
I always thought copper pipe was the best, but not with well water. We have hard well water that has eaten away at the water pipes. They are so soft that the pipe cutter crushes them. I have replace numerous sections that were leaking. I have to use shark bite fittings because the black coating inside the old pipes contaminates the solder joints. I need to replace all the copper lines with pex, before the next leak.
My parents home had 3″ copper sewer/drain pipes that the sewer gas corroded the top of the horizontal sections. They had to have them replaced with PCV.
Wutt 2 do?! There’s a pox on pex here in my neck o the woods. I’m plumb, dumb on the subject, but I read it on that internet thang, so I reckon it’s true. My well water hasn’t crapped out the 50 yr old copper (yet) but it ate/rusted out the pressure tank @ year six. One year before the 7 year warranty expired….so at least the tank was cost-free. No extra charge fer the headache here either Dave.
JB, Rick & Mark: I’ve tried reducing the impacts of salt within the water softener itself, but no luck so far; ideally, that’s where the real solution should originate. I would also prefer sticking with copper (my parents pipes were still going strong 50 years + after installation), but after spending time in the crawl space, I can see the previous owner (or his plumber) had replaced a couple gaps with pex already. This has been a ticking problem and he knew it.
Pex has its downsides for sure, but for us 1) we (as of yet) have no rodent problems, so I don’t have a fear of the lines being chewed, 2) All pipes are under the house, so the UV degradation should not be an issue, 3) the pipes never get buried in the ground, so the bacteria concerns shouldn’t be an issue, and 4) because we have high quality drinking water systems, I would hope the water would strain out any taste issues caused by pex.
Water is back up and running now that the laundry outlets are fixed (for now).