Plumbing help needed

[Rick Potter]

The main line into my house is 1". I thought it was all copper, but it just broke under a porch slab. When we dug it up it was 1" PVC about a foot down from where it enters the house. I don't know if it came this way or not, but I just happened to have a couple workers digging trenches and putting in a sprinkler system for the lawn, and they dug it up for me, and found it had broken under the 10' wide slab.

Fortunately for me when we laid the slab I put in extra pipes under it for future sprinkler use, including a 1" PVC pipe. My guys cut out the old one on both sides of the slab and connected to the pipe I had laid. We turned on the water after an hour or so and it immediately popped one of the new fittings. Looking at it, they obviously waited a bit too long and the glue was setting up as they shoved it on...the primer was fine, but the glue had been pushed out of the way.

We redid it with more fittings and more glue, I waited 4 hours and turned it on verrrry carefully, with the hose bib open as I did it to prevent too much water hammer on the new new repair. It is holding. That is the good news.

The bad news is that the repair is slightly crooked going into one joint...suggesting to me that the pipe is not inserted in as far as it should be, and may come apart again. It's good enough for tonight so we can use the water in the house, but I am concerned it won't hold.

Now, this is in a muddy hole, with a bunch of new fittings and angles to make it fit the two times, and we are frankly running out of pipe to attach to. I figure one more try would be ok, but more than that would be iffy.

If you are still with me, my question is......Do they make a 1" Stainless braided hose like for water heaters, and if so, would that be ok underground. It seems like that might be the best answer if there is such a thing.

Thanks,

Rick Potter









Now

[Johnny Pearce]

Rick, I had a simalar experience over a 2 years ago, if yours is 1" PVC pipe to 1" PVC pipe check your local borg for a compression union, you will simply slide the 2 PVC lines into it and turn to tighten to seal. You can use a wet vac to remove the water from your hole, I have done this many times to make repairs on other houses that I built. Using a PVC compression union there is very little down time, you do not have to wait for glue to dry to turn water back on.

[Prashun Patel]

Post your question on Terrylove.com. You'll get responses from plumbing pros there.

[David G Baker]

Rick,
If it can be done, replace the PVC with copper. Much better to fix it right while the ground is dug up. I wouldn't use the braided stainless hot water heater hook up hose under ground. If you still want to use the PVC Johnny's suggestion will work.

[Rick Potter]

Thanks for the help, guys. Good suggestions.

Rick Potter