A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2004 Cindy, got pictures of water pipe for you!

Water Pipe

Steve says it's some kind of plastic. He doesn't know how he can fix this, and the plumber was saying it's gonna cost us (if we dig it ourselves) probably $450. Please can you help?


Meg

I would say to get a pipe cutter and cut the bad section out...Its not like you can use that part of the pipe anyways. I say use the pipe cutter because you probably need to make a straight cut. And like someone said earlier, go to Lowes or Home Depot and ask them.

Cindy? Is my thinking in this correct???

$450.00! ! ! ! ! ! !? ? ? ? ?

Yeah.....just cut the pipe out before and after the place where it's busted.

Do you have a Lowe's?

Take the piece of pipe to them.

They will give you the fittings you need to fix it.
You'll need two little bottles of glue...
...well, one is cleaner and the other is glue...

The fittings to fix this will only be a FEW dollars! Literally. Just a couple of bucks.

Cindy

use gloves with that glue stuff!!!!! It is STICKY stuff!!!

oh...and take the picture of the pipe and the hole with you too....in case you get someone who needs to look at the picture to get specific stuff...like something that will take the extreme cold or something like that.

...I always stick my nose right down in it before I close it up and breathe real deep.
Of course, the CLEANER is much better!

Yeah...there's different "schedules" of pipe.
Like Schedule 35, Schedule 40...

Steve already called the plumber.. grrr. He doesn't trust our local lowes. They gave him bad advice before, and he ended up making multiple trips, etc.. only to have to rig it anyways. He thinks the plumber will change his tune when he sees it.. plumber was assuming it was some kind of steel pipe, not plastic.

It is broken right at the foundation. I tried to get a good close up of that for ya. I don't think we can cut it any closer, it's snapped down probably less than an inch from the house.

I hate it when men do that! Why are they like that?? I'd much rather make a couple of trips to Lowe's than pay out the wazoo for something.

Yea, and the thing is, Steve is really handy. He can tinker & fix lots of things. I really think he could fix this. I think he just doesn't want to do anymore after all that digging, and then not knowing what this kind of pipe is. He was counting on it being copper, and being able to solder it. *sigh*

Meg

OMG! I hope you don't get robbed!

I wish I was there SOOOOOO bad!

You know that picture of the little pond in my yard I put on the forum a few times? Last week I installed an overflow using that kind of waterline. Have it all buried under the ground. It was so easy.

And it LITERALLY will only cost about 2 or 3 dollars for the fittings you need!
I fix broken pipes for people all the time.
The family plumber!
(Actually, I have my license...and I'm also certified to install septic systems!)

Cindy

Steve wants to know what kind of pipe it is?

Im assumming its some sort of PVC piping. I was having issues with the page, so maybe Cindy is too....she would definately know tho.

Me too... I kept trying & trying to load the page, and send a pm, and kept getting errors about not loading. Now isn't a good time for that! LOL. Anyways, pm is finally sent. Hope she gets it.

Meg

I was getting an "internal error" page!! It looked important and scarey! lol...but I forwarded it to Bill and after I sent that email, it was working ok then...maybe it needed a break??

Has Cindy come back yet?? I left for a bit to get some Cream of Wheat. I forgot that you can't cook it the same as oat meal.

I haven't seen her back yet either. I went to make some pizza for lunch, and had spysweeper scanning my pc for a bit.

Meg

Maybe she went to get something to eat also. I have some errands to run right now, but will be back in about an hour. Hopefully she will be back soon. Good luck with your pipe, I'll chat later.

I think she's on her way to West Virginia to fix the pipe for you Meg!

I also was having the error message and couldn't post anything so left for awhile and now it's fine??

What's the pipe update? :p

Well, the hole is pretty much dug, unless they think we need to dig it more. We're just waiting on the plumber to call or make an appearance to let us know his opinion on the cost, etc. I guess he was on a job when Steve called him earlier, and the office said they'd let him know when he got back in that we'd called back.

Meg

Meg...you still here?

I thought they kicked me out and locked the door behind me!

I just tried to reply to your PM and got an error again. Might need to reboot my computer or something.

I hope this reply goes through....


Cindy

Meg...
I just PM'd you my home and cell numbers, just in case you want to call.

Meg- is it possible the plumber is quoting you that RIDICULOUS price because he believes he'll have to mess with the foundation in order to repair the pipe? If the break is that close to the foundation, maybe he's figuring hell have to go into the foundation to get a clean cut on an intact segment of pipe.

Incidentally, you've at least checked with another person to get a second quote, right? Maybe just a plain old handyman could help you- with probaby more reasonable rates?

It looks like in one of the photos, that the plastic pipe goes down at a pretty good angle all at once, instead of being taken down gradually.

If it is just broken near the end of the plastic pipe, you will need a little piece of that kind of pipe, and a coupler (both male ends) to attach the new piece to the old piece, (this slides into the pipe...after you get it in place you heat it and put a metal clamp on both parts). Then, you just re-attach the end (this will be your new piece you've added to the old piece) to the part sticking out of the foundation. Heat this a little with a little torch and add a clamp. You're done.

And the total was....



So, I'm $100 short, but my mother in law is giving us our Christmas money early and we will use that for the bill. So, that's our Christmas from mom & dad.

Meg

Well.....lets look at the bright side here...at least it didn't cost $450. Would have been nice to just do it, but, like I said....at least is wasn't $450.

I swear, this makes me so mad I haven't been able to even reply to this.

The $22.50 coupling was actually about 2 bucks at the most.

I wish SOOOOOO bad I could have fixed it for you.
You guys did all the work digging down to it. That was the only hard part!


Cindy

Here's what Steve told me about the pipe & coupling...

It's a CTS piece of pipe, and required a special CTS coupler. Plumber told him he likely wouldn't have found it at Lowes, and only a few plumbing supply places have it available, and it's more expensive. It's a compression fitting. (I have no idea, just saying what he said, er, what the plumber told him.)

Ok, so when this house was built back in '95, they poured the foundation directly around the water pipe.. there was nothing between the pipe & the concrete. So, he went thru the wall around the pipe & put a sleeve over it. They want us to leave the hole open for at least 24 hours in case of another leak.. no wanting to dig again. It's supposed to get pretty cold tonight, so somehow, gotta get it protected from the frost tonight.

Tomorrow, I'll have to go take a photo of the finished job for ya.

Meg

Whew! I'm with Cindy. Boy he's got the gall. coupleings run between 30 cents each to 1.00 each here, my god did he use gold ones??

couplings are always cheaper than your pipe piece.
so if your pipe piece was 3.00 then the coupling should have been less.

I sure hope your hubby watched him do it so he can fix it next time.

man, most plumbing is just sticking the pieces togather.

Yes, Steve stuck to them like glue, handing them tools, etc. He feels ok now if anything should happen plumbing wise, he could handle it. (I still think he coulda done it before, but he swears he had no clue!)

His back is killing him today from the shoveling. That clay mud was very, very heavy. He didn't let me do the shoveling. It was him, and another teen guy. I think that he was afraid I'd get stuck in the hole since I think it was over my head!

Meg

I think he could have done it too

tell him we all think he can do it next time

SHEESH!!!! I KNEW I should have gone to scholl to get a trade!! (I may even have LEARNT how to spell too!! )
If plumbers make so much blasted money, how come they can't buy pants that fit...or a belt for that matter??!!!(plumber butt??!!??)

Sorry...I'm trying to be funny...but I'm forgetting that it's still too early for that!

Yea, I know what you mean.. if it weren't for the fact that plumbing can lead to a rather nasty, smelly job, I would be really tempted to go to school for that, and make it my trade.. good money there! And we are definately short on plumbers for this area!!

Meg

Where do you get these things??!!!!!! I want some!!! And you have some smiley thingies that I've never seen before...is that like a reward for having a certain ## of posts??!!! (If so, boy do I have alot of typing to do!! :rolleyes: )
Michelle<><

The only reward I have from getting all those posts is a filthy house!


Cindy

You can get extra smilies for here from Smilieworx. They've got ALOT of cute ones!

G-Mom

G-Mom...
Have I shown you my new .gif for Bill???

Show Me!

G-Mom

CHECK YOUR PM!

G-Mom

(If Mr. Bill sees this he'll be giving me one of these looks!)


Cindy

:p



G-Mom

You are BRAVE!

Bill ...Bill ...Bill ...Bill ... is that enough?

LOL

G-Mom

I was waiting for you to say that plumber was me...
Show ME!!! :p

Oh, believe me, it's MUCH worse than the plumber!

Now, are you gonna ask me NICE?


Cindy

Oh Boy...You've done it now Cindy!



G-Mom

I'm not scared of him!


I'm 3000 miles away from him!


Cindy

are you really really really sure your that far away?

REALLY REALLY REALLLLLLY SURE?

(*gulp!*)


uh.....afgrey might have drank a little too much coffee this morning!

I wanna see....

Are you trying to get me *poofed*?

email it to me then