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Hard no. We warranty our work so I don’t like to dig more than once. A good chunk of leak in ground calls are someone’s failed repair with some sort of quick fix setup. I’ve used enough propress to be confident in orings in that sense though. When installed correctly.
Never used propress either. Of course I'm an old timer and that stuff wasn't available when I was doing residential work. Seems like solder would be just as quick and the fittings are way cheaper but like i said, never used it.
Yep. "Make a bridge" Looks good to me. What else are going to do ? We do pretty much every underground pool leak like the because we're dealing with 1-1/2" or 2" pvc and the pipes don't budge. Sometimes they're in a bundle and you're kind of fucked and wind up cutting out a bunch of good shit just cause you gotta. Oh well T&M friend sorry🤷♂️😄 A couple times on smaller lines like 1/2" or 3/4" I've been able to move them apart sideways and use a 90 / street. 90 combo. They don't stick up as high that way. And I'm with you guys on the rubber union coupling things. I've never even bought one. Probably would be ok for a sprinkler that runs a few minutes a day under no pressure and doesn't matter if it drips anyway. You could tell the customer that's our patented "Subterranean deep root watering system", a calculated percentage of the water goes straight to the roots where it's needed, less run off and no evaporation. We don't even charge extra LOL.
edit: When I was adding the extra 90 I was thinking oh damn I hope this doesn't slow the flow a noticeable amount. Our water pressure here sucks balls, like under 50psi (not kidding) Pffffft.... the cracked mip I replaced was 40% blocked by a big fucking glob of glue. My shower works better than before. Sold ! 😊
In my experience propress is substantially faster. It’s also easier and more reliable. A lot of “old school” guys throw a fit when I say that, but at the same time those old school guys have had plenty of callbacks for pinhole leaks on their solder. I don’t care how good you are, it’s just a matter of time and probability your joint isn’t good with today’s solder and working on existing pipe. Add torching in a little pocket against drywall paper, insulation and 2x4s.
Ever have a customer pay you to fix something only for it to leak and cause water damage in their home?
There is a time and place for both methods for sure. They compliment each other not replace.
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Haha, I like that. You could say the proprietary root hydration treatment will draw roots away from attacking your sewer line saving you 10s of thousands in repairs. 🤣
😄 I like it ! "We spend your money like it was ours, we're here for YOU" Now fork over that $8.75 a minute... This is going to sound bad, you guys ever add 1/2 hour on an older persons job because you know it's going to take them 25 minutes to write out a check ? Oh did I say that out loud.. lol
No but there is hazard pay for medical emergencies while I’m on site. I’ve had elderly people fall a time or two. I also had to triage a gentleman who cut his leg on my tool bucket while checking on me. He was on blood thinners and very old.
Just kidding about the hazard pay. I have some FF and EMT history and love helping people in general. I tried really hard to get him to allow me to drive him to urgent care. I also took care of the lady that fell.
I’m a very honest person and pride myself on good work and truly helping people. The big outfits that are sales oriented don’t sit well with me. I sleep good at night when it comes to work and doing the right thing. I have kids that are paying attention.
I had to replace a whole kitchen in a condo. The upstairs condo sprang a leak with nobody home. So replaced all the DW. I noticed later on that I had splattered some compound on the drapes that covered a slider going outside. I didn't have time to hand scrub that shit so I pulled it off and threw it in the washing machine then the dryer. No problem until I rehung it and it was a foot shorter. Turns out she hated those drapes and her mom bought her some new ones. I was friends with mom and dad so basically it was just a big joke and I was the butt of the joke. Only a moron would have machine washed it.
🤣
Had a toilet replacement in a nice neighborhood retirement community type with a golf course. White carpet, white tile, white everything. They just moved in and wanted new toilets. P/O put the blue cleaner discs in the tanks. We use a small shop vac to pull the water out and yank the toilet out in a quick amount of time. Well after I shop vacc’d I noticed it sudded up nicely and aspirated out of the exhaust of my vac and sprayed the floor and wall with the blue water you’d see in a honey bucket. It was everywhere. I blocked the door while I panic cleaned. I’ve never cleaned so fast in my life and always make sure to have a trusty old beach towel with me every time I’m working inside. Always thought it was just the primer that’ll bite ya. 🤣
Ok. that is effed up. Hopefully none of it hit the carpet. Shit does happen and there no way you can put enough profit in every job to cover major f'ups. Sometimes you just eat it to keep up your rep.
I already threw it away but ours this time was the metal coupler that joined 2 different plastic water hose (one red and one white) together the metal at the end failed and let one of them start leaking.
Hahahahahahaha...... let's be super careful and not spill any of this blue water on the floor 😆
So the hot water showed up a little too soon this morning, went and checked the meter and fuckin A... the litlle dial is moving, barely, but it's moving. When I shut off the water to the house it stops, so the good news is my repair I did on the main is holding, bad new is this ones under the house or in a wall, oh joy... Lucky for me there's a crawl space and 90% of the plumbing is exposed. Time to get dirty. I'm getting tired of fixing leaks on plumbing I paid someone else to do just a couple years ago. 🙄
Screw those blue things.
Had the same thing happen in my moms house but luckily she had blue/grey linoleum. THAT BLUE STUFF WAS EVERYWHERE. I accidently stepped in it, put my ungloved hand in it, tools, some of it leaked through the floor to the crawl space.
Check the discharge on your T&P relief line on the water heater before you crawl. Might save yourself a trip under!
Better than ours …..
That's why I use clear primer. Gotta pay a bit more attention to making sure you don't forget it,. but at least there's no worries about purple stains.
My water heater is in a closet behind my office desk, I didn’t visually check the pt but it has a smitty pan that will dump out of the closet. It’s a small leak, I wonder if it could be a small enough leak to drip into the pan, but then evaporate before it gets to the 1/2” or so depth before it goes out the overflow line ? If that’s the case I guess it’ll rust out the bottom of the tank ? I couldn’t find anything obvious so I went underneath the house for peace of mind. Didn’t see anything, dusty dry so that was a relief. After looking at everything, I discovered that in the morning when I looked in one of the toilets, the water level was about a half inch below the overflow tube, but when I looked in the toilet in the afternoon. It was almost to the top. So I know the toilet float valve is letting some water by. When I shut off that toilet, it does slow down, but it still doesn’t come to a dead stop. Could the cheeseball cheapo shut off valve and the float valve be bad ? Anything is possible I guess. I’ll start with the float valve and see what happens from there. I did notice that the plumbing underneath my house looks like an RV. Lol
Pit Row
I watched them plumb it. The PEX type I have they had a tool that stretched out the fittings, then when they slide the pipe in the fitting shrinks back on it and seals it good enough, I guess. This stuffs all new to me. I’m a copper guy but I guess this is the new thing. I want to get one of those tools, a cutter and some assorted, fittings and sections of pipe to have around "Just in case". It’s got a 1” main “trunk” line, then some 3/4 and 1/2 sections. Seems rinky dink to me but I’m old so … whatever 😁
I got into the habit when looking for leaks to dip a finger into the water heater pan. More times than you would think, the pan is full of water but it leaked so slow it has a layer of dust on top of the water and it’s dead still so you don’t even notice.
I doubt the water heater corresponds with the meter movement you are seeing. Your toilet fill valve can definitely leak by and over fill. If it’s the newer style, you can disassemble the top and see if there is sediment or little rocks in the diaphragm. If it’s the old ball cock float, time to replace.
On high water usage calls I check toilets first. Water heater second, then I try the shut off to the water heater, then if there’s a house main. If it’s in a wall you'll see it in the crawl, always.
Yep! PEX-A. It’s good, I prefer it to PEX-B. They used good materials. Install isn’t much to look at.
Lumpy..... fucken a....😶😕 that's over my pay grade. I'm feeling lucky with the crawl space. It's not pleasant under there but at least I can see what's going on. That the house you're selling ? Or sold ?
Any of the tools to stretch the fittings better than others ? It seems pretty tough but I still would mind having the ability to make a repair "If"
Tell you what after soldering pipes for years and using threaded connections to switch to pvc and using primer and glue, the idea of "Stretching the fitting, sliding in the pipe, waiting for it to shrink and then it's done" ? I don't know it almost seems like cheating hahaha. I suppose it can be dripping when you do it too ? So even easier than pvc ? No more steam blowing the solder out of the joints and nightmare repairs trying to get it to drain ? Cut it, stretch it, stick it in and thats it ? Effen new guys have it easy lol
I’ve only used the Milwaukee variety. They do make a manual gun that would be much cheaper, but I would think they are a pain.
OK, the toilet float is verified. I’ll post some pics of where it stops after you flush it, it looks like nothing‘s happening, but if you come back eight hours later, it’s at the top of the pipe.
So riddle me this, i’m trying to wrap my head around why the hot water doesn’t take as long, so my guess is the small amount of water that’s going into the toilet is pulling cold water obviously, but since the shower is right next to the toilet, it’s dragging some hot water from the mixing valve ? Does that sound right? I’m trying to wrap my head around OK I have a cold water leak, but somehow that makes the hot water show up faster….. then I wrinkle up my forehead and cock my head like a confused dog going huh ? 😄
The preferred fill valve would be: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Fluidmaster-Pro-Series-Toilet-Fill-Valve-PRO45/300287706
Also don't forget to replace the toilet supply and check the size. If the shut off hasn't been replaced in the last 30 years there's a chance it's 1/2 FIP or 1/2 comp. if it isn't 3/8 comp... that can save you an extra trip if you don't know to check.
Depends on your shower valve, it could be coming through. There's some things you could check along with that but results can vary. Is it a single handle valve? Is it a pressure balancing valve?
Sometimes homeowners will notice a leak or something different then they pay close attention to everything and seem to find problems that they think are new but maybe aren't. Best thing to do is try to get rid of the leak then move on to the next head scratcher.
Also your fill tube is missing. There should be a small tube coming off the nipple on the fill valve and routed to the overflow tube in the center of your flush valve. Like this:
Hey yeah! How was that even working? Was the tank filling up past the overflow tube to fill the bowl?😆
The fill devices fill from the bottom of the riser (for the tank fill) as well as through the tube. If you don't fill through the overflow as well you won't get much water in the bowl.
I've seen those before on other toilets, it's kind of weird the only nipple I see is the one that sticks out parallel with the float arm, but when it's filling no water comes out of there anyway, unless I'm supposed to drill it out ? Maybe there's a plug that needs to be removed like on a garbage disposal ? The bowl has water in it, I can overfill it by holding the float down, but it settles back to where it always is ?🤷♂️
It's a later project right now, it's bone dusty dry under the house so whatever it is isn't life or death, plus it's 93 degrees here again. 🥵
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