A few months ago I posted about having the plumbing replaced in the entire house in Water, Part 1. What they didn't replace was the section of pipe from the water meter to the house. I think they asked if I wanted that replaced and I said no to save some money. Well, last weekend it came back to haunt me. I was breaking up some concrete in the front yard and one piece wasn't coming up very easily so I yanked harder and up it came along with a copper pipe, which turned out to be the incoming line to the house.
My first inclination was to bend it back straight but I stopped myself in case it broke and I had a gusher on my hands that would have been an even worse problem. So I let it be and spent the next couple hours digging a trench from the house to the sidewalk since I figured the whole thing would need to be replaced.
I couldn't believe how close the original pipe was to the surface. I had even seen a section sticking out of the ground before but I never thought it was actually part of a pipe being used. That was a Sunday afternoon and I wasn't about to start a project that I might not finish and then be stuck without water for who knows how long. So I left the trench for a week and was able to return to it on Saturday. In the morning I got the parts at Home Depot, shut off the water, and jumped right in by cutting out the old pipe. At that point I realized I was committed and could only hope things went smoothly. But of course they didn't. The old pipe was a little soft and it was difficult to get a clean cut that I could couple to . Then when I did get a decent cut, the water was still coming out slowly and I wasn't able to heat the pipe enough to get the solder to melt. I thought I was stuck and was sure I wouldn't be able to solve it so started to track down a plumber. I called one I know to see if one of his guys could come out but nobody was available and it being a holiday weekend I had visions of being waterless until Tuesday. I thought about it for awhile and then called the same plumber back and asked if he knew what to do. He said to disconnect the pipe at the meter and the water would stop flowing. Sure enough, as soon as I disconnected it the water stopped coming out from where I was trying to attach the coupling and I was able to solder the coupling. All the other connections went smoothly and soon I had it all connected. Next came the moment of truth and I turned the water back on. No leaks! I was a little surprised and very relieved that it worked.
I filled in the trench with drain rock and then soil and now it's back to normal. I'm a little glad that nobody was available and I had to work it out on my own. It gave a nice sense of satisfaction to have a project like that turn out well.
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