Lost my Sub-rural card?

[ustmd]

First a confession and then a question.

Back story:

So starting yesterday morning, the water pressure in the house is low. Check around the house, no leaks. Check the barn ("upstream" of the house), no leak and low pressure. Call the water company, no work or issues reported. It is pouring rain, so put doing any more investigation until today.

Go to the meter by the road (~0.75 miles), area with the 4 meters (mine and 3 neighbors, full of water). Maybe rain, maybe problem. root around and see that water is flowing up near my meter (on my side of the meter-crap).

Today and tomorrow are nightmare days at work (I work from home), so no time to deal with this.

Here is my confession:

I called a plumber to find and fix the leak. Talyor from SD plumbing is out there right now digging up the pipe to fix the leak--~5 ft back from the meter--I am betting a bad joint.


Going to cost me ~$1100 for him to find and fix the leak.

Here is my question

Did I just lose my sub-rural card?:laughing: I have fixed many plumbing leaks before and this one is technically within my skill set.

 

[square1]

No comment on the sub-rural card, but if Taylor form SD Plumbing is a girl your man card took a real hit

 

[turnkey4099]

Back when it would have been "out with the shovel and tools" Now it is work below knee level it is "telephone!!"

 

[two_bit_score]

With some of that magic tape they sell on TV you could have banded it in less time than it would take to call the plumber. Then 'fixed' it at your convenience.





But if you are making $5,000 in the same time I'd say call Taylor.


.

 

[RNeumann]

Only thing that appears to be a problem is that you didn’t have the time to deal with it. We chose to live rural so we have more time around the house.
.........this a classic case of self loathing! haha

 

[ustmd]

Well, Taylor is a guy, so no love there.

Feeling better about the issue--they are having to come back tomorrow with the excavator. He dug back along the line 6 feet and still could not find the leak.

 

[Deere Dude]

lol That stuff happens.

I was supposed to be an air conditioner/ Hvac techynician at work 15 years ago. I retired and fix what I can around the house. I have a heat pump with gas backup that was giving me problems. The evaperator fan would run all the time and not shut off and so would the combustion blower. I checked fuses, banged on circuit boards, twisted wires and all to no avail. Every 4-5 months it was something different it seems.

I stopped in a HVAC shpop and told them I wanted a quote for a new system sans heat pump, but just air and a gas back up. He came out and I told him what it was doing and he said it is probably a roll-out safety switch, and his buddy bent over and pushed the bug red button inside the door. Walla, It was fixed.

I felt pretty retarded at that point, but it wasn't a service call so it didn't cost anything so I was lucky with that. But I will probably get a replacement unit anyway.

 

[hawkeye08]

My wife called a pump guy when we had no well water. I had disconnected and checked ohms on pump, decided it was likely control box. My wife had picked up control box and new pump and she arrived home a few minutes before pump guy showed up. He checked a few things and replaced control box. I asked him what made him decide it was control box, he said, it is either the pump or control box, I never put a new pump in without a new control box, so either this fixes it or we need to put a pump in too. He was not cheap, but he did use the control box we purchased (saved us $90 and was same box he carried).

We found out we had a bad pressure tank, so had him drop one off so I could install it, asked for quote on new pump/pipe/wire and ended iup having him come back before Thanksgiving and take care of that... We have done all that in the past, but we are both done with that and make enough to pay someone else for some things.

If you have the money, and don't have the time, nothing wrong with supporting local business. When we were younger, we did not have the money.

 

[JRobyn]

If it involves digging anymore, I avoid it. When the wife ran over one of the yard hydrants with the bushog, I made her dig it up and replace it. I did shut off the line and drove to Lowes to get the replacement. You can come and get my card if you want; I don't care.

 

[turnkey4099]

Well, Taylor is a guy, so no love there.

Feeling better about the issue--they are having to come back tomorrow with the excavator. He dug back along the line 6 feet and still could not find the leak.

I hopes they bid the job and stick with the bid!

 

[ustmd]

Okay--here are the pictures to prove that it happened.

 

[RSKY]

We had about the same problem a few years ago. I started digging and had a small hole when son-in-law, 6'7" and 300 pounds, got there. Who needs a backhoe!!! He had a hole six by six in no time. Found the leak BUT it was the old black rolled pipe that had been installed over thirty years earlier. And this was the second leak in two years. So......next day called a contractor and had entire line replaced from the meter to the house. Expensive but better to get a recurring problem repaired correctly at a cost now than nickel and dime yourself to death the next ten years.

RSKY

 

[rekees4300]

Lived in the boondocks for past 17 years. If there's on lesson I've learned it's ... HUMILITY! Just when you think everything is under control, random chit happens! :rotfl:

 

[turnkey4099]

Yep. Had a flooded basement 2 years ago. Took me until middle of summer to fine a broken waterline right outside the basement wall. Fixed that - dry basement again.

Sooo...last spring I go down and find 3" of water everywhere. Finally traced that to where a new spring had forced a leak just above the footing. sump pump must not have kicked in soon enough. It was running when I found the 3" water.

 

[Garandman]

Had to clear this area for a prefab shed. They wanted the stumps out. Nothing too big, right?

Thought about renting a small excavator but hired our neighbor instead. He took a look and came back with this.

He gave me the choice of hauling the stumps away. Tried to move them and they wouldn稚 budge. So definitely a good move to get contractor-size equipment on the job. Only thing I built was the ramp.

H

 

[eddie48]

My wife called a pump guy when we had no well water. I had disconnected and checked ohms on pump, decided it was likely control box. My wife had picked up control box and new pump and she arrived home a few minutes before pump guy showed up. He checked a few things and replaced control box. I asked him what made him decide it was control box, he said, it is either the pump or control box, I never put a new pump in without a new control box, so either this fixes it or we need to put a pump in too. He was not cheap, but he did use the control box we purchased (saved us $90 and was same box he carried).

We found out we had a bad pressure tank, so had him drop one off so I could install it, asked for quote on new pump/pipe/wire and ended iup having him come back before Thanksgiving and take care of that... We have done all that in the past, but we are both done with that and make enough to pay someone else for some things.

If you have the money, and don't have the time, nothing wrong with supporting local business. When we were younger, we did not have the money.

I figured out, a long time ago, that one either has time or one has money. There is seldom a point in your life when you have both. So, you either have the time to fix it yourself because you don't have any extra money, or.... you have no time because you are making money, so you have the work done by someone else.

 

[California]

... one either has time or one has money. There is seldom a point in your life when you have both. So, you either have the time to fix it yourself because you don't have any extra money, or.... you have no time because you are making money, so you have the work done by someone else.

Then you age out to where you have the skills, time, money, but not, in this case, balance. First photo was 10 years ago, 2007. I was over 60 then. I greased the windmill turntable so it wouldn't moan as the wind shifted direction. Now 10 years later and any minor work on a roof has convinced me that my sense of balance isn't as acute as it was 50 years ago when I worked construction and climbed stuff routinely. I'm looking for a local windmill specialist to do the greasing this time.

Related - The Redwoods adjacent have grown up to conflict with the windmill tail. This summer - 2017 - I climbed the nearest redwood and topped it (second photo).

Then I discovered the next tree over conflicted also. The heck with it. I paid a pro to come out with a bucket truck and cut the conflicting branches off that one.

 

[Rustyiron]

I greased the windmill turntable so it wouldn't moan as the wind shifted direction.

That'a a cool looking building by the windmill! Is there a little history with that?

 

[California]

That'a a cool looking building by the windmill! Is there a little history with that?

Watertower! These are classic in this region, the wine country north of San Francisco and other parts of Northern California, where there were working farms before electricity. I've always assumed they were everywhere but I've been asked this question enough that apparently they aren't everywhere. Functionally equivalent to the elevated naked tanks found nearly always with windmills.

There was a 1500 gallon redwood water tank in the top story for a century. Primary water supply for the farm until the modern well and pressure tank, then maintained to quickly gravity-fill the 600 gallon orchard sprayer that needs multiple refills per application.

Then 20 years ago Dad took out the tank and made the top story into a man-cave where his wife couldn't climb the steep ladder to pester him. He already had the original workshop in the first story and a smaller office/retreat he had made in the second story. Presently the top story is my son-in-law's artist studio, second story is storage, and the first floor is my shop with drill press etc.

Many people convert these to livable space. For example a neighbor was mostly on the road in a motorhome but had their water tower kitchen and bedroom to come home to, while their primary farmhouse was rented out to pay for their nomad lifestyle.

I went looking on Google for more examples like mine - searched 'watertower' and 'tankhouse' - and found a variety of unrelated styles. But all the ones I've ever seen around here are just like mine.

 

[sseelhoff]

Had to clear this area for a shed. They wanted the stumps out. Nothing too big, right?

Thought about renting a small excavator but hired our neighbor instead. He took a look and came back with this.

He gave me the choice of hauling the stumps away. Tried to move them and they wouldn稚 budge. So definitely a good move to get contractor-size equipment on the job. Only thing I built was the ramp.

H

That's a beautiful building.