How to fix a leak in a 6 inch water line.

[EddieWalker]

Due to my future plans to develop my land, I brought a six inch water line into my land. This is big enough to feed a small city and it will allow me to have a fire hydrant.

After my girlfriend and I installed it, we've had several months of extreme drought. Than the beginning of the year we're above normal rainfall. On Friday night we got 2 1/4 inches of rain all at ounce.

This saturated the land and the fill over my water main. This in turn allowed the pipe to move in the ditch just enough to break the seal on the gasket.

I donated the water line and easement to the Water Departmen and have my meter just at my house. This means that they are responsible for all maintenance and repairs.

This morning they dug up the dirt around the pipe and pumped out the water.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

They have already cut off the bell in this picture. You can see the black line that indicates how far the pipe has to slide inside the bell for a proper fit. There was enough movement that the black line was visable.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

After the bell side was cut off, they cut off the other end as well. Turns out the water rushing past the gaskets actually wore a groove into the pipe!!!

Any Stihl fans??

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

To fill the gap, a piece of pipe was cut to fill the space.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

These clamps were pretty impressive. Stainless steal over rubber with some huge bolts to hold it all together.

They were slid on over the existing pipes, than the patch was put in between. The clamps were slid halfway over the patch and it was all tightened up.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

They had two 3 bolt clamps, but one was out of shape. Seems it got bent up and the guy in charge said it wouldn't be reliable, so they put in one 3 bolt and one 5 bolt.

The wire is called a "tracer wire" and is used to locate the pipe years from now when nobody remembers where it is.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

This is the end of the line. Their is a cap on the end of the six inch pipe with a 2 inch galvanized line comeing up to a valve. They screw on a manifold to direct the water away and flush out the lines.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

It takes awhile for the water to come out clean. They let it run awhile longer and shut it down.

The previous picture was with the valve about halfway open. I asked, but they wont open it all the way!!!

This picture is just before it was shut down.

Thanks for lookging,
Eddie

 

[3RRL]

Eddie,
I was wondering what that "tracer wire" was for. I thought for a second the guy cutting the pipe in the ditch was going to whack it by accident.
You sure got some big trees on your property. Is it all like that? I didn't expect to see country like that in Texas. Of course I've only been in the West parts on occasion. Thought it would be more prairie or high chaparral country, like you see in cowboy movies.

 

[kenmac]

We use that wire to be able to locate under ground plastic nat. gas lines. We also use those 360 degree clamps (up to 12" in diameter) to repair broken/cracked gas mains They work very well.