Plumber repaired burst water main; appears he... [updated 6/13: Fixing...]

[Red Squirrel]

Nice idea. I need practice with the soldering and couldn't figure out a way to test. I guess that's just a water hose from your house?

Yep, and I hooked it up to the faucet of the laundry tub to test. That reminds me I also have a pressure gauge I want to install somewhere, just for fun. But I can't seem to get it to not leak. It uses a bunch of threaded adapters, kinda a weird setup. Not sure if you can solder threads but almost tempting to just do that.

 

[phucheneh]

Are you using the goop or the tape?

I've never really had problems with threaded fittings. I was also wanting to put a gauge in, and figured soldering near it wasn't the best idea.

Are there 'line fittings' in this kind of plumbing? Like what you'd use for brake lines on a car? I'd call them compression fittings, but I think that term has been corrupted into some other kind of use. The PITA for some stuff, like that PEX fitting I soldered onto...you can't unthread it without cutting the pipe, heh.

 

[Humpy]

I can haz plumber now ATOT?

You should of used a Sharkbite.

 

[Number1]

This is all fine. My leak is where I joined the elbow I put on the valve to the old pipe. Sigheth.

Here's my ghetto 'adapter' to his PEX garbage. Notice how it does not leak...but the piece behind it does. What the fuck is the deal with that thing?

And lastly, here's the valve behind the regulator that he put in, which I had previously not really paid any attention to. HOLY SHIT IT LEAKS, I AM SO SURPRISED IN MY MOST SARCASTIC CAPS LOCK VOICE.

I am going to fuck this motherfucker up. He's refunding the original repair + paying for all my supplies AND my fuckin' labor, or we're going to court. Dumb fucking hillbilly.

OMG you replaced a hole bunch of stuff that was not leaking only to discover the real source of the leak and creating a new leak on the top passed your second valve.

Your solder job on the second picture need to be redone. The solder should not be bulging up like this. it means one of the component did not get hot enough..
And don't be afraid to use a lot of teflon tape.



But now you have two leaks.....

Call the plumber, you're way over your head.

Oh and I would like to know how your repair could have possibly solved the lack of pressure in the house because part of your house plumbing, the line to the outside had good pressure but not the house itself?????

 

[phucheneh]

You're an idiot.

edit: I'll clarify, since you surely won't go back and read. The ugly solder bit is pictured further up. It got plenty hot, and it plenty stout. It was a temp fix because I needed to fix the leaking sharkbite and did not have another threaded end on hand. And I replaced four leaks with no leaks. There are three more. One past the pictured threaded fitting, around that big nut on the regulator, which I have not touched. And one on each side of the shut-off before the regulator, which I have not touched.

Kindly suck a fuck.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Is it safe to use that pipe that has too much solder on it or will it eventually leak?

 

[phucheneh]

Is it safe to use that pipe that has too much solder on it or will it eventually leak?

I don't see why it would, but who knows. Like I said, I'll fix it. You gotta realize what I was soldering to.

That's it after cutting off the crap portion. Note how shallow the area where the pipe goes in is, and how there is a wide surface perpendicular to the pipe. More of a braze than a solder at that point.

 

[Mixolydian]

TBQH, a lot of the anger is simply towards another member of the household, who insists that a) a professional plumber, even the guy that did this, does better work than me, b) they will call the plumber back, and c) I am not to speak with said plumber, as I will rip him seventeen new assholes and possibly engage him in fisticuffs.

Ah, so you live with your mom?

 

[phucheneh]

I still don't get these fittings. Is this even installed right? This is the upper end of that pex hose, intact with a piece of old copper pipe still stuck in it. It does not seem to match what their website shows. Also, hello restriction. That's gotta be close to a halving of the pipe's flowable area (in cross-section).

Without pulling out the micrometers...1/2" pipe is 5/8" OD with about .050" thick walls. So .525" ID, area = ~.22 sq in.

Putting out a conservative guess, that white plastic and the gap around it is another .075" off of each side (yeah, it's way more than the thickness of the copper walls; pic may suggest otherwise, but that copper is rolled in a bit from the tubing cutter)...giving us an area of...hey, I guess good: ~.11 sq in.

 

[Eos]

My house has ~85 psi from the city feed. hahaha

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah I'm around there as well. Though for some reason I thought it was much higher.



Apparently I have to click save when I do a rotate on my phone.

 

[DrPizza]

If it makes the OP feel better, my bro-in-law is a plumber. He won a bid as a subcontractor to some major remodeling being done at a local grocery store. 1st day, he quit. They insisted he do the job a certain way - it would save a ton of money. He refused, because it wasn't up to code. "If you do it that way, I guarantee that within six months, you're going to be complaining about my job because your sewage is going to back right up.

That was roughly 6 months ago - which makes the timing even more amusing. This past week, they had to rip up huge sections of the floor in the store to replace the drain lines - places where they had originally done the work & had put down really nice flooring.

 

[phucheneh]

If it makes the OP feel better, my bro-in-law is a plumber. He won a bid as a subcontractor to some major remodeling being done at a local grocery store. 1st day, he quit. They insisted he do the job a certain way - it would save a ton of money. He refused, because it wasn't up to code. "If you do it that way, I guarantee that within six months, you're going to be complaining about my job because your sewage is going to back right up.

That was roughly 6 months ago - which makes the timing even more amusing. This past week, they had to rip up huge sections of the floor in the store to replace the drain lines - places where they had originally done the work & had put down really nice flooring.

My apologies for the generalizations. I'm sure there are some good plumbers out there. Just exceedingly few, I would think, especially when it comes to the variety that do home repairs (as opposed to doing complex jobs from scratch). I would give him a hefty commendation for saying 'no' and walking away. I've done it in my industry, too. And of course been threatened by employers for not 'just doing what they say' at the expensive of a proper repair. Or not committing fraud.

It's basically the same in every industry. Which is probably why I spend so much time pissed off. Dropping intelligence levels + laziness + low payrates + cheapskate employers = we're doomed. Godspeed to you in the Thunderdome when the apocalypse comes.

And Red, I don't understand what's going on with that hose bib. It looks like it's...mounted to something? Where's the oddly-shaped hole chiseled into the brick/mortar with a loose pipe jammed through it?

 

[Red Squirrel]

And Red, I don't understand what's going on with that hose bib. It looks like it's...mounted to something? Where's the oddly-shaped hole chiseled into the brick/mortar with a loose pipe jammed through it?

It's mounted to the house. Or do you mean the pressure gauge? It's just screwed into the tip of the hose bib (the gauge has a hose attachment). It's an odd angle, it's looking up at the hose bib.

 

[phucheneh]

...sarcasm, my good chum. I was mocking what is more typical. And what my house has. Which is a hole that looks like the start of Andy Dufresne's prison break, and a hose fitting mounted to nothing but the pipe coming through said hole.

 

[Red Squirrel]

haha i sort of figuerd after. my sorcasm meter needs some calibration.

 

[Number1]

You're an idiot.

edit: I'll clarify, since you surely won't go back and read. The ugly solder bit is pictured further up. It got plenty hot, and it plenty stout. It was a temp fix because I needed to fix the leaking sharkbite and did not have another threaded end on hand. And I replaced four leaks with no leaks. There are three more. One past the pictured threaded fitting, around that big nut on the regulator, which I have not touched. And one on each side of the shut-off before the regulator, which I have not touched.

Kindly suck a fuck.

All that you have done so far is bitch and complain about a small problem and turned it into a disaster of biblical proportions in your head. You complained and complained, them told us that any idiot could do better then proceeded to "fix" it yourself.

LOL....

Well it's still leaking....
What does that make you?

By the way, I do all my plumbing at home, recently gutted my upstair bathroom. No leaks.....

I am still curious at to how your "repair" solved the pressure problem...

I don't believe it for a second.

Now go on lie and wine some more

 

[bignateyk]

The sharkbite won't cause a noticeable pressure reduction. 50psi isn't all that low. Just as an example, most pressure switches for well tanks are 40/60 (well pump turns on at 40psi and turns off at 60psi).

I've used sharkbites in a lot of places (both 1/2" and 3/4") in my house and have never noticed a pressure difference. I've got one right on the hot water supply coming out of my water heater.

edit: The one thing you want to make sure when using sharkbites is that you're house isn't grounded to the water lines. The sharkbite will break the grounding continuity and would require a strap over it.

 

[phucheneh]

All that you have done so far is bitch and complain about a small problem and turned it into a disaster of biblical proportions in your head. You complained and complained, them told us that any idiot could do better then proceeded to "fix" it yourself.

LOL....

Well it's still leaking....
What does that make you?

By the way, I do all my plumbing at home, recently gutted my upstair bathroom. No leaks.....

I am still curious at to how your "repair" solved the pressure problem...

I don't believe it for a second.

Now go on lie and wine some more

Allow me to reiterate: you are an idiot.

You don't understand how taking things that leak, and making them not leak, is both the desired outcome, and what has happened?

You don't understand how taking full-flowing 1/2" pipe, and adding a restriction that is far smaller than 3/8" pipe, will cause issues in delivering an adequate supply of water to my faucets?

...are you the plumber that worked on my house? Or perhaps related to him? I've been having trouble understanding how a human being can possibly be so fucking stupid; perhaps you can offer me some insight into the world of a 'functional' mental invalid.

 

[Number1]

As stated by others, shark birds don't cause any noticeable drop in pressure.

The pressure is down to 50 now that it is regulated and that's why compared to before the repair it seems low to you.

How many leaks are you down to now? Careful not to flood that basement, those mother fuckin spiders might migrate to your living quarters.

To reiterate, my plumbing doesn't leak.

 

[Howard]

As stated by others, shark birds don't cause any noticeable drop in pressure.

The pressure is down to 50 now that it is regulated and that's why compared to before the repair it seems low to you.

How many leaks are you down to now? Careful not to flood that basement, those mother fuckin spiders might migrate to your living quarters.

To reiterate, my plumbing doesn't leak.

Not sure I'm getting you. Any restriction in area will cause a drop in pressure roughly proportional to the amount of flow.

 

[skyking]

none of the valves or devices downstream of the pex and sharkbite are remotely close the the cross sectional area of the repair.
If you run multiple valves then you will see some drop.