Water supply line

blackhemi · 04-09-2011, 03:14 PM

Sorry in advance for the long post, Im going to try to provide all the details.

Today, my water supply line got punctured on my side of the meter. Dug it up and its a black plastic pipe(forgive me, not sure what type, but if you know, please tell me) I.D is only 1/2 inch. I thought this is quite small for a supply line. My house was built in 1996. Im 30 miles east of Atlanta, GA.

As a temporary fix, I had to use two sharkbite couplings, and a small length of PVC pipe. The sharkbite has a very slow drip, about on drop every 45 seconds. Im not comfortable with the sharkbite connectors as a permanent fix, so I want to just replace the whole line.

Now, my hose is a 6 bedroom, 3 bath house on a slab, no basement. The water shutoff valve is located in the downstairs furnace room right below the water pressure reducer. Then the copper pipe goes into the slab. This is also on the back side of the house, and of course, the water meter is at the front.

So, where would the likely place to find where this copper pipe meets the plastic water supply line?

I want to make sure this project is done right. I dont want to come back and revisit this again in the near future :D I know that the current line runs over my septic drainfield ( this is how my septic guy punctured my line today while probing my drainfield). My drainfield is 36" deep, so I think I can go above it as it sits now. My gas line is on the the other side of the property, and i will still have utilities marked. Power, phone, and cable are all overhead. Im ready to do this asap so I can start the my drainfield project that is more important.

Thanks again,

Matthew

DangerMouse · 04-09-2011, 03:18 PM

I see you got a post to work over here in plumbing. Good.

Black plastic? ABS? You should be able to repair that easily with the correct primer/glue.

Photos always help here.

DM

blackhemi · 04-09-2011, 03:36 PM

unfortunately, the only 3" piece of it I had left over got lost. The plumbing store sales guy put both ends of the pipe into the sharkbite ends and pushed. The ends met in the middle and I lost that pipe! I do know the guy at the plumbing store and at home depot said that its a pipe that cant be glued. It was sold in coiled rolls. I wish I still had it.

the_man · 04-09-2011, 06:58 PM

black plastic that fits a sharkbite sounds like polybutylene. a 3/4" PB line is going to be around 5/8" inside diameter (7/8" outside). if that is what you have, get it out as quick as you can. there isn't really a likely place for the copper to be, unless there is someone here very close to you familiar with the neighborhood. My advise would be to start digging at the meter and follow the pipe to see where it goes. Also, try to avoid laying your new line on top of the old drainfield. Since it's more than 12" above the drainfield, you won't get the cross contamination, but it will make any work you have to do on it later that much more difficult. Find out where it goes and try to go around as much of it as possible

blackhemi · 04-09-2011, 09:18 PM

I do want to replace the whole line. It may be possible to move it around the drain field but it will sit under my gravel road that leads to the back yard. I dont know if it would be an issue driving over this line or not. I would have to bring in clean fill dirt or something so the rock from the road does not rub through the pipe.

The drawing below shows what I know. The back of the house is where the water shut-off and reducer is located. Its indoors. The blue line shows where the water supply line is as far as I know. Where it stops is the furthest ive seen. I have no clue to where it enters the house/slab? I assumed it would run around the house to the back.

Regardless where its located, is there going to be a piece of copper coming out of my slab underground somewhere and have this black pipe connecting to it?

I dont know if it would be easier or better to just cut the copper pipe inside, and start over from there or to attempt to pull up the old line to see where its going. The line where I dug to repair was about 18-20" deep. Our ground is some pretty dense clay and I cant imagine it pulling up very easy.

I would like to do this correctly so I can finish up the septic project that started all this lol