[garrettstump]

ive never done plumbing before but i involved the plumbing inspector and and drew out a plumbing plan for me and i proceeded to do all new plumbing from the septic all through the house. anyway i have been working alot so i hired a plumber to finish it and he was done today but did the 5lb pressure test and he could not get any pressure at all! i was there to witness this and i know its in my work and he want to redo the whole waste line in the basement that has all the drains hooked to it. i went there tonight to tryin make my own pressure test but all failed because i dont have the correct tools but its driving me crazy because i made sure all pvc pipe ends were cut square with a chop saw and ALOT of primer and glue. i ran water through the toilet and i found no leaks is there a way i can fix this without cutting it all out, like a spray adhesive to spray all the connections and hope the glue seals any air leaks?

 

[TheEplumber]

Make sure everything is capped or plugged and fill with water (unless its too cold)- you'll find the leak

 

[garrettstump]

yes its winter in ohio

 

[SeniorSitizen]

quotei ran water through the toilet and i found no leaks

-------------------------------------------------------------
i do notunderstand the toiletfuncton ofthistest and thereis nomagical spray adhesive to fixplumbing.

 

[TheEplumber]

I bet you have an open pipe somewhere- vent in the attic not connected, missing cap on a roof vent, missing plug in a floor drain, open washer box, test balloon in the wrong spot or deflated. stub out to a sink not capped, open pipe in the floor joists, clean out cap missing.......

 

[JDC]

Like EPlumber said, make sure everything is capped or plugged. If you ran water through the toilet and saw nothing leaking...well, the toilet line isnt capped or plugged is it? If it were, you couldnt run water through it. EVERYTHING has to be capped/plugged off. You arent going to get air pressure built up in the system if that air has a means of escape such as through a trap, past a deflated balloon, through the end of a pipe that was never capped off, etc. If a joint were bad, what you would most likely see is the pressure gauge climb then slowly leak off. You've got something wide open.

 

[garrettstump]

i agree with you guys that something has to be wide open, i did trace all pipes back to the ends and all vents are routed to 1 main vent and that is capped, i also looked a all traps and i have them capped, so lets say i have a bad leak in some connection it would still hold some air shouldnt it? im going back in the morning to really give it a good look over

 

[garrettstump]

i unplugged the toilet just so i could run water through the waste line to see if it dripped

 

[SeniorSitizen]

Make sure everything is capped or plugged and fill with water (unless its too cold)- you'll find the leak

************************************************

It's time to pay attention to TheEplumber. With everything pluggedbelow, get onthe roof with a garden hose and beginfill the vent pipe. If it has 12ft. elevation you'll have your required 5 lb. required test pressure . Actually about 5.14 lbs pressure. But as TheEplumber says, you'll probably find the leak long before the 5.14 pounds is reached.

 

[joes plumbing]

Next time have a plumber do the job what kind of town do you live in where an inspector lets HO can do his own work? Why bother getting your plumbers Liscence do all your night school and pay all fees to protect the trade if anyone can be their own plumber

 

[JDC]

Yeah, if I couldnt get the needle on my gauge to move at all and I had searched and couldnt find anything left open, I would fill it with water and start looking again.

I know this seems obvious and maybe you mentioned it before (its early and I'm not going to reread all the posts here), but the main going into the septic is ballooned off isnt it?

 

[Javiles]

post a pic if possible

 

[garrettstump]

i will post some pics maybe even a video, yes eplumber i did block off the main going out to the septic, and i appreciate all the ideas gentleman im going to the house now to get you all a video so you can see what im working with.

 

[md2lgyk]

Next time have a plumber do the job what kind of town do you live in where an inspector lets HO can do his own work? Why bother getting your plumbers Liscence do all your night school and pay all fees to protect the trade if anyone can be their own plumber

Lots of places allow homeowners to do their own plumbing, and electric as well. My wife and I live in a log house we built almost entirely by ourselves. The only things we couldn't legally do were drill the well and install the septic system. Those required a company licensed by the Health Department.

I don't think your livelihood is in jeopardy because of a few homeowners doing a bit of plumbing. Most lack the knowledge and skills, or just don't want to do it.

 

[Javiles]

I personally don't have a problem with the homeowner doing the work as long as its inspected and done correctly ether by limited knowledge with help from the forms or a plumber friend, the problem i have is when the homeowner does the work or a handyman type person and the work is not to code and below standards!! here's where i loose it, what happens is that after the work is done and the problems start who do they call AH now lets call a professional, when you try and snake a line and it keeps coming up in areas it shouldn't ie,stacks toilets vents or better yet you cant get the snake to travel in the line, you check the system and tell the homeowner and tell them how much its going to cost to correct it, they look at you as if you were from mars, the first thing out of their mouth is OH but it worked fine for all this time, Yeah until you have a problem now its not working fine. they think they save but in the long run they pay. :laughing:

 

[ddawg16]

I just did my leak test on Tuesday....but I used water.....and mine is 2-story...

I'm willing to bet that you have a vent somewhere you forgot to plug....

You mentioned that you "unplugged the toilet"...does this mean that you removed the plug for the toilet? Or is the toilet in place?

Like eplumber said....use water....you will find the leak.

 

[jagans]

Back to basics.

Did you purple prime all your connections a little deeper than the bells, use a large can of cement and dauber, glue bell, then spigot end, then insert your pipe fully, and rotate a 1/4 turn, Hold fitting in for a while, then trace around with glue?

Its amazing to me the force that the pipe applies to try and back out from the heat developed by the reaction of the glue. A lot of people don't get the pipe all the way in, and don't hold it in long enough. They walk away, and the pipe backs out.

Just some thoughts.

 

[garrettstump]

yes i did not realize about the pipe working its way out or that i was supposed to prime a little past the connection, thats what makes me a rookie!

 

[garrettstump]

if the video is small on youtube then change quality to atleast hd720 and it should get bigger.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0KyvXIB0eE

 

[garrettstump]

I corrected the problem I used the shop vac to put a vacuum on all the lines and I went around with heavy duty plumbing glue and reglued all the fittings until glue filled all voids, I did the pressure test today and everything is perfectly fine, held 5 lbs for 30 minutes