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The water supply line to my house broke two days ago. I had a plumber come out yesterday and dig down to the broken line. When he saw the pipe, he said it was PEX and he doesn't do PEX because it's really only good for mobile homes, so he referred me to another plumber. The second plumber came out today, dug some more, and replaced the broken section.
Now, the water pressure is at 80 when no faucets are running (gauge attached to the hose bib in the front yard, which is the first faucet the line supplies). If you turn on the hose bib in the back yard, the pressure on the gauge drops to 0 within a minute and no more water will come out. When you shut off the faucet, the gauge slowly climbs back to 80 over about 5 minutes. I called plumber #2 and described the issue and he said I should keep turning the faucets on and off to flush out any debris that is in the line. I had already run the faucet in the back yard until it ran clear.
Does this sound like a debris issue or a problem with the line he replaced?
The water supply line to my house broke two days ago...said it was PEX...replaced the broken section.
the water pressure is at 80psi...
That's a good thing ...so long as FLOW is adequate as well.
(Mine is wayyyy high; 16opsi the last time I looked and requires TWO pressure reducers)
Quote:
...the pressure on the gauge drops to 0 within a minute and no more water will come out.
Does this sound like a debris issue or a problem with the line he (did a minor repair to)?
Probably a bit of both.
START with the water company (or town).
Determine what is "normal" then evaluate your comparison.
As to the ultimate solution... my GUESS is that you'll need a new service line soon.
Short term... Mineral scale and other blockages are the likely cause.
and on that the plumber was right to run the water...
but ALSO to remove the screens and maybe even some of the spray heads etc too.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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That line to the back needs to be run for a while to clear the air out of it. If you don't hear/feel air coming out, it's blocked. A proper installation would not allow debris to enter the system, so the plumber should fix it. PEX should last 100 years, I would be anxious to know why it broke. Too close to the surface and froze perhaps, bad connection, or something else? 80 psi is actually pretty high, not for PEX but for your inside fixtures. Normal is 50-70, over 80 requires a regulator.
When I first ran the water in the back, it was spitting out mud and lots of air, then it cleared out. Then the water stopped completely. I waited a while, turned it on, and it put out clear water for about a minute and stopped. I've repeated it a dozen times with the same results each time. I cleared the aerators in the sinks and flushed the fill valves in the toilets.
The house was built in 2010 so I wouldn't think the whole line needed to be replaced yet. We had the foundation repaired 2 and a half years ago. The house was lifted 6" in the front. At that time the plumbing was tested and there were no leaks. The supply line runs under the driveway and then bends 90 degrees to go to the house. There was a connector that had pulled apart right at the 90 degree bend. The plumber said it had probably been leaking for some time, and he theorized that it had probably been pulled apart during the foundation repair but not separated enough to cause a detectable leak until now. It was buried a little more than 4' down...the usual here is 2', I tried digging to locate the leak to see if it was something I'd be able to repair myself but after I got 3' down and didn't find any pipes, I called a plumber.
My neighbors still have normal water pressure, I asked them. The way my water pressure is right now, no one can take a shower because the water stops after less than a minute and I can't run the washing machine.
I have the plumber coming out again tomorrow. I was just hoping there was something I could do to avoid that. This is getting to be an expensive repair. The only good thing is that I haven't filled in the hole yet (the second plumber said he'd knock $40 off the bill if he didn't have to fill the hole) so there won't be any digging involved when he comes out tomorrow. Hopefully if there's a problem with one of the connectors he used, he won't charge for the return trip, but I'm pretty sure he'll charge another couple hundred dollars no matter what.
I've already had to pay two plumbers. I paid the first guy $88, which was extremely reasonable for more than an hour of digging. (He had told me the entire repair would be between $150 and $200, but then it turned out to be PEX which he doesn't work on, so he just charged the $88). I paid the second guy $225, which would have been fine if the repair was good.
It could be debris got into the regulator of main shut off valve in the house.
A 6 year old house you have to raise the foundation 6", and you had a leak under the driveway?
It could be debris got into the regulator of main shut off valve in the house.
A 6 year old house you have to raise the foundation 6", and you had a leak under the driveway?
The foundation broke a year after we bought the house. It split into several pieces, with cracks you could see outside and in the tile floors. We had to wait several years for it to shift enough to qualify for repair under the warranty. Soil tests showed that the builder didn't compact the fill dirt. The home warranty paid for 38 piers to be put in.
There are other houses on my street that have had the same problem with the foundation, some that have already had it repaired and others where you can see from the street that it has shifted but they haven't had it fixed yet.
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