|
Post by binnylou on Sept 1, 2020 12:35:26 GMT -5
Mumsey , I assume that it is read monthly, remotely from a drive by. The reading is rounded. We have a remote reader in the kitchen...cost us $75...and it records every gallon used. A toilet flushed changes the reading immediately.
I balked at the price, but we were having water leak/loss last year. Now I like the idea of being in the know about what is going through our meter.
|
|
|
Post by Wheelgarden on Sept 1, 2020 14:39:43 GMT -5
binnylou --- where did you get the remote reader? After my recent surprise, I'm interested in having something like that.
|
|
|
Post by binnylou on Sept 1, 2020 14:57:56 GMT -5
Wheelgarden, we purchased it from our rural water association.
|
|
|
Post by Wheelgarden on Sept 1, 2020 15:05:48 GMT -5
Binny, I inquired my water co-op about a water use monitor, they "weren't aware" of such a thing. Heh. So I looked online, but found nothing anywhere near that inexpensive.
|
|
weedkicker
Blooming
The Utah high desert, zone 1-6 (it's a %$# crap shoot)
Posts: 179
|
Post by weedkicker on Sept 4, 2020 15:36:57 GMT -5
Tuesday evening I opened my August water bill and discovered that I had set a personal monthly record. The bill was $360! I knew something was wrong, so I made sure all the water in the house and yard were turned off, and then I checked the water meter. The needle was spinning like a top. r-e-p-l-a-c-e I immediately began trying to locate the leak. First thing was to turn off the isolation valves to all the hydrants around the property. Went to the first one that isolates 4 hydrants on the west side. Closed it and checked the meter. Still spinning. Went to the valve that isolates the four hydrants on the east side. Didn't have to wonder when I took the lid off. The tube was completely full of water and was spilling over the top. I hoped the break was on the outlet of the valve, which would mean I could shut it off and isolate the leak. No such luck. I closed the valve and the water continued to pour out. I had no other option but to shut off the main valve at the meter, which meant no water to the house. By this time it was dark, so any work would have to wait until the morning. At daylight I started to work. The entire area around the isolation valve is covered in decorative rock over a weed barrier, so all the rock and barrier had to be moved. That took me several hours. Then it was time to dig. My wife came out to help and we spent the biggest share of the day digging. The isolation valve is down four feet, and the clay was completely saturated. The stuff was like glue, and each shovel full had to be literally scraped off the shovel. When we finally had a 4x4 hole dug around the valve, I turned the water back on to see where it was leaking. And it wasn't the valve. The water started pouring into the hole we had dug and was coming out of the bottom of the west bank. So it was back to digging. We took down another two feet of bank and turned on the water again. It was still coming out of the bottom of the west bank. Back to moving more rock and then back to digging. We took off another two feet of bank and this time dug another two feet deeper. I began thinking that we may be dealing with a leak on the main line (down 6 feet) rather than a hydrant line. After several more hours we finally found the main line. Turned on the water again and there was the leak. By this time, however, it was almost 7:00 pm, neither of us had eaten anything all day, and we were both beat. Fixing the leak would have to wait until tomorrow. Still no water to the house. The next morning we were both up at daylight and moving at about half the speed as the day before. We're both too old for this crap! It took us until 3:00 pm to dig enough around the leak so there was room to fix it. I decided to call a plumber friend of mine to make sure it was done right, and he came over and had it repaired in 30 minutes. Based on the hole I think we moved about 7 cubic yards of dirt/mud, and now I have to move it all back. But at least I got to shower yesterday.
|
|
|
Post by pondgardener on Sept 4, 2020 18:18:03 GMT -5
weedkicker, I sympathize with your predicament...plumbing problems, especially leaks, are my least favorite thing to troubleshoot and repair. And to have to excavate as much as you did...I hope that is the last you ever have to deal with. Do you know what the cause was? Connection? Split pipe?
|
|
weedkicker
Blooming
The Utah high desert, zone 1-6 (it's a %$# crap shoot)
Posts: 179
|
Post by weedkicker on Sept 4, 2020 22:48:35 GMT -5
Do you know what the cause was? Connection? Split pipe? Yes, it was a split dresser coupling on the main line. I couldn't figure out why the coupling was there and neither could the plumber. He suggested that the original contractor may have broken the line and decided that it was easier to repair it with a coupling instead of doing it right by replacing the whole line. Guess we'll never know? One thing I'm very grateful for is that I didn't end up with a flooded basement because of it. The leak was only about six feet from a basement window well. For that much water to be running for that long, I'm shocked it didn't get there. Maybe the fact that our ground is so dry (not a drop of rain since the first week in May) was what saved us?
|
|
|
Post by desertwoman on Sept 4, 2020 22:59:28 GMT -5
Wow, no wonder we hadn't heard from you in a few days. and you're right- we're getting too old for this. weedkicker,
|
|
|
Post by Mumsey on Sept 5, 2020 3:20:25 GMT -5
weedkicker, wow! You saved a ton of money by being able (and willing) to do the work yourself. We have a rider on insurance that pays for that sort of thing, something we opted for since our house is 65 years old.
|
|
weedkicker
Blooming
The Utah high desert, zone 1-6 (it's a %$# crap shoot)
Posts: 179
|
Post by weedkicker on Sept 5, 2020 15:58:30 GMT -5
We have a rider on insurance that pays for that sort of thing, something we opted for since our house is 65 years old. The only insurance I have for this sort of thing is "leak" insurance offered by the city. We pay 2 bucks a month and if we end up with a leak enhanced water bill (like the $360 I got for August) the city will average it out based on similar months. So I'll probably end up paying around $200 or less instead. According to the bill I used 196,000 gallons in August. That's one hell of a leak.
|
|
|
Post by Mumsey on Sept 5, 2020 16:05:34 GMT -5
weedkicker. You could fill a large swimming pool. Wow! The rider I speak of pays for repairs from street to house, not the water loss/bill. From street to house is homeowners responsibility. It’s like $5/month extra on house insurance policy. We have seen issues in our neighborhood with other homes so decided to add it.
|
|
weedkicker
Blooming
The Utah high desert, zone 1-6 (it's a %$# crap shoot)
Posts: 179
|
Post by weedkicker on Sept 5, 2020 20:00:52 GMT -5
You could fill a large swimming pool. Wow! Yeah, it's insane isn't it. I thought there had to be some mistake so I checked the current meter reading against the previous one on my July bill. If the previous one was correct (and I have no reason to think it wasn't) then yup, 196,000 gallons. According to the July bill I used 73,000 gallons. So where the heck did the extra 123,000 for August go?? That's a whole lot of water, and like I said before, the leak was about six feet from a basement window well. Why it didn't get there is a mystery, but it's a good thing it didn't or I WOULD have had a swimming pool!
|
|
|
Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Sept 6, 2020 9:41:39 GMT -5
weedkicker , what an ordeal! I'm fascinated though by your description of the water service configuration. I've never heard of multiple hydrants or isolation valves. How large is your property? Are the hydrants located around the property, each to a line that links to a central line? (I'm just guessing here.) I guess we city dwellers have it easy. The main shut off valve is in the basement; one valve shuts off water in the house, and the other valve shuts off water from the city line. We are responsible for repairs to lines on our property, so I'm interested in Mumsey 's nominal insurance coverage. I'll have to check that out with my insurance agent. The biggest problems we have with lines are those that are penetrated and compromised by trees. Decades ago the city foolishly planted trees with large growth capacity on the berms. They provided nice shade, but as they reached maturity, they had broken into drain tiles and caused sewer backups. Then it was compounded when some of them were so weakened that wind storms took them down, sometimes across the street and on someone else's property. A lot of good old trees were taken down, and still are being removed, b/c of these problems. Is the soil there primary clay, or a mixture, or sand? I'm glad the problem was solved. I suggest you and your wife take a well earned break today and just rest and compliment yourselves on your problem solving ability, as well as your strength to dig out so much earth to locate the line problem.
|
|
weedkicker
Blooming
The Utah high desert, zone 1-6 (it's a %$# crap shoot)
Posts: 179
|
Post by weedkicker on Sept 7, 2020 15:19:20 GMT -5
I'm fascinated though by your description of the water service configuration. I've never heard of multiple hydrants or isolation valves. How large is your property? Are the hydrants located around the property, each to a line that links to a central line? It’s about 2 acres, and there’s something growing (that I’ve planted) on pretty much all of it. After my house was built I had a friend with a backhoe dig 4 ft. deep trenches from one end of the property to the other, and I placed a dozen frost-free hydrants at the end of each trench. I set it up so that I could reach any part of the property with a 50 ft. hose. The main water line comes in from the street, and then tees off before going into the house. All of the hydrants are ultimately tied to that tee, but knowing that at some point in the future it was likely I would have to replace one or more hydrants, I threw in four isolation valves that would isolate the different sections allowing me to avoid having to turn off the water to everything at once. Unfortunately, the leak was on the main line before the tee or the valves. "Is the soil there primary clay, or a mixture, or sand?"I believe the pedologists call it Aridisol or something like that (I’m too lazy to look it up right now), but the stuff has a consistency somewhere between clay and concrete. It’s really crappy stuff. I remember when I first laid out my two main garden plots (approx. 90x25 ft each), I got out my 5 HP rear-tine tiller and was pretty excited to get things ready to plant. But the tiller just bounced across the ground no matter how hard I leaned in to it. My friend brought his backhoe over and told me he’d have it churned up in no time. He put the bucket down, tried to dig, and the whole backhoe just raised right up off the ground! We both had a good laugh, but over the next couple of tries it got less and less funny. He ended up having to go get the “tooth” bucket, and then slam the thing into the ground over and over in order to break the stuff up. We hauled off about the top 12 inches of “soil” in large chunks that you could easily mistake for concrete. Over the years I’ve added tons of compost and other organic material, and while it will never be mistaken for loam, I can at least grow a few things in it today.
|
|
|
Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Sept 7, 2020 18:19:25 GMT -5
weedkicker, thanks for the info. I looked up Aridisol soil as I was curious was it was: "Aridisols are dry, desertlike soils that have low organic content and are sparsely vegetated by drought- or salt-tolerant plants. (Not included in this order are soils located in polar regions or high-elevation settings.) Dry climate and low humus content limit their arability without irrigation. " www.britannica.com/science/AridisolI've worked with what I thought were tough soils, but nothing like yours. You've had quite an experience getting your garden started. Very impressive. My "hat's off to you." www.britannica.com/science/Aridisol
|
|