Digging Holes
Literally, not figuratively
So the other day I noticed a wet spot on the lawn by the walk. Now, there’s a water main leak out by the street (well technically at my meter on the water company’s side) that’s been there for well over a week. They know about it, they just haven’t gotten to fixing it yet.
Now that’s a good hundred feet away (with a couple of turns to get to where the leak is). Also, the meter doesn’t seem to be turning (what I can see of it, it’s underwater) sooo… I’m not sure.
Still, I did this:
There’s another wheelbarrow you don’t see, that is also full. About 200 lbs of Texas Gumbo in each of them. Those three pipes? Two are for the sprinkler system (one water, one control lines) the other goes out to the external water faucets. There are four and you can see one of them in the upper left-hand corner of the picture.
The problem is, I dug that big ass hole 8AM yesterday morning, and I did not find a leak. Turning the water for the faucets on, and it very slowly fills up (after about 4 hours), to just under the pipes. Suck the water out, turn it off, and nothing seems to happen. The smaller hole to the left I just dug and turned the water on, to try and see if I can get an idea of just where the water is coming from.
Now understand, Texas gumbo is the worst soil in the earth, (probably) the worst soil in the USA (definitely) for dealing with. It’s like 90 percent clay, sticks to everything, can shrink or swell amazing amounts, depending on water content, and is heavy as hell. The hole there is about 400lbs of soil. There are two shovels because the second one is to clean off the first one.
If someone could invent a shovel to which Texas Gumbo did not stick, they could charge several grand a shovel and would not be able to keep them in stock. So far, no one has. Trust me on that. No one has. Any idea you can think of has been tried and it doesn’t work.
Moving on.
I’d been hoping that maybe the water table here had gotten so soggy that it was the leak in the street that was powering this. Water leaks are weird, especially in heavy clay soil. They can travel quite a distance. Also the water NOT coming up to cover those pipes in the hole, is another quirky thing. Water always takes the path of least resistance, so it’s going somewhere, somewhere else. The problem at this point is simply trying to find the leak.
That nothing happens when that water line is off, but does when it’s on, kind lends credence to that pipe being the culprit. Just, where is the leak? Also, you can’t see it, but a bit deeper underneath in an electrical conduit that carries 220 out to my shop. For all I know, the water is following that and then soaking up through the ground.
But none of that explains the surface patch of water. This entire thing has been nothing but annoying. I’m getting too old for crap like this.
Sigh.. every time shit like this happens i have the very sincere reaction of "I'm to old for this shit!'
Past year
putting in new septic field.. god bless guy i found that charged me 1700 dollars to add 169 feet of leach field
and new lid for distribution box abd did bang up professional job. Left back yard in better shape than he found it after all the digging and filling.
Cast iron plumbing fitting at pump on well rusting through. Way more work than i thought it would be and more difficult. 4 days with turning pump on and off to get water to house 2 days without water when repair went south and almost killed me.
Clogged septic line under house. Unable to use bathroom there for a week. Massive ammount of draino in multiple treatments before last one worked just before crawling under house and probably dying.
Its always something.. used to be it just needed sweat equity. Now you still need that and hope you dont pass out or die or hire someone that 90% of time is incompetent and quotes you 10x the parts and labor actually needed.
Did get roof replaced a couple months ago for just under 12000. Absolutely insanely competent job. Showed up at 7:30am and drove out 1:30pm fully replaced and totally cleaned. Still think price was a bit high but damn did they know what they were doing and got it done. I would know as i did the job myself in 2000 on the same roof. Took me more than a week by myself with a few hours of help from friends and family here and there. Crew that replaced it were impressed with my roof that lasted 26 years with shingles. Only a couple square ft of ply needed replacing around electrical pipe penetrating roof. No real damage. They said i had done it better than current code 26 years ago. They did it same as i did back then. Sadly i think that new 50 year archertecural shingles are less durable than the middle if the road ones back then. They used a lot more gravel on surface back then to block sun. Wanted metal roof but of the 4ish quotes i got incluting these guys the cheapest quote was these guys for 27000 dollars.
For all the hassle, owning has been better and much cheaper than renting but maintenance really sucks.
Every one i spoke with said metal has gone up a lot the last 6 years or so and even more in last year