Solo Adventures in Plumbing

Some things are simple and don't take any time at all to do. Others are complicated and take some thought and time to accomplish. Then there are those things that should be simple, and generally are when other people do them...but when I attempt them, a "simple" fix that shouldn't take more than an hour becomes an all day affair.

My day began very early, since I made an appointment with the Southern Pines Spay and Neuter Clinic for Maverick for their "Tom Cat Monday" special - get your tomcat neutered for $20, and get him a free rabies shot to boot. Only catch was I had to have him there by 7am, and would have to pick him up at 3pm. No problem, I just got up at 5:30 this morning instead of 6:30, and he spent the night in the house (he's really an outside cat, although he loves to be indoors and, hopefully will make that transition easily), so I didn't have to track him down. In fact, he spent the night in his carrier (with the door open), so he was very used to it.

Anyway, I got him to his appointment, and then had a decision to make: Sand the outside of the cabinets, or fix the small leak in the outside spigot. I elected to do the leak, so that I wouldn't have to worry about my water bill going higher than it should. I figured I'd have plenty of time later to do the cabinets. (Such grandiose ideas always are doomed to failure.) I began by digging up the ground in front of the spigot, where the little trickle of water came out of the ground, to see just where the leak was, how big it was, and what sort of equipment I would need. The leak appeared very small, coming from a coupling that joined two pieces of pipe together, so I figured it shouldn't take long to fix at all.

I figured just get a length of pipe, two couplings, and I should be good. However, as I looked more closely at the pipe, it sort of looked like it had cracks in it going down the sides away from the leak. So I excavated more if it, and more, until I realized they must just be scratches in the pipe, not actual cracks. So I went ahead and cut out a largish piece of pipe (just to double check to make sure they were scratches and not cracks), and then decided to take the piece of pipe with me to Marvin's, since I thought it was 3/4" pipe, but wanted to compare it to be sure.

So, off to Marvin's I went. I found the length of pipe (it was indeed 3/4"), and found I had two choices - Schedule 40 pipe or some other kind. The Schedule 40 is 400psi whereas the other was only 220psi, so I figured the higher the psi the better. And then I selected two couplings. Just two. I mean, how many could I possibly require? (This is a literary technique known as Foreshadowing. Just FYI.)

Well, I got back home and set to work. I cut off what I thought I would need from the 10 foot length I'd bought at Marvin's, cleaned the end, cleaned the inside of the coupling, put glue on, and stuck them together. Then I did the same with the other end, then put one end on the pipe still in the ground (the pipe to the right), and then discovered that I had no idea how I was supposed to get the other end attached. It was too snug to fit over the end, and the pipe would not bend to give me some room to get it on there. Well, I figured it would just have to go, so I went ahead and applied the glue, laid down on my stomach for better reach, grabbed the two ends, and pulled...something in my side. Now, to set the scene, I was lying not just on the ground, but on the mound of dirt I'd dug out of the hole. And I was lying a bit on my right side while trying to do this. So it's probably not really surprising that pain shot out of my side, in the region of my lower ribs, when I was applying all this pressure. I'm still not sure if I pulled a muscle or cracked/bruised a rib. It could go either way, but I ain't worrying about going to a doctor to see. Whatever it is will heal just fine on its own. However, I now had a problem - the glue had dried on my pipe ends that were not connected together. So I tried puzzling that out, and concluded that I just needed the pipe to be a bit shorter so I could attach the ends. However, the glue was dried, and it doesn't come off (at least not so it would seal in water any more), so off to Marvin's again.

This time I bought 6 couplings. I figured there was no way I'd use all 6, and at least I'd have extras just in case my plan didn't work out. So, since I had one coupling attached just fine to a length of pipe, I just cut that on the left side of it (leaving the coupling attached to the new and old pipes), then cut out the part of the right side that had dried glue on it, cut a new length of pipe, stuck a coupling on each end, made sure they all fit together, puzzled out how to get them attached, then glued them and got them together. Voila! Surely this would work! So I waited for the glue to dry, then went and turned on the water, came back to check - and had 3 spewing leaks, one from each of the three couplings. Oy vey!

So, I had a problem - three leaks instead of just one. Cut off the water again, assessed the situation, cut out all three of the couplings (which now made a very long section of new pipe!), got all set up again, glued everything, or thought I did, waited for the glue to dry, then checked - and realized I hadn't glued the coupling on the left side. However, it was too late; the pipe was too snug for me to pull it apart to glue it. Well, what if I glued the outside part? Surely if smeared enough glue around it, it would form a water-tight seal, right? So I gave that a shot, then turned on the water. When I returned to what was now a trench, it had only a small leak where I had forgotten to glue it, so I figured, what if I put even more glue on the outside? So I switched off the water again, smeared it with glue, then decided to let it dry longer. I came inside and prepared lunch (yes, it was now lunchtime lol), then noticed it was raining! (A very rare event around here lately. Much appreciated and desired, yes, but...not necessarily when I want glue to dry on pvc pipes!) I ran outside to turn the water on, then went around to check the plumbing, but the rain was pouring down so hard that the trench was filled with water by now! So I had no idea if it was still leaking or not.

So, I just came in, washed off a bit and ate lunch, then went outside after the rain had stopped to check. I could see at the surface of the puddle where water was spraying out of the pipe. Well, I couldn't worry too much about it right then, as I had to worry about getting completely cleaned up so I'd be ready to go pick up Maverick. So, after doing all that, I wondered if I should just wait until Wednesday when my friend would be in town and could possibly figure out what I was doing wrong, or if I should just go ahead and continue tackling it. I decided I would just continue beating my head against the wall. Why not? :)

So, on the way home, I stopped at Marvin's to pick up some more joints. I had an idea of possibly using elbows so that I could snuggly fit the sections together without having to worry about it being too snug to get it together, or having weak spots, etc. I left the truck running so Maverick would have air, and went in, only to find the box that contained the 3/4" elbows was empty! Undeterred, I took the box over to someone who was working on a computer and asked if he could check to see if any more were in inventory. I hated bothering him when he was obviously in the middle of doing something, but I hated the idea of going all the way back to Home Depot even more! Fortunately, I discovered there was a whole unopened box of them, so I decided to get 6. After all, how many could I possibly need? (You'd think I would have learned by now!)

So, I got home, got Maverick set up in the laundry room (he has to remain in his carrier until 9pm, and is supposed to be somewhere he won't be stimulated), then changed into my work clothes, went out, set about using the elbows to create a section of the pipe that would bow out, curve back around, then curve back into the other section of the pipe. This probably would have worked, too, except that I made the section of pipe between all the curves too short. *sigh* I tried to make it work, though, since it was all glued together. I forced the curved sections to spread out a bit, glued that last bit together, and used a broken piece of concrete to hold it together. I let the glue dry, then turned on the water, then went to check, and discovered that the pressure had shot off the section that was too short. The trench had quickly filled with water.

As if that wasn't bad enough, I went inside to get my wallet and go back to Marvin's yet again. When I walked in, I found that Maverick had escaped his carrier, had found the bag of cat food, and had literally torn the bag to shreds. I was more upset that he had gotten out and was running around that I was over the torn bag (and the cat food all over the floor) since I was worried he was going to tear open his stitches. I picked him up as well as I could (he's gotten big, and I didn't want to carry him as I normally do, since that would put his stitches, or at least the area around them, in contact with me). Anyway, I took him back to the carrier and couldn't immediately find how he'd escaped. Then I saw he had managed to unzip one side and pull the zipper up just far enough to squeeze out. Clever cat! Odd, since he was supposed to be all "strung out" on drugs at that point! Anyway, I got him resituated, grabbed my keys and wallet, and went back to Marvin's and got 8 more elbows. I was determined I was going to make this thing work!

And I did! This time, I made the central pipe between the elbows slightly too long, so the pressure helped keep it in place. Whew! Just in time too; by now, it was 5:20pm!

An innovative idea for a complicated solution? Probably not, but it worked for me (after 8 hours from the time I started lol). Thank goodness for the pvc cutters my friend left!

And look at all the pvc debris lying around the trench!

And although you can't really tell how dirty I am in this picture, I was covered in dirt from head to toe! But I'd washed my hands and arms so I wouldn't get my camera dirty before taking this pic. ;)

The scary thing is, I wore these work clothes on 2 of my Marvin's excursions! I didn't wanna take the time to change into "street clothes" when I had to go try to salvage what didn't work lol. Oh well, I'm sure they're used to this sort of thing at Marvin's! If they weren't, they are now!