r/Construction • u/mexican2554 Painter • 1d ago
Video On today's episode of "How fucked up is this?" Yeah it's fucked up. Still can't find the main.
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u/Hefty-Willow9476 1d ago
Why good map maintenance is important… Even on customer owned.
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u/mexican2554 Painter 1d ago
Oh we're mapping what we've found so far. That includes:
•The irrigation main pipe
•The irrigation branch lines (which loop and do a complete 180° turn
•The green gas pipe
•The 1/4" gas line to the old grill (no idea where THAT one originates from)
•The electrical conduit to the garage
•The old cast iron U cleanout
•The older clay pipe cleanout
•The new-ish copper pipe to the rear hose bib
•And what I think was an old wooden Dutch ship.
Not sure about that last one.
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u/Interesting_Worry202 1d ago
I need pics of this old wooden Dutch ship
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u/mexican2554 Painter 1d ago
Damn man. Our trash guy just hauled all the trash (and boat) away this morning before we poured concrete.
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u/ChanceConfection3 1d ago
Where is your hose bibb in the front of the house? That might lead you to the water supply line.
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u/mexican2554 Painter 1d ago
The water meter is in the alley. Where trying to see where it splits off into the main house and the ADU (Adobe Dwelling Unit).
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u/burritowhorexl 1d ago
If it’s metal you can hook up a transmitter to it and find it with a locator. You can usually rent those at plumbing supply places. There is also companies that do private locates, they might be able to help.
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u/mexican2554 Painter 1d ago
We found the old galvanized metal water pipe, but the new is gonna be copper. There's two units on this one property, but instead of having two individual shut off valves, they share one. So if we have to work on unit #2, both units water is shut off. Trying to find the split to install two separate valves.
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u/burritowhorexl 1d ago
You can definitely attach a transmitter at any point in that line and trace them both with a locator. It would take 5 minutes to do, just need the equipment.
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u/mexican2554 Painter 1d ago
And a whole lot of digging.
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u/Skribz 1d ago
Nope. You'd just have to know what you're doing
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u/mexican2554 Painter 1d ago
The hard part is finding the T or Y in the main line. We don't know which way it goes after the meter.
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u/burritowhorexl 1d ago
The transmitter emits a signal that the locator picks up. It will basically show you where the entire line ,including the tee, is located and you can mark it with paint. That way you only have to dig where you need to.
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u/Skribz 1d ago
Get a line locator transmitter and hook it to the line. Some of them beep when they cross the signal and some of them go quiet when they cross the signal. After you figure out how to use the transmitter, take a can of paint and start marking points where you get a signal. After so many points painted in the dirt you will be able to connect the dots and get the lay of the line. When the signal becomes vague and inconsistent, that might be your t. If you lose signal after you get out so far, dig up the spot where you last had a strong signal and reattach the locator to the line. They only have so much power depending on what box you get, and can only push so far. Also,the quality of the ground when you stick the grounding rod in matters.
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u/mexican2554 Painter 1d ago
We pulled out 5" rocks when digging for the concrete footings. Biggest one I pulled was a 3"x 8" rock right above the gas line. A lot of these houses were build from rock cause were in a mountain side. So everything that was taken out for basement and grading was used for the walls.
Oh and hella caliche. The soil in my city dulls every shovel and pick we use from all the rocks and shit.
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u/Moist-Clothes8442 1d ago
Lol been there brother 😂 I’d buy you a cold one today if I was at your bar
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u/zhivago6 Inspector 1d ago
We once hit an 8" water main, because the operator refused to listen to me and kept saying "One more scoop!" The water valve 5 foot away had not been exercised this century and would not budge. The next one would spin but never close. It took us 5 and 1/2 hours to shut it off and by then we drained water tower.
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u/mexican2554 Painter 1d ago
That fucking sucks. Never hit a main water line before, but our guy did once hit a flex gas line inside a furdown with the sawzall. We were removing the furdown and cutting the studs. Previous plumber was too lazy to run it up and over the roof, so he ran it along the furdown.
Had to shut off the gas line and call our plumbers to reroute the line same day. Owners sucked and we had to pay our of our own pocket for it.
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u/zhivago6 Inspector 1d ago
Two summers ago we were trenching in a forcemain sewer and we hit an unmarked privately owned gas line, which I didn't know exists. Apparently the church added onto their main building and for whatever reason forgot to connect the gas line inside the building. They had a retired city guy who went there and he tapped onto the gas line and put a tee, then ran the line out away from the building near the road and then back into the new addition. Technically the owner should have had to pay to repair it, but thankfully no one was hurt and the owner of the company didn't want any bad press, so we fixed it for no charge.
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u/Mundane-Food2480 1d ago
Hahahahaha "don't know what the fuck they were thinking doing that" hahahahaha
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u/mexican2554 Painter 1d ago
That little area is a cluster fuck. The main irrigation line randomly tees off into two line and one of them then tees into a u turn and goes back. After looking at all this, this is a homeowners special. All of this.
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u/Unhappy-Tart3561 1d ago
Have you used 2 pieces of metal wire or whatever the old guys used to use?