On Mon, 28 May 2012 22:43:14 -0500, Steve Barker
wrote:

On 5/28/2012 9:51 PM, wrote:
On Mon, 28 May 2012 21:37:53 -0500, Steve Barker
wrote:

On 5/27/2012 8:18 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 27 May 2012 17:04:35 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

On May 26, 9:57 pm, bob wrote:
On May 26, 10:58 pm, wrote:









On May 26, 7:40 pm, "Bob wrote:

Ook wrote:
I have city water from a water meter at the sidewalk. A 3/4" metal
buried pipe runs straight into the basement from the meter. It is
maybe a 25 foot straight run from sidewalk to house. It tees off and
goes around the house, feeding faucets at three corners. Maybe 150
feet total. Somewhere along the 150 feet run is a leak. Part of this
is under a 20 foot cement slab, plus it goes under a sidewalk,
terminates at a faucet coming up through a small cement slab.

I've dug up the faucets and water meter - no leaks. I had hoped those
would be the likely places for a leak to occur, no luck.

The pipe is old - 40 years maybe more, the house was built in 1948,
and the pipe has been there since city water was brought in a long
long time ago. Old. Rusty. Unknown condition. And a nasty leak that I
have not yet been able to find.

I can put a stick on the pipe and listen, and hear a hissing noise,
but can't quite locate the leak. It hisses at all three faucets, the
sound of the leak carries quite well through the entire length of pipe
lol. I have not yet dug up the rest of the pipe. The pipe seems to be
buried in rocks, gravel, and sand, and digging up this pipe is not a
pleasant job.

So I can:

1) Dig up 150 feet of pipe, some of which is almost two feet deep,
goes around corners, under a sidewalk, under a 20' slab, and hope I
find the leak. Fix it. Hope this old pipe doesn't spring a leak
somewhere else soon.

2) Replace the 25 foot run from meter to house and disconnect the loop
that goes around the house that is leaking. The old pipe can just sit
there and rot as far as I'm concerned, and I'll replace it with new
pipe when I get around to it. I have a well for watering the yard, and
don't need city water at outside faucets.

What is the life expectancy of water pipe buried underground? I am
giving serious thought to option 2, because just replacing the 25'
straight run to the house is a whole lot less work than digging up 150
feet of old pipe looking for a leak.

Comments, suggestion, advice?

Do as you suggest, but connect to the extra pipe with an underground valve. If
the leak is in the replaced pipe, you are good. If not, when you fix the leak
later, you can turn the water back on to the rest.

I like that idea even better. Gives me new pipe from meter to house,
and I can then find and fix the leak (or replace the old pipe) as I
have time.

is there a good reason to loop the pipe outdoors? better to run it
indoors somehow..........

i would replace the main line, then loop the new line indoors. abandon
the old outside loop completely.....

sounds like its galvanized, if it is, it probably bad everywhere.

yours is a excellent reason to use PEX, its cheap, lats near forever,
isnt valuable as scrap, so theres zero reason for it to ever be
stolen

But I'm thinking you are right, this old galvanized pipe should
probably be replaced instead of fixed.

It's a straight shot from meter to house. But the only way to run
outside faucets from city water is to tee form the straight line and
run it around the house. You can't get from house to outside easily,
house has concrete basement walls that extend a few feet above ground
level.
Do it the way they do it in "the rest of the world" where water
meters are inside the house to keep them from freezing, and ALL
outside faucets are fed through the concrete foundations

i've heard of very few, and seen even less places where the meter is
inside.
You haven't travelled much.

been in 45 states. only seen an indoor meter in person once.
Well, I've been in 30? of your states, 10 provinces, and at least 10
other countries. Likely closer to 15. I have seen meters above ground
at street, above ground outside house, and inside houses. I haven't
seen them underground at the street - but I guess if they were
underground I wouldn't see them, would I?? Just as if they were INSIDE
you would be unlikely to see them - unless you purposefully went
looking for them. Not knowing where mine is located you could be in my
house for a week and not know I HAD a meter unless you searched for it
(and got lucky - since you couldn't follow the pipes because, like
MOST basement around here, mine is almost TOTALLY finished.

Anywhere frost is common I've never seen one outside above ground.
Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI, Manitoba,
Sakatchewan, much of BC, Minnesota, Michigan, North Dakota, Idaho,
Michigan, northern New York would have at least a large percentage
inside. I suspect Kansas and oklahoma would too,.

I've seen ouside meters in Florida, Georgia,Tennessee, South Carolina,
and west virginia, as well as parts of Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Italy,
saeveral caribean islands and France. A lot of these places don't all
have water meters.OPr even municipal water.
No water meters in Burkina Faso, Bottswana and Zambia - at least when
I was there.