Leaky shutoff valve that was buried 3 1/2' down, in the middle of a OLD landscape. Roots were everywhere. It wasn't all that bad once I got it dug out, 3/4" poly house line with plastic tee and a ball valve. The Ball valve was leaking. I decided to elbow it up to a more reasionable depth (12"), install the valve and elbow down to the sprinkler line that headed off to the backflow. Tommorow has a even more challenging one, I have to fix a manifold in the landscape of a fast food joint. Except that the manifold is right next to the drivethrough, so I'll have to really watch my rear.
Rooted situations are the worse in my book. I've had some where by the time you get to the leak you've expended so much time just getting through the roots that you're actually looking forward to the repair job. I had a planter break come in yesterday at district offices. Apparently the Pepsi truck ran over something. It's gonna wait until Monday or so because today is a 4-1/2 hour day and then we're off the rest of the week for the holidays. Have to finish up a baseball dirt system first. Good luck today Jon. Rather than watching your rear a bunch of cuties will be watching it for you.
I did it this morning. I set out a few cones and watched my rear. It was raining so hard today I kept having to bail out the hole I was working in, frusterating. The mainline ran under the drivethrough lane in a sleeve, immediatly out of the sleeve there was a 45 (It was actually partially in the sleeve), and then there was a poorly made manifold, all fitting to fitting. The 45 was leaking on the side inside the sleeve, poor glue job I think. It took me a while but I was able to change it and rebuild the mainline side of the valve manifold without having to mess with the lateral side. Another reasion why I like threaded valves. I should start keeping my digital camera in my truck for these oddball repairs.
Good to hear that all went well. (I loath vertical 45's.) If you'd carry your camera with you then you could help me use the bandwidth up. Great way to share our experiences. Wish more guys would take pics when they run into some of their oddball situations (or even routine ones because we all have our unique ways of taking care of things). So many times we're just guessing at what someone is attempting to describe.
Mine is currently in need of replacing and I think I'll wait til spring, but a 12v bilge pump from Wal-mart or wherever wired to a cigarete lighter plug and powered by my jump start works slick. You can buy one for under $20 including the first plug and they don't mind dirty water too much. Nothing seems to really like mud, not even that nice gas job w/ a "trash" pump on it.
We go through 3-4 Beckson pumps each per year. They really don't last as long when pumping muddy water, sometimes with primer and glue in the water. The upper seal eventually wears out and allows water to squirt out along the handle rod and we then replace it. Usually give them to the grounds guys for use at home on clean water. Just not worth it to us to hang onto them and get wet/muddy. Our Honda pump is almost 15 years old. We've replaced the impeller in it one time and it does a great job on muddy water. We always drain it after each use and run clear water through the casing from time to time.
