We haven't had any rain and the there wasn't enough snow to make this much water. A little further up the yard Cari felt like she saw something shining in the light. We walked out to find that a small spring had formed in our yard. A few shovels of dirt later I uncovered the broken pipe spewing water into the yard.
It was pretty clear that the tree roots running over and under the pipe had finally caused enough pressure to snap a fitting in half.
The bottle of PVC glue suggests a minimum of 2 hours of set time before adding pressure to the pipes. This was the longest 2 hours ever as we waited to see if the repairs would hold. We were dealing with some odd angles and I wasn't confident in the last fitting. If you have ever worked with PVC pipe you might know how hard it can be to get that final fitting in. To get a tight fit you have to have some flexibility somewhere in your line and I didn't have much. You also only get about 30 seconds of time before the pieces start to set.
Just before our dinner guests were to arrive we turned the water back on and waited. It looked great! I rubbed my hand around the fittings trying to detect water. On the last one I felt a small bead of water under the fitting.
After I finished kicking my feet on the ground and crying I went back to look at the pipes and saw what was equivalent to a slow dripping faucet. We left it on for the night and then on Saturday morning I headed back to the store for some pieces to repair the repair.
With the second repairs completed I felt a little more confident in my work but had to wait another 3 hours (due to lower temperatures) before I would know the results.
And the results after having the water on all Saturday night. . .with a paper towel down to detect drips.
No leaks! I'm officially plumber!
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