rental reno continueoed........

 as one of my last post forecasted it looked like i was in for a repair of the water main. well if your gonna do it, do it right. well i decided sense this house was built in the 30dees that it would be wise(not so cheap) to replace the entire line, as not to have more problems in the future. this is a pic of the side yard before excavation. i had to get this project done that night because we had a slight warm day in the 50dees, but rain was forecasted that night and the temps expected to be in the 30dees as the high for the next week. cant dig in frozen ground and if i didn't get it refilled it would turn into a ice rink.

i started this project after work, so i got started around 2:30in the pm. 1st removed the tree it wouldn't be getting any more free water. being the lone shovel operator it took only about a hour to expose the old piping. for the techies out there the frost line is a foot in NC and the existing piping was in some spots about 5in down(could almost hit that with the lawn mower) but had worked like this for some time. the leakey spot was about a foot and a half under. you can see some water around the old pipe at the source of the leak. i then removed piping and dug down at least 28in or more to insure proper depth.

well with some research i found out that this new tubing is often used and also up to code.  that was too be the easiest method, so i went with the extra thick 3/4 tubing. after a few trips to Lowe's for parts(forgot wallet...... both times), i finally was successfully in getting the pipe and hooking it up. if i had the right parts on site it would have taken only about 10min( but that was not my case), but it was super easy. if i had wussed out and rented a ditch witch(a machine powered digging apparatus) you would have read about a massive explosion in concord, if you look close at the pic you can see that that the water line runs under the gas line....ya kaaabooom. for future digging you can call the local utility companies and they'll usual locate and mark all your utility lines for free.

sad to report no new tools were needed in this excavation, but that shovel got a good work out. this is a pic of the recovering of the ditch. as you can see dark has fell i ended finishing up around 8:50pm, not too bad. then i was off to the home were my exhausted wife(been x-mas shopping) awaited with a nice hot fire and a warm bowl of stew :) and a sleeping little one. good times