timdevries
New Member
Hi there,
I've got a bit of a problem. I'll describe what I've done and what I think **might** work to pressure test it.
So, I started building a house 2 summers ago. At some point, I ran in the water to the curbstop. When I did, I pressure tested the line by putting on a valve inside the basement followed by another piece of municipex, a tee with a 100 psi water pressure gauge from home depot and an 1/8" air valve. I fired up the generator, compressor and pumped the pressure up to 100 psi. I went and had lunch, checked it; still holding at 100 psi. So I **thought** all was good. Backfilled, continued on with the next thing that seemed to be what I needed to do. At some point, I went back in the basement to grab something or something, at took a double take at the pipe, realized I had the valve shut. I opened the valve and of course the air pressure dropped. Retried with compressor but no, the pressure didn't hold. Attached the compressor hose physically by removing air valve and using fittings to have the compressor continually fill the line. Inspected where it attached to the curbstop and could hear it hissing. It was too late to go back down, it was a sunday. As I said, I've been going at this for a couple years. Talked to the inspector for the area, he says it should hold any pressure put on it. I got my friend out there at the end of season and we dug down, and something bad happened. The curbstop broke, water started filling the hole. Called in a pro to fix the curbstop and attach the house line.
Over winter, I wound up there a couple times. I'm not sure if I can track down the photo, but basically there was water in the line after the pro fixed it. At present, I'm almost ready to turn the water on. Problem is, I don't know if the water that was in the line had caused the plastic municipex (blue 3/4" pex pipe) to crack somewhere.
I just passed the rough in plumbing. While the inspector was there (a different one), he said that some curbstops have a 'drain down' valve, so the h/o side should be okay during winter. Talked to the owner of the company that fixed the curbstop, he says only about 75% of them have the drain down feature.
I need to pressure test the line so that I can be certain it isn't broken.
My thoughts:
Cut the old, broken valve off (the handle broke), replace with a 3/4 pex with drain down in case I plan to leave everything over winter at some future date, attach another piece of 3/4 pex to the other end, leaving plenty to cut to get the meter on, attach another pressure gauge and filler.
Attempt to fill it with air (valve open this time). If it holds, great! If not, get the water turned on and see if the water pressurizes the air to nominal pressure.
I could also test the neighbours water pressure similarily at the toilet shut off to develop a sort of baseline pressure (although it's at 1/2" so that might also affect the reading)?
Any thoughts? Advice? Reality check?
Thanks,
Tim
I've got a bit of a problem. I'll describe what I've done and what I think **might** work to pressure test it.
So, I started building a house 2 summers ago. At some point, I ran in the water to the curbstop. When I did, I pressure tested the line by putting on a valve inside the basement followed by another piece of municipex, a tee with a 100 psi water pressure gauge from home depot and an 1/8" air valve. I fired up the generator, compressor and pumped the pressure up to 100 psi. I went and had lunch, checked it; still holding at 100 psi. So I **thought** all was good. Backfilled, continued on with the next thing that seemed to be what I needed to do. At some point, I went back in the basement to grab something or something, at took a double take at the pipe, realized I had the valve shut. I opened the valve and of course the air pressure dropped. Retried with compressor but no, the pressure didn't hold. Attached the compressor hose physically by removing air valve and using fittings to have the compressor continually fill the line. Inspected where it attached to the curbstop and could hear it hissing. It was too late to go back down, it was a sunday. As I said, I've been going at this for a couple years. Talked to the inspector for the area, he says it should hold any pressure put on it. I got my friend out there at the end of season and we dug down, and something bad happened. The curbstop broke, water started filling the hole. Called in a pro to fix the curbstop and attach the house line.
Over winter, I wound up there a couple times. I'm not sure if I can track down the photo, but basically there was water in the line after the pro fixed it. At present, I'm almost ready to turn the water on. Problem is, I don't know if the water that was in the line had caused the plastic municipex (blue 3/4" pex pipe) to crack somewhere.
I just passed the rough in plumbing. While the inspector was there (a different one), he said that some curbstops have a 'drain down' valve, so the h/o side should be okay during winter. Talked to the owner of the company that fixed the curbstop, he says only about 75% of them have the drain down feature.
I need to pressure test the line so that I can be certain it isn't broken.
My thoughts:
Cut the old, broken valve off (the handle broke), replace with a 3/4 pex with drain down in case I plan to leave everything over winter at some future date, attach another piece of 3/4 pex to the other end, leaving plenty to cut to get the meter on, attach another pressure gauge and filler.
Attempt to fill it with air (valve open this time). If it holds, great! If not, get the water turned on and see if the water pressurizes the air to nominal pressure.
I could also test the neighbours water pressure similarily at the toilet shut off to develop a sort of baseline pressure (although it's at 1/2" so that might also affect the reading)?
Any thoughts? Advice? Reality check?
Thanks,
Tim
