Winterizing a home

[frodo]

Frodo,

Thanks for all the help. When I imagine what you are describing I think about a glass full to the brim with water. I put a straw in which fills with water as I put it in. Blowing on it, I think, would cause a volume of water equal to the volume in the straw to come out, and after that the air would just bubble to the surface and escape.
As that relates to blowing out the pipe: Since the ratio of volume of two pipes is the ratio of their respective radiuses squared that would work out to 0.125^2/0.375^2 = 0.111 . So if I wanted to remove the water all the way down 6 feet, I would need 6ft/0.111 = 54 ft of quarter inch tubing inside the water service line. Its hard to imagine practically.
Am I thinking about this correctly?

in essence you are correct, but you are, what i call

"brain F***ing it"

throw all the numbers you want at it, run the batteries on the calculator down
use 3 #2 pencils and a whole legal pad.

when your finished, snake 6' of 1/4'' polly pipe [ice maker tubing] down the 3/4 and blow the water out

if you have a little water left after blowing it.
suck and spit, the remainder.
practical enough ?

 

[Chris]

I would install the stop and waste if it were me. Usually they will dig a couple feet below the valve and fill it with rock so that the valve is not submerged in water but just draining into the pit. I would add filter fabric around the outside of the rock to keep dirt from infiltrating the rock and clogging it up. If you wanted to get creative you could add a valve just before the stop and waste that you can turn off then drain the line with the stop and waste and then open up the stop and waste to close off the drain hole while keeping the regular curb stop shut for the winter. Then you only have it open long enough to drain the pipe and thats it.

 

[greatwhitenorth]

lol. quite possibly. It's $8000 to run a line from the curb stop to the back side of the garage, so you are correct I am way over thinking it. Its a lot of money for a poor man like me.

Just got off the phone with a local plumber who tells me they usually suck it out with a shop vac. According to him they've been doin it that way for years and never a problem so I guess Ill just let em do what they've been doin that works.

Thanks for the help! It is much appreciated.

in essence you are correct, but you are, what i call

"brain F***ing it"

throw all the numbers you want at it, run the batteries on the calculator down
use 3 #2 pencils and a whole legal pad.
View attachment 9597
when your finished, snake 6' of 1/4'' polly pipe [ice maker tubing] down the 3/4 and blow the water out
View attachment 9598
if you have a little water left after blowing it.
suck and spit, the remainder.
practical enough ?

View attachment 9599

 

[greatwhitenorth]

I would install the stop and waste if it were me. Usually they will dig a couple feet below the valve and fill it with rock so that the valve is not submerged in water but just draining into the pit. I would add filter fabric around the outside of the rock to keep dirt from infiltrating the rock and clogging it up. If you wanted to get creative you could add a valve just before the stop and waste that you can turn off then drain the line with the stop and waste and then open up the stop and waste to close off the drain hole while keeping the regular curb stop shut for the winter. Then you only have it open long enough to drain the pipe and thats it.

sounds like some good ideas. Right now Im leaning toward the rock and fabric with a single stop and drain between the curb stop and house. That gives me two options:

1) shut off the curb stop and then pressure up the line and close the stop and drain long enough to blow it out after which I'll open the stop and drain back up (leaving the curb stop off for the winter)

2) shut off the curb stop and shop vac out the service line (leaving the curb stop off for the winter)

Thanks again for the help!!!

 

[frodo]

I would install a stop an waste, If it were legal in my area