Wet t-shirt contest and the spigot at Andrew and Graces house!!!

And by that I mean water leaking from everywhere which leads to stuff getting wet. Not in a drunken college Mexico spring break wooohooo fun kindof way. Which would've been more fun.

But in the way of pipes leaking. Which leads us to Sundays saga.

I started Sunday by deciding to fix the other spigot that is on the side of the house. It started leaking the other day b/c the valve wouldn't shut all of the way. I figured I would just replace it. We had hooked a hose to the spigot so the water would go to the flowers and not be wasted. So I had waited a couple days before getting to work on it.

So I went under the house and spread some plastic down in order to stay a little clean while crawling in the half basement crawl space portion. I had gone to the valve going to the pipe which lead to the spigot, but it wouldn't shut. In fact that valve started leaking too. Now to give you a mental picture of the way that the house is plumbed the main water comes in the front of the house where the crawl space is. After entering the crawl space there is a main valve. The pipe then goes up at a 45 degree angle and shoots towards the back of the house where the majority of the piping is. About a foot or less from the front wall though is a branch that goes to the spigot on the far opposite side of the house. So you have the main line on the right side of the house, if you are facing it, and the forward (broken) spigot on the left side of the house when facing it.

So what I had to do is turn off the main water going to the house on the main valve when it first comes into the house. I turned it off and went to Lowes (trip 1) to get the necessary piping and such to replace the spigot valve and new spigot etc. I get back and cut all of the old stuff out and but the new piping on. Easy enough. I turn on the water to the house and the new piping has a little leak on there. I think it may be one thing so I turn the water back off and go back to Lowes to get what I think I need. (trip #2) So I am in Lowes and I realize I made a stupid mistake and forgot to put thread tape on one of the couplings. But since I was there I picked up a couple things in case something needed to be changed. It was only like a couple $'s so no worries. I get back to the house and I have to re-cut the new pipe to get it apart to put the tape on and such. (I had bought a coupler on trip #2 for that purpose.) So I cut the pipe but it is leaking a bunch of water from the pipe. I figure it is just the entire house draining out that one pipe so I have Grace follow the main pipe to where it comes out of the crawl space and into the main basement. There is a valve there so we turn it in order to shut the water off from the rest of the house and slow the entire draining of the house. Well that really didn't stop it. The water was still coming from the pipe. I couldn't put the pipe together because of the water leaking. So I figured that the main valve was just leaking by some. I go back to the main valve and close that as tight as I can. Well that didn't fix the problem. But if I lifted the pipe higher than the rest of the length of pipe then the water would stop for about 45 seconds. I decided that I would chance it and couple the pipe in that time. It worked and I got the pipe back together.

I then went to turn the water back on. This is the point where it really got fun (and by fun I mean poking yourself in the eye.) When I turned the water on not only was water leaking from the main valve, but water was also leaking from the second valve that was in the main basement. I tried to get the water to stop leaking but nothing was working. So I am thinking that if I need to replace these leaking valves then I need to get the water turned off to the house. I went outside to find the street turn off. I see every metering valve cover in-between the sidewalk and the street except for mine. I try kicking the dirt around to find the cover but couldn't find it. All the while the pipes are still leaking in the basement. I go upstairs and find the plat paperwork for the house to see if it has the water service marked on there. No luck. I go to the Richmond GIS which has a water layer on it, as well as other stuff as to where buildings are and the fire districts, police beats, leaf pickup areas and such, (you can look anything up on it), BUT NOT INDIVIDUAL WATER SERVICES!!!!! So I go outside with a small chisel that I found quickly and start poking around in the dirt till I hit something. I figured out it is somewhere in line with the main pipe and between the sidewalk and the street. I eventually find it buried in the dirt. I dig the dirt off the lid and raise it off. The valve is in my sights now, but as any good Indiana Jones fan would know the adventure isn't over yet. There are no less than 80 big black cockroaches living in this pipe that I have to stick my arm in about a foot to a foot and 1/2 down with a wrench to turn the water off. So I suck it up and stick my hand down there and try to turn the valve. It wouldn't turn. I keep trying and trying but to no avail it won't turn off. By now I have been cursing like a sailor and acting like an idiot standing outside poking the ground with a chisel saying words like this.....$#%&&;#%@%;#$%#$%;%#@$%&&&%$#$&*%^$@!$^$@^&%%&%^%$#%$#@$:%$%#@$:^:^%:!#$$!$#%!$^$%^%#^@^@$^%%@##%##@!!#%$%^^&...........And a host of other things. So I give up on the valve thinking I may be going back to Lowes for trip #3 to get new valves and a water turn off key. I decide to go once more into the breach and attack the main valve in a last ditch effort before going to Lowes. I get under the house and tighten the nut on the bottom of the valve as tight as I can and the water slows. HAHA! I tighten it more and the water stops. Victory is mine. I have found its Achilles heel. I go to the second valve. The water stops completely. 8 hours later I have successfully changed out one spigot!

After thinking about it when I was opening and closing the valves it probably just loosened up the nuts which haven't been moved and many many years. But in the end the water leaks stopped and I now have a new side spigot. Luckily there are no more that can decide to break. So that is the story of the wet t-shirt contest and the spigot at Andrews and graces house. Sleep well my little ones b/c it will be a dry night once again in The Little Brick Oven.