Water, water, everywhere...

What have we here?

A week ago, Trev bought up the big petrol-powered pressure cleaner with the walk-behind disc cleaner, and we cleaned up all the concrete and paving around the house. Since then, we've had some intermittent water under the hose reel outside the laundry. No big deal - we used a lot of water when we were cleaning, so it's not out of the question for the pavers to still be a bit soggy. I noticed it again on Thursday night when I was watering the garden - the area looked to be wet, but on the other hand that hose reel leaks a fair bit (due to our abnormally high water pressure), so it's not uncommon to get water dripping there.

On Friday afternoon, however, my curiosity had got the better of me. When I went out to have a look, I found the adjacent garden full of water, and looking closer, you could see water bubbling up between the pavers.



uh oh.

So out came the tools, and up came the pavers. The more we dug, the worse it got...



Soon we had our own little fountain...



Resigning ourselves to the fact that it probably wasn't going to magically stop by itself, we resorted to turning the water off to the house at the mains valve. At least we could now excavate the area without splashing gunk everywhere.



The problem turned out to be a cracked fitting. In the top-left of the assembly shown above, there is a white PVC T-junction, that has a screw-on fitting on it's left, where the hard copper line attaches. That screw fitting is cracked along it's length. So that's our culprit. Being right outside the washing machine, it's possible that the crack has been caused by the high water pressure, and the washing machine's filling valves opening and closing quickly, causing large backpressure in the lines right outside.

Whatever caused it, we needed to fix it. After looking at it for a while, we decided that we didn't have the tools, or the parts to attempt to fix it ourselves. So we needed outside help.

It was now late on Friday night before a long weekend (Labor day on Monday was a public holiday), and we were scheduled to go camping all weekend. After weighing up the pros and cons, we decided to fill the bath with water (so we had a small reservoir for flushing of toilets and washing of hands), then turn the house off at the mains and go away for the weekend. We didn't like our chances of finding a plumber on a long weekend who wouldn't charge an arm and a leg, and after all, we weren't going to be home anyway.

After getting back on Monday, we phoned a local plumber and left a message detailing the problem and our contact details. We called from Trev & Kelli's place, where we'd gone to have a shower. He called at 10 to 7 on Tuesday morning, and said he'd come straight around to look at it. We showed him the situation, explained what we'd done, then went off to work. We arrived back that evening to find the fitting patched up, and the mains water turned back on.



Note the larger plastic sleeve on the LHS of the t-junction, complete with new plastic screw fitting. Best of all, no leaks! We made sure the hot water system was full, and then could enjoy the luxury of having running water inside our house again.

I even pulled the toilet apart, and have stopped it's running problem (for now). Following on from the last toilet post, the problem had resurfaced again as anticipated, although not as bad this time. Investigation showed that it was actually running because the cistern was filling up too high, and overflowing down the centre of the flush mechanism. After adjusting the float level back down, the toilet now fills, stops, and doesn't run any more! I fear that the aforementioned water pressure is to blame here as well, and it is forcing water into the tank with more pressure than the cistern float can exert on the valve to close it. It's fixed for now, but I fear the pressure is forcing the float arm to bend, so anticipate it to come back. But for now, we have a perfect toilet again!

Our next project, then, will involve this:



That's our mains connection, with the tap valve and water meter. We need to install a pressure limiting valve to the left of the meter here, so that the water pressure inside the house doesn't exceed the 500kpa that's outlined in the building code. Without this, I fear we'll continue to blow pipes, as well as damaging washing machines, dishwashers, toilets, etc. Plus, as it currently stands, the pressure is sufficient to blow outside hoses off their tap fittings, and to wreck the internals of spray nozzles and such. It's a certainty that if you go out to water the garden you'll have water spray out from the hose-to-nozzle connection all over you, and then the connection will blow off the hose, or the nozzle itself will blow apart. It's really quite wicked.

I've been given advice as to what pressure limiting valve would be best, so we need to work out whether it's something we can DIY ourselves, or whether we'll need to call a pro in. We'll wait and see how much the plumber charges for the repair above, and if it's reasonable, we'll probably just call him out again and get him to do it.

Oh, and while we were taking the photo of the mains connection above, Jess noticed that there's a considerable drip from the mains valve where the tap enters the body (you can see the water trail on it in the photo above). It's on council's side of the meter, so we're not paying for it, but we'll need to call them up and let them know to come and fix it.

It never ends!