Yesterday, I headed out to fix the water pipe to the garden tap. It was hot and muggy, and I had sweat pouring off my face, so if you hear me sounding out of breath in the video below, that is why!
The couplings did work. I had to use both of them.
But then… well… here’s the video.
So… that’s a write off.
In theory, I could just dig out the section between where the couplings are, and my unexpected find, figure out where the third leak is and repair that. However, the pipe is so old, and clearly splitting apart easily, it’s not worth it. It needs to be replaced completely.
So now my plan is to take advantage of end of season sales to pick up a heavy duty garden hose long enough to reach from the house to the garden tap, with slack. I am also thinking of picking up some pipe wide enough to run the hose through it. This way, the hose would be protected by the pipe after it’s buried, but if it does need repair, it can be easily pulled out, then put back in again, without having to dig another trench. It would be even easier to attach a line to one end before pulling it out the other way, do any repaires, then use the line to pull it back through the pipe.
I won’t dig up the water pipe until we have what we need to install a replacement, but I am now very curious as to just why there is that wider diameter section of pipe, and how far it extends. I’m also curious as to just how far the hose section coming out of the ground to attach to the house extends, and how it’s joined to the pipe.
Whatever was done obviously made sense at the time, and it did work for about 50 years, which is pretty darn good!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 
That looks like the irrigation tubing which is designed for low water pressures (20-30psi maximum).
I’m wondering if the tubing was just laid out on the ground and 50 years time buried it. It is easy to install, but small rocks moving up through the soil will puncture it. Roots will move it enough to stretch it beyond its breaking point. Sometimes it seems to beak “just because”.
I have no count as to how many patches I’ve done over the years….cut out the bad chunk, put a fitting in place, add some new tubing, cut some more of the old stuff out so it’s about the right length, add a 2nd fitting.
They do make a lot of fittings for the stuff that just push together., but you’d need to take a chunk of the tubing to the store to figure out what is needed as there a lot of “almost the same” sizes for the tubing. Search for “drip irrigation tubing fittings”.
I learned the annoying way about the “almost the same” sizes…. I got some fitting for .700 inch outside diameter tubing, but needed .710 inch ones….. I also found out that they make some “fits both” fittings but they were $5-$6 each instead of $1-$2 each.
Replacing it sounds like quite a project. A good water hose just laid on the ground, and rolled up for the winter, sounds easier. :-)
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It may be irrigation tubing. My parents may well have gotten leftover tubing from a neighbor or something.
It was most definitely buried. I moved around those trees many times as a child. It was never on the surface. It just wasn’t buried deeply. Which could have contributed to damage, too. I’m hoping to hear back from my brother soon, to hear what he remembers.
The fittings you describe would have been ideal, but until I cut the split piece off, I had nothing to bring into the store.
Laying a hose out was suggested by my brother as well. It certainly would be easier. However, it’s a pretty high traffic area, and I would have to move it every time we mowed. We may do that as a short term solution, but I would prefer something more permanent. Maybe something that will last at least another 50 years! 😁
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Like the chicken or egg first thing. :-)
Replacing that (probably) polyethylene tubing with similar stuff shouldn’t be too huge (note I didn’t say easy!) of a project. I used something like
https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/ctc-gravenhurst-utility-grade-poly-pipe-0-7-in-x-100-ft-0631407p.0631407.html?rq=polyethylene%20pipe#srp
except mine needed the 0.710 inch fittings instead of the 0.700 fittings. I have no idea why there are two almost-the-same sizes except to annoy people. And even worse, the indicated size is not the actual size….. :-)
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Ha! My husband and I were looking those up, except at Home Depot instead of Canadian Tire.
To have a .01 inch difference in fitting sizes, though… good grief!
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And it’s just enough to make a difference unless one buys the expensive fittings. Given that there are two sizes, one would think there would be a 50-50 chance of getting the right fitting…….it doesn’t seem to work that way….there is a 100-0 chance of getting the wrong one. :-)
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😅😅
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I fixed a friend’s oldish (1960s??) Canadian Tire “Pulsar” radio, so that’s probably why I thought of that name. :-)
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I’m not sure how well “hose in a pipe” would work . Dirt seems to get into the pipes like that and the dirt ends up “gluing” the hose into place.
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I agree. Something like that was used in the patch I found, but I have no idea what. There is nothing visible. Whatever it is worked really well!
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