It is, however, done.
The plumber made it to our place today, to check out the leaks at the new well pump. I had checked it again this morning and, using a flashlight, could see that most of the water on the floor was coming from one of the pipes leading from the pump to the well (there are two).
Along with the leak at the well pump, I had also asked to have the taps replaced at the old laundry sink, install the shut off valve on the cold water pipe, plus repair an occaisional leak on the shut off valve on the hot water pipe.
I just checked the security camera time stamps. They were here for three hours.
*sigh*
They charge a base price, plus materials, for the first hour, so we’ll have two more hours of labour on top of that. I haven’t received the bill yet. It will be emailed to me.
We also got some bad news, but I can’t say it was unexpected. I’d already talked to my brother about this, but he had disagreed with me that it was a problem.
We’re going to have to replace our pressure tank. He hooked up a machine to the tank’s valve while it was still full. It had only 2.5psi! For this pump, the psi should be 28.
That will have to wait.
As for the well pump, he had his super bright light to check it out, and found both pipes to the well were also seeping at the fittings. This is on top of the small leak on top of the pump, at the pipe leading to the pressure tank.
He ended up replacing three sections of pipe, two brass fittings attached to the pump itself and two plastic elbows.
This, of course, meant we had no water while it was being worked on. I even had some water bottles available that he could use to prime the pump again when he was done there.
I already had new taps and a second shut off valve for the laundry sink. Getting the old taps off took quite a bit of effort – and a blow torch. The taps I got were designed to simply screw in place, but these old pipes weren’t threaded. Which is why he needed a blow torch to remove the old ones! Once he got those off and the copper cleaned off, he got the new ones on and soldered them in place.
As for the shut off valved, he ended up needing to add some copper pieces to get them to join right.
Once all of that was assembled, we ran the water in the laundry sink and full blast. There was SO much grit that came out, as well as a period where the water was rust colored and completely opaque.
One of the things he did after the well pump’s pipes were all back was use his compressor to bring the pressure tank up to 28psi. Hopefully, it will last a while, because it’s going to be some time before we can replace that.
After he was done and gone, I went to all the taps upstairs and ran the water until it was clear. The only taps left to clear is with the washing machine. We’ll run it through a tub clean tomorrow – then do a whole lot of laundry! I suppose the old taps in the basement that the washing machine had been hooked up to, before the laundry was moved to the entry, should be cleared, too. I leave a hose attached to the cold water tap there, for when I need to clear the floor drains to the septic tank
Here is the finished job.
The first photo in the slide show is of the two pipes leading to/from the well; a suction pipe and a pressure return pipe. New lengths of pipe, new brass fittings at the pump and new elbows to the well. The second photo in the slide sow shows the new pipe to the pressure tank, which did not need new fittings.
The next picture is of the new taps at the laundry sink, soldered in place. I’ve put a short length of hose on the cold water tap again, and will look for another to add the the hot water tap. Without those, the water sprays quite a lot. I did have one set aside already and tried adding it, but it has a plastic rather than metal fitting, and it leaked. It’s just too old. We have old hoses around that I can scavenge later on.
Last of all are the shut off valves. You can see the copper fittings he added, to make up for how much pipe he had to cut away to ensure the Shark Bite valves had something to grip on and not leak. He ended up moving the hot water one completely over by a few inches.
There are two other pipes that have leaks; one at a shut off valve on the hot water pipe to the bath tub. The other in a really hard to reach spot in the cold water pipe going up to the bathroom, where it is now a PEX to copper join. It was so hard to reach into there to crimp the join. By the time he was finished what needed to be done, I wasn’t going to get him to do two far less urgent jobs. Those can wait.
With how long things took, and the time of day, I decided not to go to the town north of us today, to take care of getting our tax forms signed. I will do that tomorrow.
Meanwhile, I’d sent photos and updates to my brother. They are still in Spain doing their pilgrimage. With the 6 hour time difference, he was actually able to see them and respond to me. He’s still surprised about the pressure tank. He says it’s about 20 years old. Their pressure tank at the property they sold was over 30 years old and still working fine. Now that it’s at the right pressure, though, we will monitor things. We should even be able to check the pressure ourselves using a tire pressure gauge; it’s the same type of valve stem.
Hopefully, it will be a long time before we need to call a plumber again!!!
On a completely different note, after doing my morning rounds, I took my April “garden tour” videos. I got one of those “X years today” things in my FB this morning, this time from 2023. It was a photo of the snow we got on April 19 of that year. We had a storm with winds high enough they knocked over the gate trail cam’s stand again. That was when I finally found something heavy I could set across the legs at the base. It hasn’t fallen over, since!
We are now entering a very warm spell, and the forecast has changed, yet again. Last I looked, we were to get 4 very warm days, followed by a major drop in temperature together with rain in the day, snow in the night. Now we’re looking at only one evening, later in the week, with possible rain. We might actually be snow free before the end of April! Wouldn’t that be nice!
Meanwhile, I need to do some editing and upload the garden tour video. My project for this evening!
In between checking on the pumps and tanks in the basement throughout the evening, just to be sure there are no more leaks!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 