The water saga continues … While turning the water off and on at the meter, I noticed a wet spot 10 feet away in the dirt. Obviously, there was a 3rd leak. And after repairing this 3rd leak, there was still water around the pipe leading away from the meter. I dug, following the pipe, and found a 4th leak 6 feet away. A repair had been made using a compression fitting. Bad idea. A slight leak attracted root hairs which made their way to the compression fitting, eventually making a larger hole. Trees don’t have brains, but they do follow the water provided by careless repairmen, who don’t have brains either. I glued the pipe using “hot” PVC glue that sets in 1 hour. The original plumbing was thinwall pipe. Strike 2! Someone later planted an ornamental tree right over the water pipe. Strike 3! We have the leak down to .33 gallon per minute. At 7¢ per gallon, that’s about $35 per month. We should be able to limp into warmer weather when we can install new PEX pipe (again, Joey with me supervising). Joey’s careful attention is a sharp contrast to the carelessness seen in the work done 60 years ago. Cheap material is understandable, but poor workmanship and carelessness is never acceptable. Hey, do your best work because the Lord is watching. Proverbs 12:24, “The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute.” Or, to paraphrase the Bible verse, one is called a master plumber while the other is called a shade tree plumber.
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