Super-H-Mike
Member
Long story ahead ! I have had a water line out to my barn that froze 2 years in a row, and it has had a leak for a number of years before that, we used to just shut the water off when not needed. The flow was slowing down as the leak seemed to get worse. So I decided it was time to fix it, rented an excavator and dug up the wet spot that would show up. I found a rust hole in the 1 inch pipe the size of a pencil. Directly under this spot were several volleyball size rocks. The pipe in this spot was pushed up towards the surface and kinked til it was was only 3.5 feet down. This explains why it was freezing ( Minnesota ). Did the leak cause the rocks and frost to push the line up? The rest was all consistently 7 feet down. Now this line was in great shape other than the rust hole, pipe was clear inside and remarkably sound after being buried almost a hundred years. I patched it with no trouble. BUT, now I have NO water out to the barns ! I have included a sketch of how its laid out. The water starts in the house and goes out to the barns. When dug up, I blew air through the lines from the big barn and small barn, and had good flow to the spot of repair. After repair and before burying it back up I had no leaks and decent flow to the big barn, I let it run for 3 hours while I filled the hole back in. So next morning I have nothing to the barns , but excellent flow to the small outbuilding ! So what happened? I tried blowing air back through the pipes with no luck, I stuck a strong shop vac on the line and got nothing . I am scratching my head ! Any ideas ? Could it be sediment that got back in that old rust hole , and if so can that really stop ALL flow ? Why did it run for 3 hours okay then ? If it was another leak how would I get good flow to the outbuilding ? Need some new input, thanks...