It’s been a busy week here at Purgatory as a driveway repaving project has also become a let’s-replace-the-main-water-line-to-the-house project. This is currently day 2 without water, but thankfully I have bottled water to drink and a 44,000 gallon pool from which to draw for doing things like dishes or washing debris off the floor beneath the bird cages. Also thankfully I will be up north this weekend where I will have access to a shower (although one of our nearest neighbors graciously let me use their shower two days ago.) Anyway, here are some images of the initial damage and what we uncovered.
1. First the broken metal pipe. It was just a few inches beneath the soil at this point.
2. And it was located right in the middle of the courtyard.
3. And as it approached the house it rose up steeply instead of staying at a safer depth.
4. And of course the pad of the garage was poured over the line.
5. So the solution? Abandon the old line and run a new main line from the junction behind the garage. Here’s a shot of the new trench out to the fire hydrant.
6. And you will notice that the line stays at a nice deep 18 inches even as it approaches the house.
Once the crew finishes, water service will hopefully be restored. They still need to trench along side the garage to lay the second section of pipe (we will be putting in two pipes in this section–one for the hydrant and one for main house line) and there are electrical connections in the ground there we need to keep intact (right now all power to the garage area is of course switched off at the main panel.) So many many things can still go lopsided at this point so it’s best to just pack my overnight bag and make for that nice hot shower just across the Golden Gate.