Once the dust from the furnace install settled, we noticed a few new issues–not with the new HVAC setup, but various bits of leaking plumbing.
To begin with, our pool solar sprang a couple of leaks. This was rather disconcerting, but not terrible. The installers (Seabright Solar) came out and determined some of the valves had failed. We weren’t their only customer with such a problem, so once they found a better solution, they replaced all our valves and we were once again leak-free.
The second leak was a bit harder to deal with. Regular readers will remember that we had the driveway completely repaved early in 2017, during which the crew accidentally crushed our water main. That little oopsie resulted in a very large delay in completing the project. We ended up running a new main line from the christy box just behind the garage, and left the hole open for a few months as we wanted to be certain we weren’t going to have to dig things back up again. Eventually, in June 2017, we installed a valve to prevent backflow and closed up the hole.
Fast forward a year and things started to leak. We discovered this because during the summer it’s very dry here, and suddenly the ground behind the garage was not very dry. When we pulled the christy box lid, it was full of water. Not a good sign.
Thankfully we have Bambi, so a little while later, we had things exposed.
This is what we found.
We patched things up as best we could. A few months later, I had another mob in since Able weren’t available, and instead of just fixing the issue, we decided to go one step further and have a set of stand valves put in place. This way we wouldn’t rely on a valve buried almost two feet underground and requiring a giant metal swizzle stick to move the valve handle.
Now we have the ability to shut off water to the hydrant and house independently, the line to the irrigation around the big fir tree is sorted, and we have an extra spigot to connect a hose. Until we get our rainwater storage sorted, this setup should do the trick. Who knows, in a few years’ time we may dig it all up and revamp things.
Bonus: Agent Smith and I make a good digging team. Here’s a video of some of the excavation work.