It’s only Wednesday and it feels like it’s been a long week already. That is mostly due to the water main leak emergency I have had to endure. I have had to have my irrigation guy come and tell me he thinks there’s a leak in the main line. I have had the big bad leak detection company come and spend three or four hours traipsing the property with radar and sonar devices. Underground leak detection generally relies on indirect signals since you can’t see the pipe. Main approaches to finding them are acoustic detection (a leak under pressure creates a hissing/vibration sound as water escapes through the crack), so the technician uses ground microphones or “listening sticks” placed at intervals along the suspected pipe route, or correlator devices that use two sensors (one at each end of a pipe section) to triangulate the leak by comparing the time it takes the sound to reach each sensor. Alternatively, they use tracer gas where the line is depressurized, filled with a mix of nitrogen and a small percentage of hydrogen (or sometimes helium), which is lightweight and migrates upward through soil. A handheld sensor is walked along the pipe route above ground, detecting where the gas surfaces, thereby pinpointing the leak location even through concrete slabs. They also use thermal/infrared imaging, video/pipe inspection cameras, pressure testing and moisture/electromagnetic sensing. I have no clue what method worked to detect my leak, but he found it. Once found, he put a flag on the spot and told me to call my plumber.
Luckily, the plumber I usually use was able to come right over and he spent three hours fixing the backflow valve that the leak detection people broke when they pressurized the lines. He then handed me off to a fellow plumber to fix the main line leak and he told me to get the area dug up to expose the broken pipe. Again, luckily, Miguel was available and I watched while he spent the better part of five hours digging down about five feet to find the main line 2” pipe with the leak. Did you know that there is “tracer wire” imbedded running alongside underground PVC plumbing pipe? Modern water, gas, and sewer lines are often PVC or HDPE plastic, which can’t be detected with a metal detector or locator wand. So, a bare or insulated copper tracer wire is buried directly alongside (or taped to) the pipe specifically so utility locators can find it later using an electromagnetic locator, before someone digs and hits it. That would explain the red coated wires I found when we dug up the main line, having to go well below the more superficial irrigation lines that were above it. Finally, we were ready for the plumber.
Yesterday, the second plumber came and spent about three more hours cutting out the cracked pipe. It truly was only a hairline crack in an elbow joint PVC pipe, but then again it was only a little “O” ring that brought down the Challenger Shuttle, right? We had to live for a day with the water shut off while the pipe glue set. He then returned this morning at 6am to start the process of turning the water back on ever so gradually so as to allow the pressure to build up without any incident. That’s all happened now and our water service is restored, so all is well, but not yet fully finished. Miguel has to come back tomorrow to fill in the 5 foot hole with about five wheelbarrows full of dirt. I will stop at Javier’s Nursery today to buy a few replacement plants to put in where the disruption has occurred and I’ve bought six bags of bark mulch to finish it off. This leak hole is right along the driveway, where 65 people will be walking back and forth on Saturday as they go for Margarita and tacos from the trucks we are arranging for our fiesta. Needless to say, I want that driveway to look pretty and like nothing untoward has happened this week.
I am also told by both plumber #1 and plumber #2 that I need to have the temporary backflow valve replaced and refitted permanently, but that there is no rush on that. Even the Water Authority guy told me there was no rush on that, but that it should eventually be done by a certified backflow valve person. Apparently neither of my plumbers are thus certified, but they have given me the name of a guy who can come to do the job when I am ready. I think I will take a breather from plumbing repair and deal with that when I return from Europe next month.
The other chapter in this sage involves the spa, which has been turned off since Monday due to all these leak issues. I have the spa guy coming today to try to address the spa leak that we all know still exists. I have no idea what that will entail, but he assures me that the spa will look bubbly and lovely by Saturday regardless.
With all that drama behind me, I can get back to fiesta preparations. I will make my Costco run this morning and then tomorrow I will put up the rest of the decorations take I have prepared to make the driveway and upper parking area look as festive as possible. I will spend some time washing down the driveway since I know it will see a lot of traffic on Saturday. Since I am putting some cables over the driveway at about 10 feet in height from which to hang decorations, I will place a traffic cone at the bottom of the driveway to warn off the delivery trucks. I reckon that regular cars and even pickups will be able to safely go underneath those cables, but I am basically going to have to play all of that by ear once I saw put the cables across the driveway. The shade tent, the drop shade, the tables and the chairs will all go out on Friday, leaving very little to do on Saturday but manage whatever crises arise unexpectedly.
We are getting close to that moment of calm before the storm and the weather seems to want to remind of just that. This morning the mist was settled down in the valleys and the air is very still. It will be another warm day today, which is good for drying off the driveway after I wash it down. It looks as though the weather will remain relatively indignation for the rest of the week, which is a good thing. I look forward to being becalmed by the warmth of August with friends arriving for the fiesta.