What happened? We knew that this water hydrant was going to need replacing but these things never wait until you're ready for it-if it really waited then it would never get done-duh. We noticed that it had a crack on the top of the nozzle a while ago that would leak a little when the water was on but of course it always stopped when the hydrant was turned off. Well, I sent the girls outside to go get the garbage can and next thing I know, Marisa came running in with something very important o tell me but she couldn't just tell me what. It went like this..
"Mom, mom, you have to come see this"
"Just tell me what it is.
"No, you have to see this, hurry"
" Okay....(I'm walking outside and out to the front of the house) ahhh....did you guys turn it on?!!"
"No, we haven't touched it."
There was water spraying out of the crack, which had grown a lot all of a sudden, all over the place. Of course, Bryan would be in Elko today. I tried calling him but had to leave a msg. I ran down to the pump house to turn the water off-had a slight scare there too. I forgot that we had to put a ball valve on the main line because the other valve didn't work. I sat there and turned and turned the broken valve wondering how I was going to get the water off because this valve wasn't working-ahhhh!!!!!! I tried Bryan again and this time he answered and so kindly reminded me of the other valve-whooo.....that one worked.
Judy came and got the girls and I got to digging. Bryan was going to be in Elko all day so I needed to get as much done as I could so that he could finish it before it got dark when he got home. Digging was about all I could do and there was a lot of dirt to move. The bottom of the hydrant was down 4ft and the digging area was very limited due to the deck on one side, concrete sidewalk on the other, sprinkler system valves and controls on another side and the lawn and sprinkler system on the other side-completely surrounded be stuff!
My neighbors were very helpful and came over to help. We got the hole dug-it was a pain, literally all over, but Bryan was able to come home a bit early so yippeee!!! I had went to the hardware store and picked up a new hydrant so he was able to get right to taking the old one off and putting the new one on. It didn't go quite that smooth though, of course; we got it all together and when I turned the water on..... it blew apart. By now I am getting really, really tired. So, we bucketed the water out, dug a bit more, changed a couple things and tried it again. This time it worked!!!! Yeah!!!!
However, because the pipe came apart and this water hydrant line is connected directly to the main line to the house there is that chance that rocks and sand got inside and will cause problems in the house. Yep, it did; I had very little water pressure. Thankfully, this was an easy fix and all is well now. Good thing too because I am beat!
Here is the old pipe still connected to that little pipe that is connected to the bigger pipe in that little hole in between the deck, sidewalk, sprinkler system, etc......
Another view
That just doesn't look comfortable!
At least he's smiling! (He didn't have to dig the hole)
After it had blew apart and we had scooped most of the water out-now its really muddy!
Ta-da!! A new, pretty hydrant!
You can see how limited we were on space here. The joys of being a homeowner!!
3 comments:
Ambur you did a great job. You took control of the situation and acted in a cool logical fashion, you did not panic and did what you could solo and made great progress with little to no information. You did all the hard part which only lrft the technical skill part of the job to do. You should be as proud of yourself as I am of you.
We're proud too! I would have just started crying...seriously. :)
Ambur, I am trying to buy a house - you may have just scared me out of home ownership... ;-)
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