[Water Main] Just When You Think You'll Get Through Unscathed...

[Iron Chef]

Water main burst this morning at around 3AM in my driveway. I didn't even know until a neighbor knocked on my door because I still had water at full pressure. While I was standing out there a city Water Dept. truck pulled up. He said he just happened to be passing by and saw the break. Reported it as a Priority 4, whatever that means. He did tell me that they had 50 water mains burst throughout the city overnight, so he couldn't say when they would be out.

The break actually starts about 50 yards up, as water is bubbling up though cracks in the street.

I asked him when they were going to shut off my water and for how long. He said that my water is on a different line and I should expect no interruption in service. However, since the thing blew the concrete up, I'll get a new driveway out of it.

I wonder what the city would say to red brick in a herringbone pattern....

[99 pewtercoupe]

Sounds like a win/win for you

[Stangkiller]

Oh man that sucks! We lost a pipe over the master bedroom and a third of the ceiling...in addition to no power for 40hrs.

[Datawiz]

Tell the FedEX driver to stay away.

[Steve_R]

ICNLT.

[Dan47]

They charged my neighbor for something similar. They had to dig up my driveway to get to the leak and charged him for everything. I wasn't aware that homeowners were responsible for waterlines outside their property lines? Maybe just a Nebraska thing?

[Rodnok1]

Back in late 80s when a super cold snap hit the southeast, huge water mains burst all over some 24 inches plus. Knew a guy that was hauling custom line repair parts from Michigan of all places to Atlanta.
Last really bad cold spell here neighbor mains broke all over and the closest city had their biggest line break.

[Bill]

The city has sovereign immunity. They don't have to fix your driveway if they don't want to. Hopefully they will fix it rhough.

[Iron Chef]

Originally Posted by 99 pewtercoupe

Sounds like a win/win for you

Looks that way

Originally Posted by Stangkiller

Oh man that sucks! We lost a pipe over the master bedroom and a third of the ceiling...in addition to no power for 40hrs.

That sucks worse! Sorry to hear that.

Originally Posted by bill_daniels

The city has sovereign immunity. They don't have to fix your driveway if they don't want to. Hopefully they will fix it rhough.

Well, it could have been my house with busted pipes which would have sucked worse. If they take care of it, that would be ideal. But if not, I'll suck it up, do the driveway myself and make it really nice (I was going to re-do it anyway as it was in really bad shape). Some days you're the Louisville Slugger, other days you're the ball, you know?

That said, Fort Worth is really good about taking care of things like that. They put in sidewalks where there previously weren't any a few blocks away and really tore up the street and the adjacent yards pretty good. But they re-did everything and put it all back together very nicely at the end.

[snide]

Originally Posted by Dan47

They charged my neighbor for something similar. They had to dig up my driveway to get to the leak and charged him for everything. I wasn't aware that homeowners were responsible for waterlines outside their property lines? Maybe just a Nebraska thing?

The water company here says that I'm responsible for the line from the street to the house. They keep trying to sell me insurance on that pipe.

[Rodnok1]

Originally Posted by snide

The water company here says that I'm responsible for the line from the street to the house. They keep trying to sell me insurance on that pipe.

Depends on location but usually the water meter is where they end ownership, up north it's at the shutoff by the street.
Same applies to drain pipes, they're usually only responsible for actual connection to the mains. If you have a basement add backuo rider as if pipe collapsed the clean up wpuld be on yoi.

[Aerovette]

Originally Posted by snide

The water company here says that I'm responsible for the line from the street to the house. They keep trying to sell me insurance on that pipe.

Even though this only happens every few decades, I am VERY tempted to pay to have the line from the meter to the house buried another 3 feet. I am not joking, I can hit the line with a garden spade. That's all the deeper it is.

[Iron Chef]

They've already dug down into the street and cut out the bad length of pipe. The main is fully in the street...not even connected to my house. I'm really surprised they got here this fast. They were cutting the new length of pipe when I was out there. My house is on a corner so the pipe is going down one side.

[dvarapala]

Originally Posted by Rodnok1

Depends on location but usually the water meter is where they end ownership, up north it's at the shutoff by the street.

Same in California.

[BayouCountry]

I was happy to find my pipes thawed without damage today. No water was running yesterday when I checked the house. I have a raised house that was inaccessible for several days due to a flooded road. I think the spray foam under the house added enough additional insulation to protect the pipes. Glad I had the insulation sprayed on a year ago.

[Torqaholic]

Frost line around here is about 4 feet deep. My stuff is 6 feet under, it doesn't freeze. Digging that deep in Texas is a problem. How far down is the caliche?

[the new me]

Originally Posted by Torqaholic

Frost line around here is about 4 feet deep. My stuff is 6 feet under, it doesn't freeze. Digging that deep in Texas is a problem. How far down is the caliche?

In my experience it's always down a few feet less than the depth you need to dig to.

[Iron Chef]

Originally Posted by Torqaholic

Digging that deep in Texas is a problem. How far down is the caliche?

All clay soil in my area.

The repair was finished last night around 11:30. I talked to the crew leader who said they still had more repairs...basically working around the clock. Somewhat lower water pressure this morning but more than acceptable. I was very, very lucky. Some folks had it really bad in this storm.

[simpleman68]

Glad they moved on it quickly. Of course with a main pipe bursting, you don't have much choice.
New driveway sounds nice.
Scott