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PLUMBING ANSWERS - SPECIFIC TO FIXTURE => Water Piping: Copper | Plastic | PEX | Galvanized | Steel | Polybutylene | CPVC | PVC => Topic started by: DUNBAR PLUMBING on January 13, 2010, 12:12:53 AM
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v70/DUNBAR/leaking_water_line.jpg)
Here is water line leak, actually two of them. One is right where you see the expoxy compound and the plumber's putty was put below it to prevent the water from going down inside the insulation in the jacket of the water heater. The funnel is capturing the water drip from the valve that serves the water heater.
In this basement the height of the ceiling is roughly five and a half feet tall, which made the work at this job very difficult. We managed though with sitting down in a chair periodically and making our time count by working inbetween the joists.
While the customer went to get parts, we removed the old galvanized piping back to a tee in the water line so we could install a new 1/4 turn ball valve along with a copper water line to the water heater. A brass nipple was used for the transition between the copper and galvanized to prevent the galvanic corrosion that occurs when both of these metals are in contact with each other.
Here is the completed piping rework
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The new copper water line now reconnects the existing water heater to the galvanized water piping serving the home. What happened incidentally is the main water valve broke when turning the water back on inside. This is a common occurrence with gate valves. They proved not to be reliable when not turned off and one on a regular basis. The glides of the inside of the valve where the gate moves back and forth can have calcium buildup and force the gate to eventually jam into the the grooves and not return, thus snapping at the weakest point of the stem. We went ahead and shut off the water at the meter and removed the gate inside the valve so the water could be turned back on. We are scheduled to come back at a later date to install a full port ball valve to resolve this issue permanently with no issue in the time to come.