Water pipes
We were looking into getting a water softener. The guy came out and the bad news began! Seems the person that built our house did things a little different. Our water pipes come out of the pump house, going toward the house. At that point they disappeared! Literaly. Seems that the pipes we thought fed the house, only go to the washer and hot water heater. We went into the crawl space and we found no pipes anywhere! Seems that the pipes that feed the bathroom are buried and go off on their own to the bathroom. The back room sink is the same. It has it's own piping going to it. The kitchen sink is the same. Seems that all the things that need water are independent from everything else. When down under the house, we found no pipes at all. They just come up out of the ground and got to the individual places. Apparently once the feed line is in the crawl space, everything splits. And since it's all buried, we don't have a clue where it comes in, or where they go. The only thing we know for sure is that water is pumped out at the pump house and goes into the ground, in the underground room. OK, now comes the hard part?!?!?! How do we go about bypassing the whole house and make it right. One line coming in and branching from inside, like most homes. The dirt in the crawl space is like rock. Oh ya, when I say crawl space, I mean crawl space! There is only about two feet under the house. So when you crawl under the support beams, you only have about a foot and a half to move. I replaced all the drain pipe under the kitchen, and got hit with a lot of sparks, because there was no where to get out of the way. Short of tearing the house down and starting from scratch, what can be done with this mess? Any help, ideas or suggestions will be heavily prayed about. Thank you all. MC and Mrs. MC
If you live in an area where it gets cold, the builder had probably had all the frozen waterlines he could stand and buried everything. I would almost bet that the water line follows a straight line from the well house to the dwelling, and that you are going to have to do some digging to find where he teed into the main line, or else put the softener in the well house but this will probably put all your hydrants on soft water and you sure don't want that. If you are on friendly terms with your local backhoe operator he may have a pipe chaser which is a small transmitter that puts a signal into the pipes and you can trace them on the surface with a little receiver. You might also try the bent clothes hanger trick and witch for them if they are metal. Of course if they are PVC the tracer won't work either. If the builder is still living I'd invest in a phone call. Dale "A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort." Herm Albright 1876-1944, Author