The Polymath Chronicles: Every Castle Needs a Moat!
City code requires that a building our size has 1 1/2" pipe for the water main. Ours was 1". And original, so it was lead. Copper is code now. This meant we needed to get new water service. Here is how that works. Your plumber gets a permit for the new water service, and the city comes out to the property to mark where the current pipe is. The plumber digs a trench next to the pipe, and accesses the shut off and the main city pipe, and runs the new pipe parallel to the old pipe, creates a new tap into the city main, and then switches over the service. The city comes out to inspect it, and then you fill the trench back in and deal with your lawn, which now looks like giant gophers have been using it for grenade practice.
Unless the city marks the old pipe wrong. By three feet. So that when they go to dig, they bust through the pipe filling the trench with water.
Yep! Our castle had a moat!
The shut off had to be dug out to try and get the water to stop.
But first they had to set up a pump with a hose to suck all the water out of the trench.
Eventually the trench was emptied, they were able to clamp the broken pipe, shut the water off, and make repairs. Luckily we have a great team, so we got our water service restored within five hours, and now they are finishing up the final details and will start to get the trench filled back in, and tomorrow they will come to pour the concrete to fix the sidewalk.
I'm sure our neighbors hate us, especially the dog walkers and stroller mommies, since the sidewalk has now been blocked since Monday, but we are excited because the new water service is the last piece of the puzzle before we can really start doing finish work in the basement! We still have a small part of the floor down there that hasn't been poured, because they had to be able to attach the new water service and run the pipe, and install the meter, so now we can button that up and really kick into high gear!
Stay tuned, more news coming!