Ever lay in bed worrying that one of your water pipes might burst?
And if it did, what you’d do about it? I do. Guess I’m just a worrier.
But the upside to this is that I have a backup plan when it does happen.
I believe that being prepared for this potentiality in fact decreases
the likelihood of it happening.
That said, a water pipe burst here last night. I love our house. It
was built in 1888 and I believe it will be around centuries longer than
the houses that were built after World War II when energy was really
cheap and we needed lots of houses, fast. Our house isn’t perfect, but
it’s solid. One of the weaker areas is the plumbing, which has been
cobbled together over the years. There’s even a pipe that I’ve been
meaning to replace that is located flush against an outside wall.
Really! It is right next to the concrete and it freezes anytime the
temperature goes below -25°C. Now come on, what sort of plumber does
that? It’s a copper pipe, against concrete exposed to the outside, in
Canada!
I used to think that worrying about water was a country thing. Over
the years more country folk have come to my renewable energy workshops
than city folk because rural-dwellers know that when the power goes out
the water stops flowing. Global climate change is bringing this reality
home to more city people as tens of thousands of people in Ireland were
without water for extended periods of time during a recent
uncharacteristically cold spell. And thousands of people in the southern
U.S. have been in the same boat as utilities in warmer climates that
never had to deal with freezing temperatures are now experiencing them
as carbon plays havoc with our atmosphere and our weather patterns.
Living off the grid, our water pump is a major draw on the system and
so I am very aware of our water situation. We have two pressure tanks
and when the pump comes on it runs for about 4 minutes to charge them
up. On an average day when Michelle and I are here alone, the pump will
come on about once a day. I often turn the pump off at night and then
turn it on during the day when the sun is out although this isn’t
necessary. Just part of my energy obsessiveness.
Last night I had just gone to bed when I noticed that the hot water
tank in our bedroom was making funny noises. Yes, we have a hot water
tank in the bedroom, but that’s a whole other blog.
First I thought a cat was hiding in the closest, but after a quick
inspection I confirmed that there were no cats in our room. So I had
just fallen asleep when the water tank made its bubbling, gurgling,
“Jabba-the-hut in need of Imodium” sound it makes when the pressure
tanks have lost pressure. If I’d had the pump turned on it would have
switched on when the pressure was low enough and I wouldn’t have
noticed. But the tanks shouldn’t have lost pressure because it had been
an hour since any water had been used. And I’d actually noticed that the
pump had run at noon and the system should have been good until the
next morning.
So up I got to investigate. The pump down our dug well comes into the
old cistern which is under the kitchen, so I had to open the trap door
and climb down. Everything there looked fine. There was no water leaking
anywhere and no water running anywhere that I could see. So I climbed
back out and went into the basement where I noticed that half of the
concrete floor was wet – not a good sign. I traced it back to some PEX
pipe near the washtubs that was leaking. I hate PEX pipe. Our basement
isn’t insulated so it’s been cold down there. I think the pipe had
frozen during a cold spell and now, since it had warmed up outside the
pipe had thawed and the pressure split the pipe.
I hate PEX and I don’t use it. Our house is a bizarre combination of
PEX and copper and I sometimes wonder if the plumber was smoking dope
when he was plumbing the house. I have learned how to be my own plumber
and I like copper. My neighbor Ken has taught me how to solder properly
and frankly I just trust copper more. First off, I understand copper.
Copper is an essential trace element for all living things and I think
you can even get a multi-vitamin with copper in it. So if it’s going to
leech into my water, at least I need a bit of it. PEX is “crossed-linked
polyethylene” and frankly I can find no medical data that tells me that
my body requires polyethylene. I’m not saying it’s going to leech, but
if it does, I don’t want it. I’m exposed to enough plastics. My Dr.
Pepper cans are lined with BPA-infused plastic. I don’t want this stuff
in my house.
Prior to the widespread adoption of PEX, polybutylene was used a lot
and it turns out that it didn’t work very well. It often became brittle
and failed and you can appreciate that if this is happening behind
drywall it can be a big mess. The beauty of our house if that when the
house was built there was no indoor plumbing. So all the plumbing was
installed after the house was built and just about all of it is
accessible. This means I can get to and fix anything that breaks without
ripping out walls.
I have learned to plumb with copper and have all the tools and spare
fittings I need to fix a copper leak. But of course, this burst pipe was
PEX. I tried to find a shut off valve to that section of the basement
but none had been installed. So finally at 11 pm I just shut the water
off and went back to bed. Of course I couldn’t fall asleep and I lay
there planning my course of action for the morning. First I would try
and put a patch and tighten some clamps on the leak and see if I could
stop it, or at least slow it down. My experience is that this usually
doesn’t work. Then it would be off to town to buy some faucets that I
could put inline before the basement plumbing so I could shut off the
water supply to the burst pipe. Then it would be on to my friend
Jaeson’s house to borrow his crimper, which I need to work with PEX.
As a former cidiot who moved to the country with no real skills
(other than laying out newsletters) I find all these challenges very
empowering. In the city I would have called a plumber and been at their
mercy. Now it might take me three days to fix it, but once it’s done, if
it happens again I’ll know how to deal with it. And the reality of
living where I do is that a lot of the time a plumber doesn’t want to
come to my house. I’ve acquired an “I’m on my own” mentality living out
here so I’d better figure out what’s wrong, and just fix it. Each time I
fix something myself my skill level increases. I am often able to make
the system better. In this case I’ll install a shut off that allows me
to isolate the basement so if it ever happens again I can keep the water
flowing to the rest of the house while I fix it.
I wish the pipe hadn’t broken. I wish I wasn’t spending Valentines
Day fixing plumbing. But really, how could I show my love for my wife
more clearly than by fixing a busted water pipe? Any idiot can buy
roses.
Comedian “Red Green” has a great expression “Remember men, if the
women don’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.”
While I constantly try and convince Michelle I shouldn’t need to be
“handy” (because of my Brad Pitt good looks, in case you didn’t get
that) the handiness is apparently becoming more important as we age
along with our house. Previously I used the Red Green “universal
adapter” for most of my repair work, but I’ve learned that duct tape
will only hold for so long, so I’d better figure out what’s wrong and
fix it right.
So now when I hear the faint sound of a broken pipe and plumbing in need of my manly touch, I jump from my bed, put on my work pants with the built-in knee pads,
run my hands through my George Clooney-like gorgeous grey hair and get
on to the task at hand! My mantra – “Who needs sleep? It’s go time!”
Luckily our plumbing isn’t quite THIS bad! (Photo from Wikicommons)
Photo by Wikicommons.
For more information about Cam Mather or his books visit www.motherearthnews.com/contributors/Cam+Mather or www.aztext.com.
