One system at a time
May. 24th, 2023 09:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenstormSo, roof's been replaced, chimney has been replaced. The roof is pretty much the same as the walls. So what does that leave?
Well, I thought I had a pressure tank issue, so that would have been a water system issue. However, Threshold has stepped into "go big or go home" territory.
tl;dr I think the waterline from the well into the foundation is broken/cracked where it enters the foundation, but my water pressure is back.
The long: so my water pressure has been declining for awhile and we all thought it was the pressure tank, since the pressure tank is super old. There were a few things not entirely in keeping with that but I kind of ignored that, having no previous experience with a pressure tank failing. And honestly, the pressure tank is still old and may fail.
However, when I was getting ready to go into town for a couple days I ran the water for a long long time (low pressure and trying to get all the animals topped up) and noticed the basement was flooding. I had to leave (doctor's appointment was a timeline) so I turned off the well, turned off the tap on the mainline from the pressure tank into the rest of the house, and left. I figured that way there would be minimal extra leakage, since I didn't have time to troubleshoot and figure out what was going on.
Well, when I came home a couple days later the tap on the mainline wouldn't turn. There were a couple taps below it, so I hooked up a garden hose to one of them, ran it outside, and tried turning it.
I got full pressure. The kind of full pressure I hadn't had for a long time.
So I ran water from there for awhile and messed with the different taps below the stuck shutoff, then tried turning the mainline tap again. It turned slowly with a gritty feeling, spit a ton of mud into the water system, but it did turn-- and my house system was back up to full pressure. So it seems like a clog of mud had been blocking the pipes and that's why my pressure was so low.
However, this pressure led to me being able to use lots of water, and what I noticed additionally was that whenever the well ran too often, or when the well ran (to fill up the pressure tank) at the same time as I was running water heavily, the basement would flood. The pressure tank holds ~25 gallons, so this is either when I ran the washing machine on heavy or when I did the animals; nothing in the house uses that much water at a time.
I kept looking at the flooded area trying to figure out where the water was coming from but I couldn't. There was no water noise. There was no clear flow direction. The water just... swelled into the low point in the basement, which is right by all my plumbing stuff (it's all on the same side of the house, thank goodness). It was at the point when any time I heard the pressure tank filling I grabbed the flashlight and poked around in the area trying to see where the water was coming from.
Well, one evening I got lucky. There was a slight bubbling noise coming from under the downstairs toilet. Hm. And then I noticed the water was also flowing in the direction away from where the shower went through the foundation. The water was seeping up through any holes in the foundation.
And, sure enough, the ground right outside the corner of the foundation where the waterline entered was damp.
So it makes sense that the waterline is cracked at or just outside the foundation. When the well runs, it saturates the ground, and then when the ground is saturated the water is forced up by the pressure through available holes in the foundation. Because the soil outside is damp, and because there is no dripping from my waterline inside the house, it must be broken where it meets the house. And it must be a small break because my pressure tank still fills up, etc (though it does get a little air in it from time to time).
So, fair enough. Except that I live in a place where it freezes deeply in winter. That waterline is likely very deep under my foundation. I'm not sure what kind of damage water does to a concrete foundation over time; I know enough water movement would undermine it, not sure about concrete stability or the ground remaining saturated. Either way I'll need to do inside drywall remediation, some mold is starting to form, and unfortunately...
...I'll need to somehow get down to the throughhull or whatever you call the place where the waterline goes through the foundation, which will likely be a fiddly job (can only do some of it with an excavator since breaking the waterline &/or the well electric is a no-go.
Small blessings: my water still runs, my basement is concrete instead of having flooring over it, it's not midwinter.
Well, I thought I had a pressure tank issue, so that would have been a water system issue. However, Threshold has stepped into "go big or go home" territory.
tl;dr I think the waterline from the well into the foundation is broken/cracked where it enters the foundation, but my water pressure is back.
The long: so my water pressure has been declining for awhile and we all thought it was the pressure tank, since the pressure tank is super old. There were a few things not entirely in keeping with that but I kind of ignored that, having no previous experience with a pressure tank failing. And honestly, the pressure tank is still old and may fail.
However, when I was getting ready to go into town for a couple days I ran the water for a long long time (low pressure and trying to get all the animals topped up) and noticed the basement was flooding. I had to leave (doctor's appointment was a timeline) so I turned off the well, turned off the tap on the mainline from the pressure tank into the rest of the house, and left. I figured that way there would be minimal extra leakage, since I didn't have time to troubleshoot and figure out what was going on.
Well, when I came home a couple days later the tap on the mainline wouldn't turn. There were a couple taps below it, so I hooked up a garden hose to one of them, ran it outside, and tried turning it.
I got full pressure. The kind of full pressure I hadn't had for a long time.
So I ran water from there for awhile and messed with the different taps below the stuck shutoff, then tried turning the mainline tap again. It turned slowly with a gritty feeling, spit a ton of mud into the water system, but it did turn-- and my house system was back up to full pressure. So it seems like a clog of mud had been blocking the pipes and that's why my pressure was so low.
However, this pressure led to me being able to use lots of water, and what I noticed additionally was that whenever the well ran too often, or when the well ran (to fill up the pressure tank) at the same time as I was running water heavily, the basement would flood. The pressure tank holds ~25 gallons, so this is either when I ran the washing machine on heavy or when I did the animals; nothing in the house uses that much water at a time.
I kept looking at the flooded area trying to figure out where the water was coming from but I couldn't. There was no water noise. There was no clear flow direction. The water just... swelled into the low point in the basement, which is right by all my plumbing stuff (it's all on the same side of the house, thank goodness). It was at the point when any time I heard the pressure tank filling I grabbed the flashlight and poked around in the area trying to see where the water was coming from.
Well, one evening I got lucky. There was a slight bubbling noise coming from under the downstairs toilet. Hm. And then I noticed the water was also flowing in the direction away from where the shower went through the foundation. The water was seeping up through any holes in the foundation.
And, sure enough, the ground right outside the corner of the foundation where the waterline entered was damp.
So it makes sense that the waterline is cracked at or just outside the foundation. When the well runs, it saturates the ground, and then when the ground is saturated the water is forced up by the pressure through available holes in the foundation. Because the soil outside is damp, and because there is no dripping from my waterline inside the house, it must be broken where it meets the house. And it must be a small break because my pressure tank still fills up, etc (though it does get a little air in it from time to time).
So, fair enough. Except that I live in a place where it freezes deeply in winter. That waterline is likely very deep under my foundation. I'm not sure what kind of damage water does to a concrete foundation over time; I know enough water movement would undermine it, not sure about concrete stability or the ground remaining saturated. Either way I'll need to do inside drywall remediation, some mold is starting to form, and unfortunately...
...I'll need to somehow get down to the throughhull or whatever you call the place where the waterline goes through the foundation, which will likely be a fiddly job (can only do some of it with an excavator since breaking the waterline &/or the well electric is a no-go.
Small blessings: my water still runs, my basement is concrete instead of having flooring over it, it's not midwinter.
no subject
Date: 2023-05-24 08:23 pm (UTC)