Leaky Pipes..... question...

[Fulthrotl]

here's the situation... i had conduits leaking groundwater into a basement.

solution was to foam the pipes with a waterproof sealing foam, which worked
spiffy. thanks to iwire for the product recommendation. i put drain catheters
into the pipes to be able to periodically remove standing water if desired, but
the pipes don't leak a drop, so that is a nice to have, and not a big deal if not
done.

customer wants to repair the pipes anyway. all good.... so i'm looking at this
solution...... using either the blown in epoxy that plumbers use, or the cured
in place liner.... as some of the pipes are 2", i'm guessing the epoxy treatment
is really my only option other than digging the pipes up.

have any of you guys ever used the epoxy liner on electrical conduits? did it
work for you?


randy

 

[iwire]

My experience is you will never seal it, you may seal it for a short time but it will building up pressure and leak.

Best bet is to make a drain outside ........ I know ........ big production but I have had to do it at a home with a 1200 amp service, we had to pull the 3 sets of 600 copper out, dig a hole, fill the bottom with crushed rock and turn the conuits up into a large hand hole so any water coming from the pad mount up a hill would drain out into the stone.

Others before me had tried many different sealants and none worked.

 

[Fulthrotl]

My experience is you will never seal it, you may seal it for a short time but it will building up pressure and leak.

Best bet is to make a drain outside ........ I know ........ big production but I have had to do it at a home with a 1200 amp service, we had to pull the 3 sets of 600 copper out, dig a hole, fill the bottom with crushed rock and turn the conduits up into a large hand hole so any water coming from the pad mount up a hill would drain out into the stone.

Others before me had tried many different sealants and none worked.

yeah, keeping water out is almost impossible. IF the pipe had been glued up
with purple primer, and decent gluing, it'd be a different story..... how many
guys glue up pvc like it needs to contain water? usually, it's a swipe around
the pipe, and that is that....

customer thought was that for what camera rental and labor was gonna cost,
they could pay for a backhoe rental for a day, and find the leak themselves....

let's see... there are four 4" inch Edison feeds, and about 10 other pipes carrying
data, and fiber, and fire alarm, and high definition video, in the area... not to
mention gas, and sewer.... and the pipe is 6' deep, in sandy loam... and you want
to go save money by looking for it with a backhoe?

have at it. can i get popcorn and watch?

life is entertaining.... off to work i go.... ;-)

 

[Okie Sparky]

Randy, wouldn't it be cheaper to get about 4 not-so-fair complected, hard working individuals with shovels and have them dig out the pipes, than to ever consider the havoc that a backhoe can wreak? With the proper motivation (a little $$) the pipes would be uncovered in no time, ya just need to tell 'em bout the other hazards & buried utilities.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

Musings from the house plumber....

Musings from the house plumber....

yeah, keeping water out is almost impossible. IF the pipe had been glued up
with purple primer, and decent gluing, it'd be a different story..... how many
guys glue up pvc like it needs to contain water? usually, it's a swipe around
the pipe, and that is that....

customer thought was that for what camera rental and labor was gonna cost,
they could pay for a backhoe rental for a day, and find the leak themselves....

let's see... there are four 4" inch Edison feeds, and about 10 other pipes carrying
data, and fiber, and fire alarm, and high definition video, in the area... not to
mention gas, and sewer.... and the pipe is 6' deep, in sandy loam... and you want
to go save money by looking for it with a backhoe?

have at it. can i get popcorn and watch?

life is entertaining.... off to work i go.... ;-)

I'm kind of surprised that over the years either NEC/state codes would not require all underground PVC conduit to be primed (with purple primer of course) before gluing. All DWV plumbing has to be primed, above or below ground. Primer softens up the pipe/fitting, and cuts off the "glaze" on the outside of the pipe,allowing the two to fuse together. But....I believe that PVC conduit fittings are not tapered inside of the fitting like plumbing fittings???
The other possibility is to use the "blue" glue, which sets quicker, and can be used with some moisture present.

 

[kwired]

underground raceways, even if fittings make a good seal still can fill up with water from condensation.

The so called rain tight EMT fittings may seal out water but that does not stop raceways that are not arranged to drain from filling with water - from condensation.

 

[Fulthrotl]

Randy, wouldn't it be cheaper to get about 4 not-so-fair complected, hard working individuals with shovels and have them dig out the pipes, than to ever consider the havoc that a backhoe can wreak? With the proper motivation (a little $$) the pipes would be uncovered in no time, ya just need to tell 'em bout the other hazards & buried utilities.

issue is, it's six feet deep.... and it's sandy soil, so the setback is gonna be
huge... so, you are gonna have to dig up something 10' wide, 125' long,
in the middle of a public courtyard....

the camera is arriving wednesday, i am promised, and by then i will have
an autocad drawing of the courtyard... they decided that a camera was a
terrific idea after we discussed the downside of what will most surely happen.

i'll shove the camera up all conduits i can, and when i get to each coupling,
i'll use a locator to find the camera head, and stick a piece of duct tape with
the conduit depth on the pavement... then i'll measure them, and transfer it
to the autocad drawing, so the exact path and depth of the conduits are
located.

if i've gotta pothole it to fix the pipe, i'll get a 3' dia x 6' long piece of
corrugated drain pipe, and use it for shoring the hole.

my gut tells me where it's broken, but the camera will remove all doubt.
there is a 30' palm tree that was planted right over the path of the pipe,
and i'd bet a cheeseburger when they excavated he hole for the tree......

we shall see...