Plumbing Headache! Any ideas?

[Old55]

I have some very good news for you!!!

Be very happy you’re living in Philippines 🇵🇭!

We had our whole house plumbing replaced from the meter. With some additional work. $15,000+ USD!!!!

[Happyhorn52]

Work was done correctly and because it runs along the back wall it is hardly noticeable. It would have been nice for them to repair the underground leak but that is a lot to ask a Filipino Apartment Owner. Not sure about the bacteria aspect and I may need to do more research as the temperature will never get any where 20 degrease needed to kill the bacteria. 

[Dr. Shiva]

On 5/11/2018 at 6:59 PM, Old55 said:

I have some very good news for you!!!

Be very happy you’re living in Philippines 🇵🇭!

We had our whole house plumbing replaced from the meter. With some additional work. $15,000+ USD!!!!

That is nothing against what happened to me in Switzerland. The water tube to my house is leaking. At the attempt to locate the leakage they did accidentally broken the main valve. Damage: a broken street. Monetal damage including fixing the street, the new piping and replacing of the damaged electrical installation between 50k and 100k US$. Fortunately is the insurance paying that damage.

For the TS case it is better to repipe if the leak can not be found.

Edited May 13, 2018 by Dr. Shiva

[Dave Hounddriver]

23 minutes ago, Dr. Shiva said:

That is nothing against what happened to me in Switzerland.

That is nothing compared to what happened to me in Canada.  The water pipe froze solid on New Years Eve one year when it was 40 below and I had to move my tenants into a hotel and pay for it while I chipped through the ice with a frozen pickaxe to find the source of the frozen pipe (because no one will come out on New Years eve in the 40 below so I have to do it myself) . . . . .  need I go on?   Shit happens.

But back to the topic:  The pipes from the meter to the house are not usually buried very deep.  Can you find a spot that is past the broken pipe (call it Point A), then find the spot where the pipe enters the house (call that Point B), dig alongside the house until you are close to Point A, then run a new pipe just under the surface (along the edge of your house) until you find a spot where you can drill through the wall and connect Point B to Point A with the new bit of pipe? 

[Jollygoodfellow]

22 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Point B to Point A

What's your point 

[OnMyWay]

12 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

But back to the topic:  The pipes from the meter to the house are not usually buried very deep.  Can you find a spot that is past the broken pipe (call it Point A), then find the spot where the pipe enters the house (call that Point B), dig alongside the house until you are close to Point A, then run a new pipe just under the surface (along the edge of your house) until you find a spot where you can drill through the wall and connect Point B to Point A with the new bit of pipe? 

The problem is, I don't know the routing of the pipes at all, yet.  Everything is under concrete except for the section right near the meter and in my house.  I think I mentioned that some of the piping is hidden in the false back of a cabinet.  If I rip that out, I might have some more clues.

See this pic.  That is the cabinet in the kitchen.  That doorway on the right side is our maidsroom / storage room.  The pipe with the red arrow was the output from the central water heater, which was in the corner of that maid's room.

See the sunflower mitt?  Go two feet to the right into the maid's room, and that is where the pipe from the meter enters my house.  The meter is directly on the other side of the wall,  in my neighbor's dirty kitchen.  On my side, the pipe from the meter is split to the hot water heater (now just a bypass to the red arrow pipe) and the cold water pipe, which goes through the wall behind the cabinet, right around the sunflower.  The top three shelves have a false back and that is where the mystery is.  The cold water pipe goes in there and I don't know what is going on in there.  They might even be going up to the attic in there.  My attic is only accessible to Filipino sized people so I have not looked up there yet.

[Dave Hounddriver]

1 hour ago, OnMyWay said:

The problem is, I don't know the routing of the pipes at all, yet

Can you get the wife to do it? 

[OnMyWay]

1 minute ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Can you get the wife to do it? 

Not on Mother's Day. Maybe tomorrow.

[Rooster]

I mentioned this to my plumber & he said look for any small cracks in your tile/grout or is there any doors or windows or lower cabinets that don't close like they used to. Also, turn on the water pressure high and put your ear to the floor or get a stethoscope, place it on the floor, cover it with a towel and listen for a hissing sound.

search "detect water leak under concrete slab" on youtube. Plenty of ideas there. If it's a hot water leak, maybe you can get someone with an IR detector from the shipyard to check the floor like in some of those videos.

  

[OnMyWay]

2 hours ago, Rooster said:

I mentioned this to my plumber & he said look for any small cracks in your tile/grout or is there any doors or windows or lower cabinets that don't close like they used to. Also, turn on the water pressure high and put your ear to the floor or get a stethoscope, place it on the floor, cover it with a towel and listen for a hissing sound.

search "detect water leak under concrete slab" on youtube. Plenty of ideas there. If it's a hot water leak, maybe you can get someone with an IR detector from the shipyard to check the floor like in some of those videos.

  

I already suspected that a pipe break breakage might be related to concrete settling.  Our house has an extension in the back, 10-15 years old.  When we moved in there was a large crack in the walls of our dining room, right where the extension started, indicating the extension had settled.  We patched it up and it has not reopened in 2 years.

However, another possible contributing reason to the breakage exists.  I follow the FB page for our water company because we are having a stage 1 drought and subsequent water shortage.  While we were in Bohol for 8 days, there was a major water line breakage about three blocks from here and I think everyone lost water service for at least a day.  I forgot to ask my neighbors.  Is it possible that when they turn the water back on after a repair, there could be a surge in pressure that could cause damage to old pipes?  I mentioned that to one of the water company guys and he just chuckled.  Of course he would not confirm it.