The pipe insulation is a great idea! Most buried lines by a utility company are to have sand covering the pipe to prevent rocks damaging the pipe but the insulation is even better!
Well done Bill you are certainly a hard worker and deserve the credit for your determination to get things done.. Great job and full praises for your tenacity to get things right... I bet Elizabeth is so so proud of you ....thanks for sharing...God bless xx
Your ingenuity is amazing. I would never have thought to create an enclosure for the shutoff valve and insulate the area before covering it with dirt. Taking that extra mile should be a great help in the long run.
we bought our trailor Modular home not even two years ago, it was a good price. we have had to replace everything over the last year. hot water tank, furnance, stove, fridge, now the roof is in need of fixing. like they say it never ends. but we love it because it is ours.
"The trouble is how I found it. I found it with my pickaxe." I'm sorry for laughing, but the way you said that really cracked me up. Probably did NOT seem funny at the time! Love your videos, please keep them coming!!
You are remarkably patient and amazing. You are resourceful and beyond. Hey those fittings like the one you repaired the sewer line are considered a perfectly sound repair. I know this because we have them made of rubber, in our plumbing in the basement. They replace old pipe gaps very nicely.
👍I couldn’t see it very well however I suspect the ‘heat-tape’ was working. Could check the amp draw to ensure. At any rate, I’d re-wrap w/ new heat tape then insulate to ensure no freeze ups. Thx for sharing. Respect👍
This pipe with the heat tape was buried about 30 years ago, and it quit working decades ago. I don't like relying on an "active" system (needs power) if I can help it. Especially when it's buried. When the heat tape quits in a few years (they don't last long) I wouldn't know it wasn't working anymore, and also I would have to dig it up to replace it. So instead, I just buried it deeper, and put insulation on top of it before I covered it with dirt. It has now gone through several winters of -10F without freezing.
I've noticed from your videos that your "luck" runs about like mine ... NOTHING ever works out as "simple" as it should, LoL (I'm laughing WITH you, not AT you)! I live in a brick home in Texas that does not have a true corner in the whole house! I found THAT out while replacing doors. Also, when the builders finished the house, they threw all the left over scraps (linoleum, carpet, 2x4's, etc.) in the attic, above the garage ... we found that out one night while watching tv! We had been here about 20 years, and the garage ceiling came crashing down onto the car! How all that crap stayed up that long, I'll never know, but MAN ... what a sound a collapsing ceiling makes !!! I enjoy your videos and like your outlook to everything! I am disabled now, but, fortunately, I have 2 GREAT S-i-L's and a GREAT son, that help out when they can. I really miss being able to do the work myself!
+R. PENN Yeah, this is a 1977 trailer that should have been razed because it was in such bad shape when we bought the property. That's not old for a house, but it's ancient for an RV. Also, it was a "summer weekend cabin" for a woman who lives in NY city (about 2 hours from here), so it was not really designed for winter living. When you renovate an old place like this, you never know what you're going to find. But EVENTUALLY I'll get all the kinks worked out. :-)
They make a repair that is called PipeSaver, it is a wrapping band section that is made of stainless and has a section of rubber that goes over the punctured/ rusted out pipe and has a couple bolts and nuts that draws it down tight.
Great job. Many of the projects my fiancé and I have done to our tiny house have turned in to bigger jobs too. It can be so frustrating. But good for you for pushing through and getting it done. Did it do the trick?
Hi Bill and Elizabeth, what a wonderful couple you are! Your faith in God and each other is inspiring. You are truly helpmates. I am an AF retiree, and spent 4 1/2 yrs in Wiesbaden ('68-'72). Were you stationed anywhere near the place or the year spread? I am really loving following you tiny house u tubers.😸
I was in the army, in the 3rd Infantry Division Band (trombone player), stationed in Wuerzburg from 79-82. I spent 11 years active army, then 13 years Army National Guard, so I'm actually retired from the Guard. In just a couple months I'll turn 60 and start colleting my retirement pay. Looking forward to that!
Could you just add 18" - 24 inches of soil over the pipe and perhaps make it a garden? That way you would not have to dig and would still have the insulation you need. God Bless, Ron and Harriet
Our line from the well to the house should have been 4 feet and we hit a rock ledge at 34 inches so we layered in several pieces of blue Styrofoam over the pipe in the trench and one year it got to -35 and the water was ok.
Did you ask the city for a grid map of where they put the sewer lines ? Did any of your neighbors know they were hooked to the city sewer ? Sometimes asking around can help.. Maybe the board across the front of the chase can be a door ..
I put that coupling on my sewer line the last time it came apart. Had to cut it, but put cut side up when I screwed the two clamps back on. I was wondering, couldn't you just use that spray foam insulation (for walls, attics) completely around the water pipe, even under the trailer and up to where it comes in (using a wooden box with holes around top to spray foam in) the trailer? Had stopped tape to type the above, and when I restarted, you said you did the exact same thing as I did!
Did you bring all that exposed copper to the junk yard it would have helped you off set the cost of your materials or at least bought you a nice hot coffee!!
+Rick jobs I didn't want to do that because there were other pipes down there somewhere that I didn't want to damage. And even at that, I damaged one of the with my pickaxe.
A friend and I dug an 80 foot long trench by hand last year to replace a 55 year old gas line that was leaking. Last time I did that I was working in the oilfield and I was 30 years younger. What a workout. But boy did a shower feel good after I finished. : )
