Texas Brit
New Member
Howdy --
I would be extremely grateful if members of the forum could take a look at the photos below and give me some advice on how to tackle the problem I am facing.
We have an old house in Houston, Texas, built in 1950. Our policy is to do necessary maintenance without overspending, because the value of the property lies entirely in the land.
We recently noticed a leak and have opened up the drywall to reveal the water pipe where it enters the house through the concrete foundation and a hole in the wooden sole plate.
I'm just an ignorant Brit but what i found surprised me quite a bit. On the close-up photo you can see that a one inch diameter galvanized iron pipe emerges from a two inch diameter galvanized iron pipe. Water and mud was flowing up from the gap between the two pipes.
After I cleared all the mud away i poked a 12 inch hacksaw blade down the gap between the two pipes. I actually lost my grip and it fell down there.
This gap struck me as very odd -- i would have expected to find some kind of watertight 2" to 1" reducer joint. But as I say, I'm just an ignorant Brit, so perhaps the set-up you can see in the photos is pretty normal?
Anyway how should I tackle this?
Over time I know we are going to have to replace all of the galvanized pipe, but for the time being I would just like to fix immediate problem.
Can i dig out around the service line outside the house, cut out a few feet of the horizontal pipe leading to the house, pull the vertical 2" pipe segment back through the foundation and replace the sections i remove with new pipe? If so what would be the best material to use.
Thanks in advance!
I would be extremely grateful if members of the forum could take a look at the photos below and give me some advice on how to tackle the problem I am facing.
We have an old house in Houston, Texas, built in 1950. Our policy is to do necessary maintenance without overspending, because the value of the property lies entirely in the land.
We recently noticed a leak and have opened up the drywall to reveal the water pipe where it enters the house through the concrete foundation and a hole in the wooden sole plate.
I'm just an ignorant Brit but what i found surprised me quite a bit. On the close-up photo you can see that a one inch diameter galvanized iron pipe emerges from a two inch diameter galvanized iron pipe. Water and mud was flowing up from the gap between the two pipes.
After I cleared all the mud away i poked a 12 inch hacksaw blade down the gap between the two pipes. I actually lost my grip and it fell down there.
This gap struck me as very odd -- i would have expected to find some kind of watertight 2" to 1" reducer joint. But as I say, I'm just an ignorant Brit, so perhaps the set-up you can see in the photos is pretty normal?
Anyway how should I tackle this?
Over time I know we are going to have to replace all of the galvanized pipe, but for the time being I would just like to fix immediate problem.
Can i dig out around the service line outside the house, cut out a few feet of the horizontal pipe leading to the house, pull the vertical 2" pipe segment back through the foundation and replace the sections i remove with new pipe? If so what would be the best material to use.
Thanks in advance!
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