There She Blows! Sprinkler Explosion

Hi everyone, I am putting a little link at the top of today post. My niece is on the cover of a new book coming out next month. I just wanted to share the link to the authors blog so that if you know any young women, you need a gift for this Christmas, you may be interested in this book.It is called "Things Hoped For." 

  This week, I had a sprinkler explosion. I showed you yesterday some pictures and talked about changing the drains on that part of the sprinkler system. Because of the layers and layers of sprinklers in that area and the two drains and its proximity to the sprinkler box for the back yard, I am VERY limited on what options I have there. 

Tree roots got around the pipe and pushed it up and then little roots worked their way into the elbow joint causing just enough leakage to warrant a problem. I should have taken some photos of the sink holes below it but I filled them before thinking about it. I worry they go deeper than I know but I am hoping that filling the hole I could see and fixing the leaking pipe and replacing the two drains will fix the problem. 
 
Knowing the problem of matching up an elbow with stiff pipe, I went to the plumbing store and asked if there was something that could stop the leak. I should have spoken to the guy there I know but he wasn't around and the man working said to use plumbers goop. Well, the top left picture has clear goop and it didn't hold more than a minute and cost me $6. Wasted! Then, I cut just the one side off and tried to grind (using a dremel with a grind stone attached) the inner pipe out so I could just glue a new pipe on one side so I wouldn't have to replace the entire elbow. Because it was so tight, I couldn't get the dremel in and the "goop" I put on, didn't allow me to chip it out so that didn't work. 

Then I cut both sides, put in a new elbow and tried to hand force the pipe in at the corner but the Blue pipe glue started swelling before I could force the pipe in very far and it only went in a short way before stopping. The angle made it hard as well. 

You can see in the upper right picture how I hadn't dug back very far on the pipes and so when I turned the water pressure on at the main, it only took a second before the elbow started bubbling. I told Princess two to turn the main off as I turned my head and the entire pipe exploded sending mud and dirt to the back door and covered me in mud. I was blessed my face was turned away. That is the top photo. 
I then cut the line and tried again to sand out the inside of the elbow hoping that I could save the elbow and not have to do another splice on the other side as there isn't any space after the drain and I didn't want to have to cut it out and replace it. 

I dug all the way back to a fix from a few years ago where I put in an extendable pipe. I was afraid if I messed with it, It may not seal well since it has been a few years. But, there was no other way. I unscrewed it praying it wouldn't have issues as if it did, I wouldn't know what to do as I would have to dig up the entire box area. I then cut the pipe again using a little saw, fit the pipe into the elbow and splice before gluing. I have used a dremel for years for cutting pipe and sanding out the inside and then re-gluing new pipe but that only works if you have a good angle for the dremel to go in straight. For some reason, one side of the elbow was tighter. The elbow was smaller than the pipe. I had to sand it down. My guess is that was the issue with the bad connection before. Always check each connection before gluing making sure they go in and out well. 

The extendable pipe was the ONLY way to make the elbow fit. If you ever have to fix or replace and elbow with pvc, just go ahead and splurge on the expandable fix and go back further on the pipe so that if you ever have a problem again, you don't have to cut the expandable pipe out. It was the only way. I glued all the parts and then just screwed on the expandable pipe. 

I wish someone would develop screw on elbow joints with rubber seals or something. It would make sprinklers so much easier. That explosion was a first for me. Who says girls can't do anything? We may get dirty doing it but we clean up well!