Basement Water Leak Pt. 2

The plumber show up late Thursday afternoon and was very surprised to hear about the situation as I explained it to him. He was very curious to see how it happened as he looked around the basement. 

First he turned on the valve to see what would happen and of course immediately the water started flowing down the wall and along the cold air return onto my workbench. We had to get a bucket for the water. It was also very loud. He quickly turned off the valve but he couldn't see where the water was coming from. He cut a piece of the pegboard on the wall but still did not know what was happening. Then he cut the pipe from both sides of the wall and removed that length of the copper pipe. At that point he could see the rupture in the middle of the pipe where the water had been gushing out. It was a big hole in the pipe. 

He speculated that the pipe may have been frozen over the winter and burst. We had a series of fairly mild winters in recent years since that water line and valves were installed about five or six years ago. However, this past winter which everyone had agreed had felt very much like an old school Buffalo winter and had been the most intense in a very long time. So maybe that pipe did freeze and burst. Then when I opened the valve this spring the water came gushing out into the basement.

He suggested that at the end of the season we close the valve to the main water line and then drain that and then pipe to the outside faucet. Then leave the faucet open so that the pipe can expand to prevent freezing. He also said we could put some insulation in that wall. We'll need to look into it more but for now the pipe was replaced and Becky can easily water the front garden and lawn.