Our underground water supply pipe is 3/4" black plastic and it crosses a stream on its way to the house, via a small bridge where it is fixed to a suporting steel I beam. It froze up in the recent cold weather. One reason for this is that it has frozen in the past and burst, and has been repaired with a short section of blue pipe, joined to the black at each end by very large plastic compression joints, which are difficult to insulate. I'm thinking of installing trace heating and improved insulation but I'd like to get rid of these big joints if I can. There are two other joints in the exposed pipe - a brass compression joint just after the pipe emerges from the ground on the supply side, and a smaller plastic compression joint just before it goes back underground on the other side. I suppose it isn't possible to get the original black plastic pipe any more to replace the central section, thus eliminating the repair ?
Also, I used a supply of steam from a wallpaper stripper, fed into the black pipe, to melt the ice where it went underground. This took about three hours, although I withdrew it at regular intervals and flushed it with cold water from a hose. Would this cause any damage to the black pipe ?
Final question - when I rejoined the pipe using the large plastic compression joints and turned the water back on, they started leaking slightly. I'll need to go back and try again with them at the weekend - could it just be dirt on the threads ? We tried tightening them with a wrench which reduced the leak to a dribble.
Cheers
John
Also, I used a supply of steam from a wallpaper stripper, fed into the black pipe, to melt the ice where it went underground. This took about three hours, although I withdrew it at regular intervals and flushed it with cold water from a hose. Would this cause any damage to the black pipe ?
Final question - when I rejoined the pipe using the large plastic compression joints and turned the water back on, they started leaking slightly. I'll need to go back and try again with them at the weekend - could it just be dirt on the threads ? We tried tightening them with a wrench which reduced the leak to a dribble.
Cheers
John