A homeowner in NYC was awoken early Saturday morning after hearing what sounded like river in his basement. He began searching the house and became aware of water seeping through his foundation wall. The homeowner figured that the water was from recent rain and decided to ignore it until later that morning. After checking on the wall a few hours later, he noticed that the water had intensified and was now more of a steady stream that had amounted to ¼” of water in his basement.
At this point the owner setup a system to divert all of the water into a pale which would pump all of the water out into the roadway. The setup of pumping water into the public roadway was actually illegal; the owner had no other option and decided to take a risk.
Pump inside house |
Pumping water outside |
DEP was contacted to investigate the source of the water and quickly deemed the water leak as a broken water main. The homeowner was issued with a DEP 3 day notice and was advised to contact a licensed, bonded and insured water main and sewer contractor, which should not be confused with the average “plumber”
Harris water Main was hired to replace the existing lead water line with a new copper water main. The homeowner was adamant about repairing the pipe to save money, unfortunately this was not an option as it is illegal to perform a repair on any type of lead or galvanized pipe. The entire water line had to be replaced from the roadway to inside the house, where a new ball valve will be installed before connecting to the meter.
Lucky for this homeowner, the city water main was located 6’ off of his curb line and only had to replace 30’ of new pipe. This is considered a “short water” in the plumbing world, if the water main was on the other side of his street he would have to install the new pipe for a total of 58’. This is considered a “long water” and would add $1,000 of additional cost to the water line installation.
“Long water” |
New copper installation |
The Harris installation crew made one hole in the roadway to turn off the water main at the city connection. Once the water was turned off Harris made another hole on the property in preparation for the underground tunnels to be made. Once the tunnels were made, a chain was attached to the new copper pipe and pulled from one hole to the next. The new copper pipe was inserted through the foundation wall by 2 PM and the entire job was completed 90 minutes later.
Harris Water was able to obtain a DOT emergency highway permit, install a new copper water main and restore all concrete openings within 24 hrs.
