Huge water bill

In reply to Schmidlap:

Good question. That's what the landlord calls it. The house was built in 1901 and our town is a farming community. It's very small so they couldn't actually milk cows there, there is a huge barn there where they use to do that. So I guess I can't answer what it is either.

The milk house on my families old farm was a building with and spring running through it. At least that's what they told me the build was. It was used to keep the milk cool.

wbjones wrote:

rebelgtp wrote:

zomby woof wrote:

neon4891 wrote: I love well+septic

Me too.

Same here

it's great until you loose power... then no water... and when the septic backs up (not enough of the right bacteria ) then it ain't so much fun

There are ways around the no water, and I've never once had a problem with the septic. It's a pretty low maintenance process, with no monthly bills

mapper wrote: Came home Friday night to a puddle in the front yard. At least it was easy to find but the line was much deeper than the first time this happened right at the meter. Tree roots do bad things to the plastic pipe. I need to have it all replaced but not right now. My house was built in the early 90s and they used the blue plastic pipe. I have not researched it yet but I'm hoping there is a more durable product on the market now.

That is probably Polybutylene. Research the class-action lawsuit and see if you are eligible for any compensation.

In reply to jeffmx5:

Thanks for the info.

Fletch1 wrote: I learned where all the valves are though

After almost eleven years managing rental property, I can say with certainty you are now in the top .00001 percent of all renters everywhere in the world.

If you can put a fuel line on a car, you can plumb your house.

Last plumbing emergency I had cost me about 19 cents and a half a tub of elbow grease.

You just have to know..

mapper wrote: Came home Friday night to a puddle in the front yard. At least it was easy to find but the line was much deeper than the first time this happened right at the meter. Tree roots do bad things to the plastic pipe. I need to have it all replaced but not right now. My house was built in the early 90s and they used the blue plastic pipe. I have not researched it yet but I'm hoping there is a more durable product on the market now.

I'm a Plumber and don't know what blue pipe you're talking about. And I've also NEVER seen roots get in a fresh water supply line, they always seem to infest waste water pipes, They almost always have holes in them

xd wrote: The milk house on my families old farm was a building with and spring running through it. At least that's what they told me the build was. It was used to keep the milk cool.

That was pretty typical. The spring would normally run through a big tank, and back in the days when farmers milked by hand and put the milk in cans, they'd put the cans in the tank to keep them cool until they hauled them to the dairy (or until the dairy sent out a truck to pick them up.)

Nowadays farmers still have milkhouses, but they use automatic milkers which pump the milk directly into a stainless steel bulk tank in the milkhouse. The dairy sends out a tank truck, to collect the milk and bring it back to the dairy.

In reply to Blitzed306:

This stuff: http://www.polybutylenelawsuit.com/eligible.htm

The big tree root was pressing up against the pipe putting a lot of pressure on it. The crack happened opposite to the root.

kcmoken wrote: I don't know how you go about finding a leak in a 1/2" piece of copper somewhere between the street/main and your house, and then fixing said leak.

OMG I hope not. With only a 1/2" supply line you'd never have any flow in your house. It would give new meaning to flushing the toillet and scalding the person in the shower. It would take a day to fill a tub. I've got a 2" supply line.

Now find the water meter at the street, record the reading.

UH waaaaaaaaat?

This OP had me very confused initially, as I couldn't understand WHY he would be charged water for a line break that didn't occur inside his house (or a line running from his house to other buildings on his property).

What I am trying to say is, you shouldn't be charged for water usage if the line breaks BEFORE your house (or the line is a part of what the utility company installed)... at least, thats the way it works up here in silly Canada!

However, I now see that it is a moot point as it was actually leaking from a building.

About 2 years after we moved into our new house we got a very large water bill. Afer doing some troubleshooting I found that a pebble had gotten stuck in the anti-siphon valve in the main water lin in th basement and was allowing water to move back through the water meter so we were getting charged many times for the same water. I fixed the valve and thankfully the water company forgave most of the bill.

HiTempguy wrote:

Now find the water meter at the street, record the reading.

UH waaaaaaaaat? This OP had me very confused initially, as I couldn't understand WHY he would be charged water for a line break that didn't occur inside his house (or a line running from his house to other buildings on his property). What I am trying to say is, you shouldn't be charged for water usage if the line breaks BEFORE your house (or the line is a part of what the utility company installed)... at least, thats the way it works up here in silly Canada! However, I now see that it is a moot point as it was actually leaking from a building.

in the US... if it's before the meter it's the companies prob... after it's yours... they don't run the line from the meter so they don't take fault if it busts...