I, Plumber

If you're keeping score at home, the count is currently homeowner 1, artificial geyser 0.

As I mentioned a few weeks back, that nasty leak I thought my neighbor and I fixed returned with a vengeance. Strangely though, it leaked as the ambient temperature rose and fell. The higher the temp, the slower the leak. At times it stopped completely.

My neighbor did install a coupling with a rubber valve inside of it. My theory is that colder temperatures contracted something in the valve, maybe the rubber part, and in turn opened a floodgate. As the temperature rose, the part expanded and the leak slowed or stopped altogether.

Well, as convenient as it is that summer is approaching along with nice, hot juicy temperatures, I steeled myself to once again dig a hole and fix the leak.

This time though, no fancy schmancy valve screw-in parts. Just two bare-bones couplings and a little creative bending to get them to fit into place.

So yeah, I did that this morning. About twenty minutes to dig the hole (again). Another twenty to visit Lowe's. And another final twenty to turn off the main line, cut the bad section out, and install the new. It's holding just fine so far, but then again so did the other fix for a couple of months. I was so confident though, I filled the hole back up.

Updated score: homeowner 2, artificial geyser 1.