We purchased our first park in January and installed Metron meters for billing back water to customers in April. We have 56/58 lots filled with city water and sewer. We have had on average 1 main line water break per month since April. This has cost about 10k in digging and repairing main line leaks. Part of the issue is that it is a park that was built in the 1950’s and the pipe that is breaking is black poly-pipe. We are replacing the broken segments with PVC but just wondering if there is something that could help us prevent so many leaks other than spending >250k to replace all the lines. We do not have a pressure flow regulator on the connection from the city water and I don’t know if that would help.
We also have a lot of trees and have sewer issues because there is still some concrete sectional pipe and the orange “crap” in the park we have discovered. Anybody had luck with coating the sewer lining to eliminate all the roots that work their way into the system? Or do we need to replace sewer lines as well? I’m growing tired and poor with every phone call from my manager!
Thanks for your help
Where are the breaks happening?
I feel your pain. We have started to read our main park meter every day. We don’t currently have a remote way to do that but i am trying to figure out a way to do that via game cam with cell phone feed.
While its stressful, it beats getting that huge surpise bill. I have a guy onsite that does mowing etc. and he’s in charge of the water/sewer department as well. I’m not sure why, but i have almost zero luck in getting local plumbers of any size out here, even if we have already walked the lines and located the leak.
They are just in the main lines often between 2 trailers and the most recent one was under a trailer which had 2 cement slabs (one on top of the other). A few have broken at the risers.
I would check your water pressure and get a Pressure gauge and pressure regulator. Intermittent spikes in pressure can cause blow outs at fittings.
Poly Pipe water mains.
You may be eligible for re-piping , if PEX pipe was used.
see: PEX Lawsuits | Tubing & Fitting Problems | ClassAction.org
Do your lines loop together or are there dead ends? If there are dead ends and pressure spikes this could be part of the issue.
Good question. I don’t know how to find that out. We had American Leak Detection come inspect during due diligence but the prior owner did not know anything about the plumbing and was only the owner for about 3 years. How would I go about finding the out?
Did American leak create a map for you as part of the leak detection process? You can usually have them make one as they need to locate where the lines are prior during the detection work.
Thanks. I will call them tomorrow and see if they made a map. Currently dealing with another leak. That makes 3 leaks in one month. SO frustrated!