Serious problem

This problem has nothing to do with me
My buddy, who is over in Iraq right now bought a mobile home across the street from me when he was home on leave in September. I told him I would keep an eye on it for him while he is gone. So, early fall I went and shut the main water line off and then went inside and opened all the valves to drain the lines. I thought everything was good to go from there. The other day I get a call from the water dept here in town asking about the high volume of water being used in my buddies house. (They knew he was overseas and we were looking after it). I went over there and sure enough, there is a major waterfall coming from the subfloor It appears the main valve is bad and let enough water get into the lines and one froze and split. Today, I had an outfit come and check it out. They found the copper line coming from the hot water heater all the way to the front of the trailer is split. They gave me an estimate of $1600 to fix
Since this is copper, I am out of the picture to fix it. Currently I have the water shut off at the curb stop. But, if it doesn’t get fixed soon, all the other lines are more than likely going split as well
So, does anybody on here do work for this kind of thing? I am in charge of his bills so getting paid is not an issue as long as it is reasonable.

Does he have insurnace? Get them out there first.

No insurance My wife told him to get insurance before he went back, but he didn’t So that is not an option

Maybe wrap the rest of the lines in heat tape if they are exposed??? What do you think Mike W??

Or start running the furnace? It may be cheaper to do that..

We may have to start running the heat. The line that is busted is actually tucked under the insulation under the house I feel terrible because I told him I would watch it for him. But, I had no idea the main valve was faulty. I figured since water didn’t come out of the faucets, it was off and good to go

Well you cant blame yourself. Especially if it was a gate valve. They leak all the time.

Please remember, DO NOT PLUG IN the heat tapes before you wrap them. I had a brother in law who was killed by electrical charge because he was laying in wet insulation and ground and had plugged in the wraps first not thinking they would zap him. WRAP them first and then safely plug them in. FISHINFOOL

swaeting copper and replacing valves isnt the concern, the real problem is replacing a bad sub floor in a tornado magnet. i know i did it in mine!

Well I am hoping that the floor is still good since it was coming from below the wood. Plus the previous owners had a whole new floor put in Tornado magnet That’s funny I don’t worry about the tornadoes here but I sure did out west. I have been in 2 and seen many. They are truely an awesome thing to see and witness when you are in one

Do you have to replace the line with copper? They have conversions pieces to go right from the water heater to pvc. That’s what I used in my cabin remodel, easier than sweating pipe, won’t do that ever again.

I think that is the plan. Dodge Boy and myself are going to take a look at it. He is familiar with this type of thing, so if he can do it I am going to be a gopher Thanks for all the replies. I think there are a few days next week that are going to be reasnably nice so we can look at it

You dudes are sounding good. You know what your talking about, thats cool
The most important plumbing advise I can give you, have plenty buckets and towels!

OK, seriously Wats, there was nothing you could have done differently

the price seems HIGH to me .get outher est.
or do yourself.do a few dry runs to get the hang of it ,and go to town.it is not that hard,but i have not seen what all may needs to be fixed.
al so find out if you can shut the water off at the street?
not in the house.

Yep, the water is shut off at the street. The gate valve under the trailer is shot and let water bypass even though it was supposedly off

Replacing the piping with something other thatn copper might be a idea. CPVC piping might be a option. You should be able to find this at most hardware stores. Make sure and get both the primer and glue for putting the fittings together. With out the primer the fittings wont weld together. You may even find some compression fittings for making the transition to plastic pipe.
Also keep in mind that some of the copper you are trying to tie into even if it is most split it might of expanded while frozen.

Busted pipes in a trailer are a major pain in the backside. I bought a trailer mamy,many,many years ago and it had been froze up the previous winter. The water lines in that trailer were run under the heat vent and above the insulation. What we ended up doing was to cut the old lines and run the new lines through the heat vents rather than rip out the whole underside of the trailer. It was a pain but my Father-in-Law and I did it in a day or so. One work of warning—we found that the pipe swelled before it split so if you try to sweat on a fitting too near the break the pipe size may not work with a fitting. You sure are a good friend to be doing this and I wish you the best of luck.

for the last 20 years if I ever have a problem with household copper pipes, I never think twice about it. I rip out as much of the copper lines as is reasonable and come back with plastic lines. Installing and repairing plastic lines is much easier than copper.

While your shut off at the street, I would go ahead and replace that main shut off valve that leaks bye.

I believe its called PEX which is the new form of plumbing to be replacing copper. I have seen this while voluntering in Florida after Katrina and my uncle-in-law here owns plumbing business and says he went to class for it but hasn’t transitioned himself

Thats interesting that they are actually teaching that. I have had just way less problems with plastic. Fixing a section of copper just seems to make the problems migrate further down that line. For me new plastic lines have outlasted old/aging problematic copper systems. The only thing that I think copper is better at is in valve construction. You have to be very careful not to over torque shutoff valve stem gland nuts.

If you replace that main line shut off that leaks bye, you might also go ahead and put in a T downstream of it with another shutoff valve in the tapoff leg that can be used as a system drain valve if this is going to be a common thing to leave the place unlived in during winters.

I think we will definitely go with plastic from all the responses here
The gate valve will definitely be replaced as well. After this winter, the home will be lived in all year but the drain valve sounds like a great idea as well.

Hey Mike if you need help i will be up for the weekend next weekend.I have to bring the father inlaw up a load of wood.Just let me know.

Amwatson;

Have the guy contact his base unit here. There maybe some assistance that the military offers for soldiers in cases like this (it is basically a “harship case”).

Go that route. The military has done some incredible things in the past to help out soldiers with problems as such, when they are on tour.

A big thank you goes out to Dodge Boy He came over and took a look at it yesterday and tackled the job today. We (He) changed the copper pipe to cpvc with ease I was there to offer my grunt services, while Dodge did all the cutting, soldering, and gluing to get the pipes converted and hooked up. I know if I tried it I might have burnt the place down And, he didn’t charge me $1600
Thankd again, Dodge Boy (Greg)
So, if you guys need a handyman I am sure Greg would love to do some side work, as long as it isn’t underneath a mobile home