A small update from a few days ago. To save you a click, it turns out that if you apply PVC cement and don’t push the pipes together you won’t actually make a good joint. Who knew.
I’m honestly impressed it lasted so long without issues. We’ve lived in this house over 10 years and the PVC run predates our purchase.
As a side note, PVC repair couplers are a massive PITA. I am glad I didn’t have to dig a fresh trench, get the old pipe out, and put a new one in, but it was quite the dance getting the coupler on while fighting with 2" OD pipe that’s firmly lodged in clay. My nice small hole grew a bit longer to get some wiggle room.
Pro tip (literally, I run PVC underground often): if the pipe is empty you can use an expansion coupling instead of the repair kit. Muuuuch cheaper and super easy.
Only buy a repair kit if theres wire inside that you can’t pull back far enough.
This was pretty cheap TBH. I cut out the old joint, spliced in about 8" of new pipe with a traditional coupler on one side, and then used a repair coupling on the other side.
I had somewhat mixed feelings about burying anything that can slide. It’s probably in my head, but I didn’t want to give the roots another opportunity.
If you glue both ends of the expansion joint its not going anywhere lol
Depending on pipe size those kits can be $70+, a slip joint is $20.
That’s fair, I was more worried about the slipping portion that a root might be able to get in through.
All in this was less than $10 excluding the glue. Just a section of 1.5" pipe, a normal coupler, and a coupler that lacks the center stop.
Ohhhh I got you. I thought you bought one of these lol
That looks pretty intense, haha. Nope, nothing like that here. The repaired area looks like some dingus decided to use a tiny section of pipe for some reason, but looks normal otherwise.