Lazy Repair Or Just Bad Luck??

Hi All -

Bought a house and two days before closing the sellers let us know that the main pipe entering the house had a small leak. From my understanding, it was Poly B pipe from the county to the entrance of the house. They dug up around the meter and replaced the pipe there to the entrance of the house. Nothing else was dug up. Total price was $1800 and a 3 year warranty.

Pipe burst around 20 days later and we came down to a flooded basement. Pics are attached of what their repair was. I showed this to a friend who has plumbing experience and he said he thinks they repaired it wrong...or took the easy way. By the pictures, he explained that the PVC pipe did not come all the way into the house which means they should have dug up the pipe and replaced it so that it came in more. Then, they should have used the right coupling to connect from PVC to copper. Instead, they didn't dig up the pipe then used that small silver pipe (he isn't sure what that is) and used some pliers to create a better seal? The L shaped piece went over the metal pipe and they tightened it with a screw. He pointed out that the L shape piece is threaded so it makes no sense to him to use what they used. In his opinion, it will leak or burst again. Did they do the job correctly? I'm now worried for our upcoming vacation and getting very frustrated.

Thanks!!

It is hard to certain from the pictures exactly what kind of pipe they used.

But the fitting you have taken pictures of is commonly called a pack fitting. It is used on polyethylene pipe. I like polyethylene pipe for water mains, and I like pack fittings for polyethylene pipe.

The silver tube that you see is a stiffener that needs to be placed inside of the pipe. Then the pipe needs to be pushed all the way into the fitting to the shoulder, or stop, that you can see inside of the fitting. Then the big brass nut needs to be tightened down. That compresses that black rubber collar around the pipe, which is what creates the water seal. Then the little bolt needs to be tightened, to force those ribs on the inside of the big brass nut to grip the outside of the pipe. This is what holds the pipe in the fitting. The silver stiffener needs to be in there to prevent the pipe from shrinking back and the ribs loosing their grip on the pipe. If that stiffener is not in there, it will pull apart.

I don't know what that mess is inside the PVC but that brass fitting is made to go over the PVC. There is a neoprene washer back past the grooves. Those are not threads for screwing pipe into but groves that grip the pipe. That PVC has to be all the way in past the gasket. just like a ferrule on a compression coupling.

I would make them liable for any water damage they caused. THAT JUST PLAIN DOWN RIGHT CRAP WORK .