Repairing Buried PVC for Dummies

PVC slip fitting

One of the biggest problems with letting random contributors write your so-called how-to content is that most of them have never attempted whatever task they're performing and thus don't realize... well, don't realize how little they actually know. Only a couple of days ago we ran across a freelancing former English major who, we are quite certain, wouldn't know "How to Repair a PVC Pipe in the Ground." Today we've found a one-time educator, Billy Brainard, showing off his own ignorance on the same topic at HomeSteady.com.

Brainard falls into the same trap as Laurie Brown before him: he attempted to use a primer on how to assemble new PVC plumbing to talk a hapless reader through repairing a break in a PVC line. Like Brown before him (and probably may other eHow.com contributors both before and after him), Billy tried to fit a length of rigid PVC pipe between two fixed endpoints with ordinary straight couplings.

Silly Billy, that won't work! Even if you tell people to,

"Measure and cut 12 inches on each side of the leak and remove the damaged piece of PVC. Wipe both ends of the remaining pipe with a cloth to dry them. Scrape away any PVC debris from the cuts with a utility knife..."

...you still have a problem. The problem? When you tell people to

"Slide each cemented fitting over one end of the pipe and allow the cement to set..."

...you're trying to fit your new piece of PVC and two 1½" fittings into a space the length of the pipe you just cut. As your fellow Texans might say, "Billy, that dog won't hunt!" Billy's problem is inherent in his "Things You'll Need" list, where he says,

"2 PVC pipe fittings"

Your solution will only work, Billy, if one of those fittings is a slip fitting. Do this:

1. Cut out the damaged pipe.
2. Cut a patch.
3. Slide the slip fitting onto one end of the patch and glue a straight fitting on the other.
4. Glue the open end of the straight fitting and the patch in place
5. Slide the slip fitting into place over glue that covers both the end of the patch and the end of the cut pipe.

There: that'll work a darned-sight better than the instructions written by our Dumbass of the Day!

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