Back flushing water lines in a home filled with dirt, silt and gravel

[Terry]

Back flushing water lines in a home filled with silt and gravel. What do you do when the irrigation installers let dirt get into your supply line to your home and dirt starts to jam up your plumbing? I was called out to a home for that. They were staying in a hotel until we could get the lines flushed out. When I was able to find a time for that, I devised a device out of parts from the truck to back flush the piping in the home. I cut the incoming pipe in the garage that was feeding the home, installing a ball valve there to allow the use of the front hosebib. We then got some plastic drain line and set that up so that the back flush would go into the driveway, the water and the dirt. Hopefully.

This was found in one of the toilet supply lines. One toilet had non-working fill valve.

Some of the dirt on one toilet tank.

This is where they cut into the 1" poly line to the home for their PVC.

The irrigation piping piping that caused the call to me for flushing the lines.

And the tool I used to back flush at the shutoffs. I would disconnect the supply lines, and using a washer shutoff, I was able to go from shutoff to shutoff, connect my 3/8" connector and back flush each location.
When we were done with all of this, the homeowner used it to wash off the street outside like a pressure washer.

 

[FullySprinklered]

I can picture myself doing this. Thanks for the ideas.
I got sabotaged by a Ditch Witch guy several years ago. I had to stop and go for parts on a water line, and he wasn't happy about it.
I made several trips back to clear gravel and dirt out of the fixtures over the next week. I'm careful about keeping things clean; had to be him.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Jenny Texas]

Back flushing water lines in a home filled with silt and gravel. What do you do when the irrigation installers let dirt get into your supply line to your home and dirt starts to jam up your plumbing? I was called out to a home for that. They were staying in a hotel until we could get the lines flushed out. When I was able to find a time for that, I devised a device out of parts from the truck to back flush the piping in the home. I cut the incoming pipe in the garage that was feeding the home, installing a ball valve there to allow the use of the front hosebib. We then got some plastic drain line and set that up so that the back flush would go into the driveway, the water and the dirt. Hopefully.

This was found in one of the toilet supply lines. One toilet had non-working fill valve.

Some of the dirt on one toilet tank.

This is where they cut into the 1" poly line to the home for their PVC.

The irrigation piping piping that caused the call to me for flushing the lines.

And the tool I used to back flush at the shutoffs. I would disconnect the supply lines, and using a washer shutoff, I was able to go from shutoff to shutoff, connect my 3/8" connector and back flush each location.
When we were done with all of this, the homeowner used it to wash off the street outside like a pressure washer.

Hi Terry,
I'm a homeowner and came across your website in searching for a solution to a similar situation. Our service line was hit by contractors burrowing to lay fiber optics in our neighborhood. The city came out and repaired the line, but failed to flush it prior to turning the water back on. Almost all of our cold water lines are now clogged with gravel, sand, and dirt.
I want to try and build your back flush contraption. If I understand your post correctly, you used a washer shutoff and hooked it up to a water hose with normal water pressure, then went shutoff to shutoff and flushed each line? Should we start from the furthest point from the water line or does it matter? Also, you mentioned setting up plastic drain pipe to drain the rocks/debris. Did you have to disconnect the meter and set up the plastic pipes from there? Or where/what did you set up the plastic drain pipes from?

Thank you for all your help!
Jenny

 

[Tuttles Revenge]

What Terry describes is actually Cutting the main water line somewhere that it is accessible above ground ideally. You need to have a point that you can bring in fresh water from your meter and also a place to flush the water out and drain it. If you cut out a section after a main water valve, you can both feed the fresh water in and monitor the drain end to see if you've flushed out the line adequately. Each water outlet should be flushed, but likely only your cold water lines would be affected since all the water going to the hot lines would have settled the debris in the water heater. But some finer sediment could get through the hot side so that should be verified.

 

[Tuttles Revenge]

I had the same thing at a brand new home that the general contractor stubbed in their own water service and didn't protect the ends of the pipe. it was full of pea gravel that made its way to every single fixture when we turned on the water. We didn't realize it until trim time. A good reason to flush water supplies prior to installing fixtures, tho.. the angle stops still got plugged up and we had to flush the system too. Not as elegant as Terry did however.. hindsight being 20/20.

 

[Jeff H Young]

I remove the PRV at the garage or front of house usually . but any way If you gotta cut the main so be it gotta get those rocks out.
Been there done that always a tip or trick to learn or come up with on your own or from other guys , we all come up with an Idea even the new guy can get a tip we forgot about! Some times I'll use shop vac. Terry's way will give a good blast though

 

[Jenny Texas]

What Terry describes is actually Cutting the main water line somewhere that it is accessible above ground ideally. You need to have a point that you can bring in fresh water from your meter and also a place to flush the water out and drain it. If you cut out a section after a main water valve, you can both feed the fresh water in and monitor the drain end to see if you've flushed out the line adequately. Each water outlet should be flushed, but likely only your cold water lines would be affected since all the water going to the hot lines would have settled the debris in the water heater. But some finer sediment could get through the hot side so that should be verified.

View attachment 79413

Thank you, this makes more sense now. Our main line is under our drive way, I really don't want to bust up the concrete to cut the line. Would it work the same if we had a plumber come disconnect the line at the water meter, and we use our neighbors hose bib to flush the lines? I'm assuming the gravel would exit at the disconnected meter. Or if you have any other ideas to make an exit point I would greatly appreciate it!

Also, do we need a special back flush tool to do this or can we just use a normal hose and find a fitting to connect to each water outlet?

I do believe we've had quite a bit of gravel settle in our water heater. The hot water pressure is fine, but the hot water runs out very quickly now. From what I've read online, it could be because all of the gravel and dirt settled at the bottom and isn't allowing the water to be heated properly.

Thank you for all your knowledge and help. We were quoted $3900 for 3 days worth of work and it's not feasible for us to afford especially right before Christmas. So we're trying to do all we can by ourselves.

 

[Reach4]

I do believe we've had quite a bit of gravel settle in our water heater. The hot water pressure is fine, but the hot water runs out very quickly now. From what I've read online, it could be because all of the gravel and dirt settled at the bottom and isn't allowing the water to be heated properly.

Electric or gas? If electric, your bottom element may be burned out.
See https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/2017-electric-water-heater-worth-repairing.97466/ #13

If gas, you can clean gravel etc out of the WH. I did that. I replaced the plastic drain valve with a nipple and a full-port ball valve and a hose adapter on that. I have visions of sticking the wand of an electric pressure washer some day. What I actually did is to let the water come out into a plastic tub. Then I pumped the tub out with a utility pump. From the top I alternated turning on the water and spraying into the anode. I also added laundry detergent and phosphoric acid in separate washing stages. Anode was a major part of the project. This is just a loose comment. If you might actually try something like this, I can fill in some detail. Camco has a wand that would run off of a garden hose that could be inserted for washing out sediment without a pressure washer.

I now have filtering in place that would stop sand as well as pebbles in the future.

Regarding the pipe flushing, I could envision a big clean garbage can or bigger drum. Put a submersible well pump in there, and filter the return water to remove sediment to keep it from recirculating and to have the satisfaction of seeing that crud that is no longer in your pipes. You should be able to get higher pressures and velocity than you would from the neighbor's garden hose. But if you do use the neighbor's garden hose, consider getting a bigger ID hose.

 

[Tuttles Revenge]

Would it work the same if we had a plumber come disconnect the line at the water meter, and we use our neighbors hose bib to flush the lines? I'm assuming the gravel would exit at the disconnected meter.

Yes, This would work because now your'e pumping water in at the valves and out at the meter end

Also, do we need a special back flush tool to do this or can we just use a normal hose and find a fitting to connect to each water outlet?

Normal hoses and fittings should work. But as Reach4 states, the larger the volume hose you can get the better. Having a valve or some way to shut off the flow of water at the end of the hose is critical to making this work efficiently and safely.

 

[Jenny Texas]

So, we had a plumber come out and disconnect the meter. He went fixture to fixture to backflush each line. He said some gravel came out of the main line by the meter, but not much. When he reconnected the meter and turned the water back on, more gravel was pushed through the lines back into the fixtures. He believes there is gravel sitting/stuck in some areas and when the pressure hits it from water being turned back on, it moves it back through the line. All three outdoor hosebibs are also affected and have low pressure. He left to brainstorm on a different approach. Since the lines continue to get clogged by gravel traveling back and forth to the fixtures and getting stuck in the shut off valves, I proposed removing the valves from all fixtures, some how attaching a hose of some sort to the supply lines, running the hose into a large trash can for draining and just let the lines runs from all fixtures at the same time. And turning the water back off and on over and over to hopefully move all of the gravel from the lines. He proposed some southern engineering and making a manifold with multiple hook ups to attach to multiple fixtures at once, connect an outside line to the manifold and flush several lines at once back through to the disconnected meter. Both scenarios flush the lines, just in opposite directions. Or we may have to try both techniques to "rock" and dislodge any stuck gravel back and forth to hopefully push it out. Do you think this would work? He said he has seen gravel in lines but never to this extent and at this point anything we try is pretty much experimental.

 

[Jeff H Young]

I'd say its sort of experimental as well, I used to run into this more when I did a lot of new construction lines would get broken by landscapers, pool builders we would build a few hundred a year so We would get a few houses a year or more. little tricks you come up with each situation is different. I'm guessing plumber pulled water meter and connected a hose bib there and ran a hose into the house.
I think you may need to remove angle stop one by one and blast through with a bigger connection as the passage way through a anglestop is quite small . using full port valves rather than a hose bib at the meter connection will allow much more volume and greater chances of dislodging.
Trust me I know this is a PIA and clock is ticking on the labor costs, I've also used compressed air or a co2 bottle.
Hope my explanation on using full port makes sense is understandable and you get problem resolved pushing back and forth might , might not work I do agree they can get lodged and only way to get it out is to get it moving in either direction. rocks really like to get stuck in the anglestops as well. keep us posted!

 

[Jenny Texas]

We decided to try the approach of turning the water off, disconnecting each line inside the house one at a time, removing the valves, turning the water back on and have the water pressure push the gravel through. It's working for the most part so far. The plate of gravel is from the kitchen sink cold line only. The other picture is gravel stuck up in the handle of one of the bathroom faucets. We were able to get all 3 outside hosebibs back to normal pressure. It's a work in progress but we are finally making some headway.

 

[Reach4]

You were certainly not exaggerating.