I got inspectors coming out soon and when I install the septic line and waterline, I did not realize it has to have tracer line or it won’t pass. So I guess I’m gonna dig a 3 inch with an ax or something and just rig it in there and tape it up to the upcoming plumbing to make it look like it’s legit.
If I’m going to run this with my sprinkler pipes, does each sprinkler line gets its own wire or can I splice the wire? For example, I have 3 lines sharing one trench and then splitting off farther down. What do you do when the pipe makes a T? Can you splice this wire together with a little cap or does it need to be one continuous wire? Thank you. Great video!
Honestly, I'm not sure. When whoever is called in to assist, they hook up a low voltage machine on either end--so I'm not sure how that would work with splices. Due to how hard it was to find tracer wire I ended up with a 1000 ft roll and have an insane amount left. If you are in a similar situation I'd run a wire on each line and be happy that it got used. ;) I am sorry I can't be more helpful there, but I hope your project goes well.
FYI, for those unfamiliar larger number AWG means smaller wire. So, 14AWG is thicker than 18AWG. This would be obvious if you're holding it, but an unfamiliar person ordering online might be surprised.
Thanks for adding that information! Having run 6 AWG for a range across an attic and wrestled it onto the outlet, it's one of those things that gets burned in memory and never taken for granted again (but overlooked in a video).
I'd lean towards having the tracer wire centered (top or bottom) because the tracer signal says where the line is; whoever is digging will hopefully allow for some width to the line.
@@NoMoreLeaks going to start end of Oct... I got most of the attic prepped though and turned my above garage attic area into temp storage so i can work easily in the above house attic. It was so hot for my son and i that we decided to wait for cooler weather to start running the pex. We will be doing a sub manifold topology based on Uponor's logic system, pex has gotten more expensive and harder to find, so many supply problems right now.
Love this vid though because once i finish my current projects i was thinking of replacing the line from my meter to the house switch with a bigger pipe, right now 3/4 inch copper and will go 1 1/4 pex instead, that is if we decide to do that. ;)
Totally understand waiting for cooler weather! Temps are just now falling below 100 here--don't even want to think about the temps in the attic. That's great you are involving your son. No doubt on the plumbing shortages: repiping partial and entire homes from spring freeze with all the burst pipes in Texas is still well underway.
You might have single handedly given me motivation to complete this water service replacement video series in a more expedient manner. If I can make the next one before Friday, you can take it as a personal thank you. 😉 Love meeting another hardcore fellow DIY'er! Dare I ask what the other projects are?
Don't forget to ground it... when grounded it can be energized allowing locators to actually locate the service (e.g. a ground rod should be installed at the point which the service entered the house to complete the circuit).
Thanks for the tip! I just did a search online to look into this. It's disappointing to find out that the city approved and "inspected" neighborhood, that can be seen here (the right side still shots: 3:45) is exactly the same. I guess something is better than nothing--that doesn't make it right. I very much appreciate you saying so.
I'm still looking for a good video on how to properly install a tracer wire with grounding. It would seem to me that one end would not be useable if it is grounded?
One video says a low frequency on the transmitter requires grounding one end; low frequency is less likely to couple into adjacent lines. If it's not going to be a problem to find both ends, seems like just leave them loose and available and either end can be grounded if needed.
Thank you for your video. Very good info. While watching it I got to wonder if it would be allowed to install the tracer-wire *inside* the protective PVC pipe. Thoughts? BTW, I came upon it after watching a video on Uponor PEX failure (see: th-cam.com/video/FcHcKvZ3AZE/w-d-xo.html ), and wondering how to best install a drain fitting -- the plumber was supposed to install 2x, but never did, and during post-final permit close out he suggested that I periodically drain the system -- I pointed to the Wall-O-PEX and replied -- you never installed either the two drains specified in the original statement of work... While the look on his face was priceless, I still want to install the drains.
Oh no! He didn't install them on the spot to finish the job? Honestly, I don't know. I'll have to punt to a plumber's expertise and I'm not sure if something like that is mentioned in code. if it is OK, the outer pipe better be bigger than ours because it wouldn't fit. Best of luck on your project!
@@NoMoreLeaks re: bigger pipes... If I remember you came back later and used a larger pipe so that it would fit over the PEX fittings. The final pipe I thought was big enough to run a trace wire, but I could have been wrong. If you can ask your plumber that would be nice to finish the thought for people on-line asking the same thing, but it will be awhile before I need to do anything like this (I hope anyway). re: the plumber... No he did not. I should have forced him to do so, but working with this one was an epic pain. My original plumber had a massive heart attack as he was drawing up the job, and could not take it on. The replacement was brought in by my contractor. He claimed he had expertise with PEX, but kept doing things wrong that we so out of code that I seriously doubted he ever saw a professional PEX installation in his life. He actually wanted to leave the pipe left unsupported as it came out of the wall onto his custom manifold. I think I had spec'ed a Viega (or similar) manifold, and offered to pay for that on top of their quoted job they had with the contractor. They just went ahead and cobbled one together with HomeDepot 1/4-turn valves, and a couple of plastic and copper manifolds that hooked up to the shutoff valves. I did not catch this until he had that monstrosity installed, and there was no way he was going to take the time to redo it... (EXPLETIVES!)... Next he installed the frost free hose bibs incorrectly (they were pointing up, and we not mounted to anything so they wiggled when you turned them on). I called him on this, and asked him to correct it within the next week -- before the foam sprayers came in to spray the walls, and I would have to dig out the insulation to make the fix. That is when he quit the job, and told me to transfer the job to someone else. A month later I threatened to fire the contractor because they had done almost no work in an entire year, and they also quit. My next contractor was good and professional, but we were not able to close out the renovation contracts because of the first plumber still had an open contract. I ended up writing the head of the plumbing inspection for help. That plumber told them that his contract was with the contractor and not me, and that when I fired the contractor their contract was null and void. This was all a lie because they quit before the contractor quit AND I had proof in the email chain I sent where I called him on installing the hose bib incorrectly, sent him the link to the manufacturer's installation instructions and why it *must* be installed that way, and his response was to quit. I was not privy to what all happened when the the State plumbing inspector realized he had been lied to, but he did come back, finish the ~$200 of work that needed finished (which I payed him for), and closed out the permit. I did learn that the contractor was jerking him around and not paying him for jobs, etc., and hedid not want to deal with it. Asking him to do anything extra after the permit was finished was not something I was keen to do. As you can imagine I will not recommend him, but I have also not called him out by name -- at least he came back and finished the job. Len The Plumber on the other hand sent out someone to finish the job charged me $2,000 to do about $200 of work (under the agreement that they would transfer the permit and finish the job), then refused to close the permit, and the inspection showed that everything they did was wrong. That got investigated and I found that Len The Plumber sent an unsupervised apprentice who gave me a card stating they were a master plumber, and said they he would transfer the permit. That the extra charge was to account for the liability to have to fix anything that was not right with the first job. In the end, LTP returned what they charged, and both LTP and the apprentice had letters of reprimand from the state inspector for a half dozen serious violations... No, the renovations on this property was a (EXPLETIVE) show.
Oh wow. Just wow. That's a terrible experience and one that gives contractors a bad name. Glad you had that all in writing! SMH... And despite all of that you are educating yourself with more information on plumbing. That's impressive.
@@NoMoreLeaks I will probably be the one maintaining things for quite a while, so it pays to learn all one's life long. I may end up installing the drains myself, or hiring a plumber if code requires it. It is my understanding that I can do minor work to repair things, but I am not sure where the line between being allowed to do it myself, and requiring a permit. I will check into that, but I do expect that I will eventually have to replace a couple of the lines because: * he did not mount the pipes on the studs, but ran all 12 lines THROUGH all the joists. * the transition from the copper to the PEX from the outside main may have been kinked, but is not leaking, but you got to wonder if that will weaken it. * he spliced several sections to save money - even though it was specified "no splices" and "home run" - I would have gladly spent the extra money on another spool of PEX... Enough of my belly aching. It is not leaking, and I have a clue to what I need to do to fix things when it comes time. With any luck I will find a good, professional, PEX experienced, plumber.
its supposed to be on the top so youre more likely to know exactly where the pipe is upon digging and you can also pull it up as a "tracer" and guide for where the ipe is
I got inspectors coming out soon and when I install the septic line and waterline, I did not realize it has to have tracer line or it won’t pass. So I guess I’m gonna dig a 3 inch with an ax or something and just rig it in there and tape it up to the upcoming plumbing to make it look like it’s legit.
Extreme quality work and video!
Thank you. I hope it helps!
If I’m going to run this with my sprinkler pipes, does each sprinkler line gets its own wire or can I splice the wire? For example, I have 3 lines sharing one trench and then splitting off farther down. What do you do when the pipe makes a T? Can you splice this wire together with a little cap or does it need to be one continuous wire? Thank you. Great video!
Honestly, I'm not sure. When whoever is called in to assist, they hook up a low voltage machine on either end--so I'm not sure how that would work with splices. Due to how hard it was to find tracer wire I ended up with a 1000 ft roll and have an insane amount left. If you are in a similar situation I'd run a wire on each line and be happy that it got used. ;) I am sorry I can't be more helpful there, but I hope your project goes well.
FYI, for those unfamiliar larger number AWG means smaller wire. So, 14AWG is thicker than 18AWG. This would be obvious if you're holding it, but an unfamiliar person ordering online might be surprised.
Thanks for adding that information! Having run 6 AWG for a range across an attic and wrestled it onto the outlet, it's one of those things that gets burned in memory and never taken for granted again (but overlooked in a video).
Great job! Thank you! Awesome!
I'd lean towards having the tracer wire centered (top or bottom) because the tracer signal says where the line is; whoever is digging will hopefully allow for some width to the line.
Thanks for adding to the conversation. I vote bottom.
great info thanks!
thanks for your vids on DIY, love them
Really appreciate your comment! Thank you! How did your manifold project go?
@@NoMoreLeaks going to start end of Oct... I got most of the attic prepped though and turned my above garage attic area into temp storage so i can work easily in the above house attic. It was so hot for my son and i that we decided to wait for cooler weather to start running the pex. We will be doing a sub manifold topology based on Uponor's logic system, pex has gotten more expensive and harder to find, so many supply problems right now.
Love this vid though because once i finish my current projects i was thinking of replacing the line from my meter to the house switch with a bigger pipe, right now 3/4 inch copper and will go 1 1/4 pex instead, that is if we decide to do that. ;)
Totally understand waiting for cooler weather! Temps are just now falling below 100 here--don't even want to think about the temps in the attic. That's great you are involving your son. No doubt on the plumbing shortages: repiping partial and entire homes from spring freeze with all the burst pipes in Texas is still well underway.
You might have single handedly given me motivation to complete this water service replacement video series in a more expedient manner. If I can make the next one before Friday, you can take it as a personal thank you. 😉 Love meeting another hardcore fellow DIY'er! Dare I ask what the other projects are?
Do you need to ground the tracer wire?
No, tracer wire is not grounded. If it is needed they will hook up to either end of the bare wire to detect the line. Best of luck on your project!
Thanks you!!!!!
👍💧
Don't forget to ground it... when grounded it can be energized allowing locators to actually locate the service (e.g. a ground rod should be installed at the point which the service entered the house to complete the circuit).
Thanks for the tip! I just did a search online to look into this. It's disappointing to find out that the city approved and "inspected" neighborhood, that can be seen here (the right side still shots: 3:45) is exactly the same. I guess something is better than nothing--that doesn't make it right. I very much appreciate you saying so.
I'm still looking for a good video on how to properly install a tracer wire with grounding. It would seem to me that one end would not be useable if it is grounded?
One video says a low frequency on the transmitter requires grounding one end; low frequency is less likely to couple into adjacent lines.
If it's not going to be a problem to find both ends, seems like just leave them loose and available and either end can be grounded if needed.
Thank you for your video. Very good info.
While watching it I got to wonder if it would be allowed to install the tracer-wire *inside* the protective PVC pipe. Thoughts?
BTW, I came upon it after watching a video on Uponor PEX failure (see: th-cam.com/video/FcHcKvZ3AZE/w-d-xo.html ), and wondering how to best install a drain fitting -- the plumber was supposed to install 2x, but never did, and during post-final permit close out he suggested that I periodically drain the system -- I pointed to the Wall-O-PEX and replied -- you never installed either the two drains specified in the original statement of work... While the look on his face was priceless, I still want to install the drains.
Oh no! He didn't install them on the spot to finish the job?
Honestly, I don't know. I'll have to punt to a plumber's expertise and I'm not sure if something like that is mentioned in code. if it is OK, the outer pipe better be bigger than ours because it wouldn't fit. Best of luck on your project!
@@NoMoreLeaks re: bigger pipes... If I remember you came back later and used a larger pipe so that it would fit over the PEX fittings. The final pipe I thought was big enough to run a trace wire, but I could have been wrong. If you can ask your plumber that would be nice to finish the thought for people on-line asking the same thing, but it will be awhile before I need to do anything like this (I hope anyway).
re: the plumber...
No he did not. I should have forced him to do so, but working with this one was an epic pain. My original plumber had a massive heart attack as he was drawing up the job, and could not take it on. The replacement was brought in by my contractor. He claimed he had expertise with PEX, but kept doing things wrong that we so out of code that I seriously doubted he ever saw a professional PEX installation in his life. He actually wanted to leave the pipe left unsupported as it came out of the wall onto his custom manifold. I think I had spec'ed a Viega (or similar) manifold, and offered to pay for that on top of their quoted job they had with the contractor. They just went ahead and cobbled one together with HomeDepot 1/4-turn valves, and a couple of plastic and copper manifolds that hooked up to the shutoff valves. I did not catch this until he had that monstrosity installed, and there was no way he was going to take the time to redo it... (EXPLETIVES!)... Next he installed the frost free hose bibs incorrectly (they were pointing up, and we not mounted to anything so they wiggled when you turned them on). I called him on this, and asked him to correct it within the next week -- before the foam sprayers came in to spray the walls, and I would have to dig out the insulation to make the fix. That is when he quit the job, and told me to transfer the job to someone else. A month later I threatened to fire the contractor because they had done almost no work in an entire year, and they also quit. My next contractor was good and professional, but we were not able to close out the renovation contracts because of the first plumber still had an open contract. I ended up writing the head of the plumbing inspection for help. That plumber told them that his contract was with the contractor and not me, and that when I fired the contractor their contract was null and void. This was all a lie because they quit before the contractor quit AND I had proof in the email chain I sent where I called him on installing the hose bib incorrectly, sent him the link to the manufacturer's installation instructions and why it *must* be installed that way, and his response was to quit. I was not privy to what all happened when the the State plumbing inspector realized he had been lied to, but he did come back, finish the ~$200 of work that needed finished (which I payed him for), and closed out the permit. I did learn that the contractor was jerking him around and not paying him for jobs, etc., and hedid not want to deal with it. Asking him to do anything extra after the permit was finished was not something I was keen to do. As you can imagine I will not recommend him, but I have also not called him out by name -- at least he came back and finished the job. Len The Plumber on the other hand sent out someone to finish the job charged me $2,000 to do about $200 of work (under the agreement that they would transfer the permit and finish the job), then refused to close the permit, and the inspection showed that everything they did was wrong. That got investigated and I found that Len The Plumber sent an unsupervised apprentice who gave me a card stating they were a master plumber, and said they he would transfer the permit. That the extra charge was to account for the liability to have to fix anything that was not right with the first job. In the end, LTP returned what they charged, and both LTP and the apprentice had letters of reprimand from the state inspector for a half dozen serious violations... No, the renovations on this property was a (EXPLETIVE) show.
Oh wow. Just wow. That's a terrible experience and one that gives contractors a bad name. Glad you had that all in writing! SMH... And despite all of that you are educating yourself with more information on plumbing. That's impressive.
@@NoMoreLeaks I will probably be the one maintaining things for quite a while, so it pays to learn all one's life long. I may end up installing the drains myself, or hiring a plumber if code requires it. It is my understanding that I can do minor work to repair things, but I am not sure where the line between being allowed to do it myself, and requiring a permit. I will check into that, but I do expect that I will eventually have to replace a couple of the lines because:
* he did not mount the pipes on the studs, but ran all 12 lines THROUGH all the joists.
* the transition from the copper to the PEX from the outside main may have been kinked, but is not leaking, but you got to wonder if that will weaken it.
* he spliced several sections to save money - even though it was specified "no splices" and "home run" - I would have gladly spent the extra money on another spool of PEX...
Enough of my belly aching. It is not leaking, and I have a clue to what I need to do to fix things when it comes time. With any luck I will find a good, professional, PEX experienced, plumber.
its supposed to be on the top so youre more likely to know exactly where the pipe is upon digging and you can also pull it up as a "tracer" and guide for where the ipe is