Cobb County Smyrna Chronic Water Leaks in almost New Houses

We received a call about 3 water lines leaking at a complex off of South Cobb Drive. The community was only six years old and experiencing broken water lines frequently. They had many of the lines repaired and several replaced already. We bid to replace the three lines due to the lines were broken under the driveways and boring under the
driveway was easier and less expensive than breaking concrete. The next day we replaced the three water services from the curb stop (there was no separate meter, just one master meter for the neighborhood) the the stub outs from the slabs of the houses. So another week goes by and we receive another call that 2 more water lines were leaking. I decided to check the main pressure at got a reading of 150 PSI, which I thought was high but okay. We replaced 2 more water lines. Two weeks later three more water lines are leaking (all the leaks have been occurring under concrete sidewalks or driveways, not much grass to the yards). I decided to check the pressure again and got a reading of nearly 200 PSI, which is high for the metro Atlanta area. I made a recommendation that we add regulators at all the curb stops to help protect the piping and give a second line of defense in the case where an interior regulator failed. We replaced the water lines and added the pressure regulators. The same situation has occurred several other times with other units in that neighborhood. We even had to repair a copper line that the pro-press joint popped apart. Basically I came to several explanations for the high failure rates of the water lines. 1. High water pressure stressing the pipes, 2. Poor soil compaction stressing the piping and causing the pipe to stretch and leak as the ground settles., 3. The units are four stories high and during construction heavy cranes were used to place roof trusses, causing rocks to press into the tubing., 4. Sloppy installation, sharp bends in the tubing, concrete slabs sitting on the pipe, valve boxes resting on the tubing and cheap plastic compression coupling cracking.

Mike Whitman