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Plumbing mistake I made for 8 years
I always tightened PVC fittings as hard as I could. Then a pipe cracked in my crawlspace last winter. Hand-tight plus a quarter turn is all you need. Anybody else overtighten everything in your first house?
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carr.abby2d ago
My neighbor is a plumber and he actually showed me why hand tight plus a quarter turn isn't always enough. I had a PVC joint that kept leaking even though I did exactly that, and he said it depends on the glue you use and the weather. Like if it's cold out, that quarter turn can make the joint too tight because the PVC shrinks and then cracks later. The pipe you had crack might have been from overtightening but it could also be from the ground shifting or the glue drying wrong. I've been working with PVC for about 10 years now and I've had way more issues from under tightening than from overdoing it. Your problem was more likely the constant pressure of the water freezing or the ground settling than the actual turn you did.
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