Hum --
>
>Exploding a PVC pipe takes super high pressures. Plumbing is designed
>to operate only at a low pressures.
>
>I ask my contractor husband about this, and he said "You are suppose
>to put PVC pipe on such super high pressures!"
>
>In Georgia, only the Plumbing Contractor is licenses, and thus
>supposedly trained well. He can hire "techs" at his pleasure that may
>not know what they are doing. This is the same in Heating and Air and
>Electrical. There is no licensing for many of the folks actually >doing the work.
>
>Mary
Your thoughts are, as always appreciated. In this particular case it wasn't a house. More of a large corporation and an international contractor with very well paid engineers who have far more resources than myself.. Since you've chosen to keep this local, I'll do the same. (I kinda lied)
I just like fixing broken things and putting the word out on things that can't be foreseen. It is the best guess at this time that the adhesives used the join the PVC weren't evacuated of explosive gases well enough before running the "Low Pressure" test. It is suspected that a static discharge ignited those gases inside the piping because that type of pressure is never used in leak checking PVC.
OSHA is all over this. Don't expect to see this in newspapers. Big business can quiet anything. Personally, I don't care. I pass on what can be fatal mistakes. As well as ways to avoid such freak accidents.
All I'm saying is that when a leak check is initially run, everybody leave the area for the first 5 minutes. EVERYBODY. When ANY line gets pressurized the first time... Step out of the room. I added the plumbing newsgroup back in. Sorry.
But, just do that. I don't *ping* all across groups for my health. My field involves finding out that this isn't on the net at the moment.
Therefore, it isn't common knowledge. I make that common.
TheNIGHTCRAWLER (A thing I do. Go break a cdrom and put a tornado wind behind it.)
>
>>
>>Crossposted:
>>pdaxs.services.plumbing,atl.general,ga.general,ny.general,alt.politics >>
>>I'll call this a PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT.
>>
>>I do this for 2 reasons.
>>1) My brother nearly died.
>>2) It didn't make the news.
>>
>>3) Advice and regulations, codes, etc are such a rarity online for this
>>or any other thing that endangers people directly.
>>
>>PVC piping is commonly "leak checked" in the plumbing industry. Put
>>pressure on the lines, see if anything leaks.
>>
>>Apparently PVC explodes in the manner of CDROM when broken. My brother
>>is the plumber, I'm the computer tech. During a "leak check" on a PVC
>>line in Atlanta this past friday, his apprentice was killed in an
>>explosion during the check. CDROMs shatter like glass. A PVC pipe
>>explosion killed a person in Atlanta last night and shredded everything
>>in the vicinity in the process of a standard test. I consider that alot
>>more important than the latest car wreck.
>>
>>I will now direct your attention to the only relevant link referring to
>>safety advice during such testing procedures in order to prevent getting
>>killed while doing a job. That I was able to find online.
>>
>>html:
>>http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:TyAtdSIJzzwJ:
formatting link
>PDF:
>>
formatting link
>
>>Live and Learn. Don't and Die. That's what I call a PSA.
>>
>>TheNIGHTCRAWLER
>>(This is the only post I'll make tonight that requires general
>>attention. Another reason Google is so profitable.)