quick fix for arch

[Brett H.]

I went to put up one of my arches over driveway and it snapped in half. Anyone else experience this? How did you go about fixing it without completely re-doing the whole arch? Mine broke right at the coupler. I am running out of time to get lights up and now this. Not a good start to my season. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[TJ Hvasta]

Is it the full wrapped version or sleeve version of the arch? If full-length wrapped.. maybe try a rebar/galv plumbing pipe insert between the sections.. if sleeved, just get another support pipe and re-sleeve the arch.

[Brett H.]

It is full wrapped version. I am thinking about using the next size down pipe and cementing them together that way. The next size down fits snuggly right inside the larger pipe. I am hoping that works.

[Brett H.]

Is there anything else but schedule 40...lol .

[TJ Hvasta]

there's sched20, half as thick, used for cold-water / fair weather plumbing.. and then there's PEX, very thin wall..

[MikeA]

I bent a piece of re-bar to the radius and used a ton of heavy sip ties.

[Brett H.]

TJ, I was only kidding... my schedule 40 broke so thereis no wayi would use anything thinner walled

[Brett H.]

I ended up using a smaller pipe that fit inside and cemented it. Went up fine. Hoping it holds for the season. Thanks for everyones advice.

[k6ccc]

there's sched20, half as thick, used for cold-water / fair weather plumbing.. and then there's PEX, very thin wall..

Actually the PEX that is sold at Home Depot under the "SHARKBITE" label is about the same wall thickness as schedule 40 PVC. It's too darn cold outside to go out to the garage and get my micrometer, but a piece of 3/4 inch PEX is just under a 1/8 inch wall thickness and spec for schedule 40 PVC is .113 inches. What is different is the diameter of the PEX is smaller. This piece measures 7/8" OD and 5/8" ID whereas schedule 40 PVC is 1.050" OD and 0.804" ID according to the spec (and yea, I know that those PVC dimensions don't quite add up, but I'm just taking that from another source).

[TJ Hvasta]

Jim, I bought abt 80' of the Sharkbite to outline the house with.. the Sharkbite (PEX) is more translucent.., an RGB strip inside PEX, I can see the individual pixels thru the plastic With sched40 pipe it just illuminates the plastic, I cant discern individual pixels on the strip.

[k6ccc]

I think that is a difference in the plastics. I had not considered using white PVC. I did a 3 foot test section of 3/4 inch Sharkbite PEX a few minutes ago with holes drilled in one side of the PEX just big enough for CCPs to poke into the pipe (lighting up the inside of the pipe). It looks very cool, but yep, I can see the individual pixels - especially at low light levels. I will do a similar test with some white schedule 40 PVC tomorrow and see what it looks like.