I am from Houston, TX. My house, which I bought couple years ago, was built in 1984 and does not have a water softener. I want to install it. The main water line enters in the house from kitchen, but previous owner had poured concrete and extended driveway all the way to the outside kitchen wall. As a result it looks difficult to install softener outside near kitchen, although I can probably install it about 10 ft away (in the flower bed) and do the necessary plumbing work. Other option is to cut the driveway concrete at the edge from main water pipe till garage and take plumbing through concrete all the way in the garage and install softener in the garage. My questions are: [list] [*]When water pipes go through concrete, can I embad them inside concrete or I have to put my pipes completely under concrete? [*]After putting pipes under/inside the concrete, can I refill the broken concrete with concrete or do I need to keep those pipes covered only by soil? [*]How far under the surface do I need to install those pipes, considering soil freezing level? [*]I was not able to locate a clean-out for my house...may be it was burried under soil, multch, etc. How do I find the clean-out, so that I can tap it to drain the softener? [*]Is there any restriction, per UPC, on length of the drain pipe? I am assuming that there is no restriction on length of water inlet and outlet pipes. [*]In case If I can not locate the drain, what are my options? somewhere I read that I can provide a 5 ft deep hole in the yard and fill it with small rocks and then drain water there?!? [*]Do I need to provide any insulation to water inlet, outlet and drain pipes which are under soil/concrete? What about the pipes which are exposed inside the garage? [*]What kind of precausion do I need to take for the pipes under soil/concrete so that - they do not get damaged by soil/concrete and at the same time allow for expension/contraction? [*]Do I need to provide any backflow prevention device or vaccume breaker for water softener? [/list] I did some research on the web as well as read some books from Block and Decker, Lowes, Home Depot about plumbing...they did not quite explain the plumbing under/inside concrete!! I would appreciate any help on this.

Kitchen stainless sink has some a u shaped "rail" welded to underside. The screw type fastener fits inside the rail to pull the sink to the counter top. This "rail" has gotten a consistent dose of water from a small opening between the sink and the counter top and has rusted through. Do I need to replace the sink?