The standard materials available to my friend via the hardware stores in the area weren't sufficient, and my house guest is on the road, due to arrive in another hour or two. The on-call plumber has been called and I'm waiting for a response from the tech to let me know he's on the way. The hole is dug, the pipe cleared and cleaned and the latest patch is still there in place to be removed and replaced with something that comes from a regular plumber's bag of tricks. The service charge is $40 higher than normal business hours and the repair is on top of that. Hopefully we're not looking at a complicated repair.

I have pans and buckets of water here until the line is restored. There's nothing like camping out in your own house.