Can I shut off my water mains?

[radhak]

So within this week, we have our second plumbing problem : last evening around 7pm the water pressure inside the house dropped drastically, and we saw our front yard flooded, immediately leading us to water bubbling out of a spot on the grass. Looks like a break in a pipe under the grass, but not a complete one as we are getting some water indoors. The biggest impact is that the tanks for the toilets take 9/10 minutes to fill.

Of course when I call the city, they (after a lot of persuasion that this was an emergency - well sir, is the water just leaking or is it gushing out? do you get any water inside at all...), they sorta said somebody might be out here today, maybe .

Anyway, my immediate problem is all that water wasting, forming a semi-lake around my house. So question #1 : can I shut off the water mains and it keep it off for some time? I tried, and the gushing stopped. Of course all water indoors also stopped - so will this be a problem for the water-heater? Am I starving it of water and it might react badly?

And question #2 : is this the city's problem, or will i need to ultimately call my own plumber?

[viking4949]

If you have the water shut off totally, you need to turn off the gas/electric to your water heater. If it continues to heat and has no incoming cold water, the pressure will get too high and activate the emergency valve and spray hot water all over the floor. As to who's problem it is, it depends on the location of the leak in accordance to the meter. Between the street and the meter is the city or your subdivision developer's responsibility. After the meter is your problem. Or at least that is the rule of thumb here in Northwest Indiana.

[cabinetman]

If you shut off your water main to the house, there will be no water pressure in the house, and therefore, you won't have hot water flow either. The water heater won't drain because it needs the water pressure to fill/heat, and ultimately dispense. You could unplug/turn it off until you get the leak fixed. By that time whatever water was in the tank would cool and have to be re-heated. No real big deal.

Usually with utility vs. homeowner question, if the problem is with the utility line it's their problem. If it's on your property beyond where your line taps into the utility line (water meter) it's your problem.
.

[Stytooner]

If you are able to shut it off at the meter, then it is your issue.
It is likely PVC and you may be able to deal with it yourself. I laid all the lines on our property myself and always repair myself when needed.
PVC is easy. The hard part will be getting the hole large enough to work in. I am usually done with this type project in a couple hours including a trip to the hardware store.

[Uncle Cracker]

One other thing that you need to think about... If your service line to your house is broken, you may get dirt or other contaminants (some of which could be dangerous, like fertilizer, pesticides, etc.) in your lines through the break, particularly if you shut off your service at the meter (no pressure to push water out, instead of suck water in). I would not use any water from your house lines until the break is repaired and the lines to all outlets in your house are thoroughly flushed out (don't forget icemaker, fridge, dishwasher, laundry).

Edit: I forgot to consider that your meter may be at or even in your house, rather than at the street, like they are here, so if that's the case, shut the water off at the corp stop at the street, rather than at the meter...

[cgallery]

(1) Yes, shut it off.

(2) Now shut-off at the meter inside your house.

(3) If your neighbor is close-by, and you're on good terms, you can run an orginary garden hose between your silcock and theirs, and they will feed you water until you have the problem fixed. This assumes you don't have a newer silcock that prevents backflow. If you do, bypass it.

[Tom Slick]

I dealt with the exact same issue 4 years ago. It happened at night, a passerby called it in, and water was shut off at the meter. nobody told me! had to call the water company to figure it out. main water pipe was so bad it fell apart. new 3/4" line gave me at least twice the water flow. meters in my area are at the curb.

If it is after the water meter or street shut off (I don't know if you have a meter) then it is your issue. before the meter/shutoff then it is a utilities issue.

[radhak]

Thanks, guys. I got busy, but kept checking here for ideas which did prove helpful.

The city finally called and said - we are not responsible, call a plumber; I had begun to expect that with your inputs. Rotorooter said they'd come in monday; a local plumber claimed they'd charge $150 for just coming in (of course, it'd count towards the repair).

Luckily I had a sprinkler repair guy coming in; he looks at it and says he could fix it; i decided to go with him particularly since Lee had said it was a diy job. He had a helper, and they were done in 2 hours!

The culprit was the fact that the original contractor seems to have found reason for a bend in the water supply pipe, but instead of using elbows, he had actually bent the pvc pipe ! Shoddy work, sure, but it did stand up for more than 7 years! We found a tear at the bend. This guy just cut 2 ft off and replaced it with straight pipe pieces joined with small elbows.

Seemed as efficient as any regular plumber, and he charged me just $150 for the whole job, including material! Again, I dodged the bullet of a potential large bill, and there's peace at home .

Thanks everybody for your interest and help.

[cgallery]

Thanks, guys. I got busy, but kept checking here for ideas which did prove helpful.

Seemed as efficient as any regular plumber, and he charged me just $150 for the whole job, including material! Again, I dodged the bullet of a potential large bill, and there's peace at home .

How deep did they have to dig? Around here, water pipes are six to eight feet deep.

[viking4949]

I am guessing not too deep, as hard freezes are rare in Florida. Here in Indiana, my water is 10 feet below the ground level.

Brandon

[drillman88]

Costly Mistake

My wife works for the local water dept.Our meters are set up with a sending unit so that the readers can just drive by and read the meters. These are easily damaged when removing and replacing the meter covers.If you damage the sending unit there is $150 repair fee.If you call the dept.the will remove and replace the lid at no cost just to prevent damage and if they damage it is repaired by the city.

[radhak]

I was shocked to find that they dug less than 2 feet. Yes, 20 inches or so! I had expected far more.

I hope I have not damaged anything. But seeing that they were unwilling even to think of coming over, I had no choice but to do it myself. Couldn't have waited for them. In any case I plan to challenge them over the extra water wasted overnight yesterday : I did call them asap, and they did not direct me to a plumber right then.

[Stytooner]

That sounds about the right depth. Probably just a tad shallow. I installed all mine and they are between 2 to 3 foot deep. I don't recall exactly what the code was back then. Been about 14 years. They have to go a certain amount deeper than the frost line. South Alabama and Florida has a pretty shallow frost line. You may be able to get away even shallower if they are wrapped. No need to do that though. Not much rock around here. Plenty of sand stone, but that's after 5 foot deep.

[Tom Slick]

They are installed about 2-3' deep around here also. gas lines are minimum 3'.

no such thing as frost line here, no frost.

[mschrank]

In any case I plan to challenge them over the extra water wasted overnight yesterday : I did call them asap, and they did not direct me to a plumber right then.

I dealt with a similar problem last year. The city was willing to split the difference with me. That was good for me, since the leak had actually been there for several years before I noticed. Obviously, it was very small at first and gradually got bigger. I only found out when I glanced at our water bill and saw we were using 20,000 gallons/month

The LOML handles the bills, and she never thought to question it.