Updated: I need a master plumber: How much should I expect for this?

[kd2777]

Where I live it is really easy to shut your water off at the street. All you need is to get in the meter and turn it off. And by the looks of your leak, it is in between two joints, so all you would have to do is;

- shut the water off at the street
- close the valve past the leak to the house
- then remove the section that is leaking and replace it.

Like I said it is east to do where I live, but I'm not familiar with your set up. I'm not a plumber, but I have several rental houses and I have to do this kind of simple repairs all the time.


kd

 

[rahvin]

That's a galvanized pipe.

 

[kd2777]

OK I went outside my house to my water meter and took a couple pics for you so you could see what you where looking for.

the meter
tool of choice if you don't have the correct tool
opening the meter
top off
inside the meter
turning valve

It should be pretty simple once you get the top off, because there is only one vavle to turn. I just wanted to save you some money because you can do this easy yourself, if you can get to your meter.

kd

 

[TTM77]

Originally posted by: kd2777
OK I went outside my house to my water meter and took a couple pics for you so you could see what you where looking for.

the meter
tool of choice if you don't have the correct tool
opening the meter
top off
inside the meter
turning valve

It should be pretty simple once you get the top off, because there is only one vavle to turn. I just wanted to save you some money because you can do this easy yourself, if you can get to your meter.

kd

I wonder what stopping kids going around the neighborhood with a rench like yours and just turn off everyone's water. LOL

Thanks for this info. Next time when I need to replace the main shutoff switch into my house, I'll go outside and turn the outside off.

 

[rhino56]

i usually either shut it off at the main in the front of the house with pliers if i can reach it or i just get everything ready and hook them up live. usually geta bit wet like that though, keep a 5 gallon bucket to catch the stream. ive done several live replacements. just gotta be quick

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: PhasmatisNox
Here's my crackpot idea- Get a torch. Run all the water in the house- this will reduce pressure, as it's not stopped up. Heat the pipe. (The leak isn't fast enough for anything to be spurting, right?) Then just fill the gap with solder. If you're lucky, the solder will cool and seal the pipe. Worst case scenario is that the molten solder flies back into your eyes and blinds you, making you drop the torch, which lights the house on fire.

Like I said, crackpot idea.

At best it won't work - the water in the pipe will carry the heat away much to fast to get it hot enough to solder.
At worst, you'll end up cause a steam explosion that will blast a chunk of pipe through your skull and make you eligble for a darwin award.

 

[Sukhoi]

Nice pics, that's a way different setup than I was imagining. Regardless of what kind of pipe you have, it doesn't matter since it's all threaded.

1. Yes you'll need the water shutoff at the street. Once it's off open up a faucet so you relieve the pressure.
2. What's the electrical conduit coming out of the wye below the floor level??
3. The pipe in the ground sure looks like copper to me. I'm not sure why someone was saying it's galvanized.
4. I'd clean up that piping system some when you redo this since that looks like chaos. Basically clear out everything between the copper pipe in the ground, and the union (compression fitting before the blowoff valve).
5. Here is the order I would put the new pieces from the copper pipe:

• New valve where that dead one is. You might just want to use a simple ball valve rather than those gate/globe you have there.
• Nipple.
• Elbow.
• Flexible braided hose from elbow to union.

You could try to go straight pipe instead of the braided hose, but it's gonna be damn hard to get it all to line up with the new parts. Also, IMHO use brass. Galvanized just gets icky, and stainless steel is more than you need. If you don't have a plumbing supply place nearby you can get everthing you need at www.mcmaster.com

 

[DeMeo]

Originally posted by: AgaBoogaBoo
cliffs? im not feeling that paragraph at all

i'll try again: nope, not clickin, need short version

lol

 

[Antoneo]

kd2777 and Sukhoi: I really appreciate the effort you guys made . But I chickened out and hired a plumber to do it.

I took quick pictures of the fixed pipe, for those who might be interested. Note that the three pictures are at the same angle, but I fiddled with the direction of the flash to try to illuminate different areas.
fixed_001.jpg
fixed_002.jpg
fixed_003.jpg

The job cost me $350 to get fixed, and the water didn't need to be shut off from the street. The broken old valve stopped enough water, but not all, for an "open-pipe surgery" to happen. The guy said I was lucky, since otherwise he'd have to dig towards the pipe outside and stop it from there ($1.5k job so says Mr. Master Plumber).

 

[Sukhoi]

Pretty nice looking job by that plumber.

 

[DrPizza]

Bummer on the cost... I was going to suggest doing it yourself... didn't see the thread until tonight.
In the original pictures, that's a union on the house side of the blue valve... you could have turned the water off at the blue valve, then simpy tightened the fitting with a pipe wrench, then tightened the union back up. I see the plumber did just about the same thing, except he replaced those pieces in between.

Also, *is* that galvanized coming up through the floor? I was almost positive, judging from the size of the elbow.

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

I would say you got out of that one pretty well!

 

[Kelemvor]

How many freakign vavles can you possibly have in one foot of pipe. heh...