Leaky valves, blizzard plumbing, & curb stops
Posted by Wayne
If there’s one thing I’ve learned about my house, it’s that if I shut off a water valve that’s been turned on for 20+ years it might not want to turn off, and if it does I’m probably going to have some problems when I go to turn it back on. There is something wrong with rubber stop brass shut off valves like the one pictured below over a long period of time.
I have two good examples of this, one that was quite nightmarish:
1. A couple of months ago, as I was demolishing our kitchen for updating I had to remove the dishwasher, and that meant disconnecting electrical hardwiring and turning off the supply valve under the kitchen sink. Once I had turned off the water and disconnected the wiring, I unscrewed the water supply line. That sucker was not turned off because it sprayed me in the face! I went back under the sink and cranked it down as hard as I could and thought I had it stopped, so I completely disconnected the water line from the dishwasher. Once I had done this I noticed that the water was still flowing out of the supply line, slowly but surely.
I went down into the basement and shut off the main water supply to the house to stop the flow. I knew that the valve under the sink was broken because I couldn’t crank it down any harder. The dishwasher had to come out because I was in the middle of redoing the kitchen. I couldn’t just hook it back up to stop the flow.
My first thought the first time I saw an issue with one of these valves was that I’d have to bring out the mapp gas torch and remove the whole valve. It turns out you can just buy a replacement valve stop with a new rubber stopper. Unfortunately (at least at Home Depot) you’re forced into buying a whole new valve of some sort instead of the piece you need. I bought a new silcock (see image below) because it was the cheapest option with a new valve stop (like $2.50).
I removed the old valve stop (see image below) and immediately noticed that the rubber stopper was cracked and falling apart. I switched it out with the new piece, turned the main water supply in the basement back on and….. same issue. The dishwasher supply line was still leaking. At this point I was thinking that I would indeed have to bust out the torch and remove the whole valve, however I got the idea that maybe a piece of the old rubber stop was still floating around in there and causing the issue. I removed the new valve stop, looked in there with a flashlight, and sure enough, there was a piece of loose rubber.
I didn’t want to push the old piece of rubber down into the line so rather than digging for it I immediately got my shopvac and sucked it out of there. I put the new valve stop back in there and it worked perfectly. The dishwasher supply line shut off all the way this time.
2. The first bad experience I had with one of these old school valves happened right after the Colorado blizzard of Christmas 2006. My wife and I had bought a new shower valve/handle/spout for our upstairs bathtub/shower and it required ripping out about a 2 foot x 1 foot section of the shower to replace the valve within the wall. I shut off the main water line to the house, also one of these rubber stop brass valves. This time the water shut off just fine without any issues.
By about 2:00 in the afternoon I had replaced the old bathtub valve and wanted to test the water tightness of my soldering job before sealing up the wall again, so I turned on the main water supply to the house. The good news is that my new soldering job held just fine, the bad news was that water was now shooting straight out of the main water supply shut off valve into the basement. Not good.
This is the main water supply shutoff to the house (how can you shut off the water to the house if this is the way to shut off the water to the house?)! There is 4 feet of snow outside so getting a pro to come out and make things alright probably isn’t an option for at least a few days! The 6 months I spent as a new construction plumber (as opposed to a turd wrangler plumber) instantly paid off.
You see, the main water supply valve is not the water shutoff of last resort. If you’re a DIY plumber you should know where the curb stop to your house is located. You can shut off the water to your house at the curb if you know where it is located. Despite the 4 feet of snow outside, I knew basically where mine was.
I put a trash can under the water stream and ran out of the house with a snow shovel and started digging where I had remembered seeing my curb stop. I dug out to the latitude that I knew it was located, but wasn’t quite sure of the longitude. After about 20-30 minutes of frantic digging, I finally found the metal plate that covers the curb stop.
The plate has a pentagon shaped bolt holding it down, I guess because the city thinks it will be difficult for you (or maybe meddling kids) to remove. While I didn’t have any pentagon shaped tools, I was able to get this off easy enough. Once I had the plate removed, I reached down into the spider infested pit (yes, evidently black widows thrive in sub-zero temperatures) and shut off the water to the house.
From this point, it was simply a matter of removing and replacing the faulty valve stop of the main water supply valve in the basement. I turned the water on at the curb again, and all was well.
Can you imagine what a pain in the ass it would have been to wait several days to get a plumber out to your house with water spraying in your basement? Can you imagine what they would charge you if they had to go digging through snow in your front yard to find the curb stop? I can’t stress enough: if you’re doing DIY plumbing, go poke around your front yard to find where your curb stop is located, and then store it it the back of your mind next to the Kindergarten Cop quotes in case you ever need it. You will thank me!
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