Gee Whiz File

So here is a cool idea I tried today- it worked really well-

At our job site, the homeowner has a water meter pit in the middle of their gravel driveway. It is in a bad spot and this winter the meter froze. A couple of weeks ago, I installed a new meter inside their house. Now that the ground has thawed, it was time to tackle the meter pit. We decided to get rid of the pit and locate a shut-off valve 15 feet away along the side of the driveway. Yesterday we dug around the pit and found the water lines 5 feet down. Today, I finished the excavation, removed the meter and pit and then added extra pipe to reach the location for the new shut-off valve.

Now comes the quandry. How do you attach the new pipe to the city line, when the city does not want to shut the water off??? (The valve to shut off the city main line would leave about 100 homes without water.)

Solution- dry ice. I talked to my plumbing supply house and they suggested freezing the main line. I used 10 pounds of dry ice (about 5 brick sized pieces) and froze about 6 inches of the 3/4 inch line a foot upstream from where I was working. It took about 10 minutes to freeze. When I opened the old meter shut off valve and no water came out, I cut it off and attached the main line to my new installation. After we finished, I used my small torch to thaw the pipe and we were back in business. It worked really slick.

Next time you can't find that shut off valve- now you know what to do.

Brant