On Tuesday, February 5, 2019 at 8:13:47 AM UTC-5, Wade Garrett wrote:
On 2/4/19 10:15 PM, wrote:
On 2/4/19 6:49 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 2/4/2019 6:15 PM, Wade Garrett wrote:
On 2/4/19 1:01 PM, Clare Snyder wrote:
On Mon, 4 Feb 2019 12:06:10 -0500, wrote:

On 2/4/19 10:46 AM, micky wrote:
In alt.home.repair, on Mon, 4 Feb 2019 10:08:53 -0500, Ed Pawlowski
wrote:

No idea where this was or what happened but sure looks good

https://imgur.com/gallery/gscva38

Never go away from home for more than a couple days.


ISTM the house was unoccupied (too clean, nothing on counters)

Â* A friend who goes to Texas every winter drains his pipes and shuts
off the water before leaving. Last year he did as usual. Shut off the
main shutoff, open the upstairs bathroom tap,and open the "drain"
valve at the bottom of the system. He put a bucket under the drain and
left for Texas right after christmas.

He checked his jan water bill on line and found he had a $2000+ water
bill -Â* OH ****!!!!

Â* He called me and had me check in the basement. Thankfully the floor
drain worked. He had just "finished" the laundry room with Dri-Cor and
carpet tiles The tiles were saturated but very little damage. Running
the wet vac for a few hours and the de-humidifier for a weekgot it all
dried out - I worked the main shutoff until it finally sealed and he
had a new valve installed when he got back home.Â* There was enough
water went through his celar drain to fill his pool numerous times - -
-

How could he have used any water if the main was shut off?


Easy. He closed the vale but it did not shut off.Â* Happens.

We have this problem with our main valve. If we need to work on the
lines, we put a 5 gal bucket under the drain valve. The drip will fill
the bucket in about 30 minutes.

Getting the city to shut line at street so we can replace the valve is a
major pain, so we live with it.

My street shutoff is right at the water meter located just below ground
level at the edge of my property in a compartment covered with a metal
plate- sorta like a small sewer cover.

The shutoff is just a rectangular spud easily turned the required 90
degrees with a big adjustable wrench or slip-joint pliers. An easy DIY
operation.

--
"Sir, were surrounded".
"Good, then we can attack in any direction".
- Lt. General Lewis "Chesty" Puller

There isn't another one inside the house? There should be. Don't know
where you live, but if you have an emergency at 3AM, it's usually better
to have a valve you know in the basement, instead of finding the one
at the street, especially if it's 15F out and under 2ft of frozen snow.
Even in temperate climates I think it's a good idea, obvious places in
the house where the water service enters are where people will look first.