writes:

R On 2/5/19 9:08 AM, Dan Espen wrote:
writes:

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.

I once had a quote for $2500 US to shut off water at the street to
replace the main valve.

I happened to already have a replacement valve.

I put a block of dry ice on the line just before the valve and replaced
the valve for a total cost of $5 for the dry ice. With the water
actively leaking from the valve, the dry ice froze the line shut in
a few seconds.


What length of pipe were you able to cover with the dry ice ? Our
valve is very close to the wall where main enters the basement.

I had about 2 inches of pipe between the wall and the valve.
Just enough to lay the block on the pipe. Not a big block
maybe like a brick.

I didn't think it mattered much if water in the valve froze,
I was going to take it apart anyway, as long as the water froze
in the pipe too, I was good. So, even less clearance might be
okay.

The water was leaking out of the valve at a pretty good rate.
I was impressed at how the dry ice just reached out and said,
"you're solid near me".

--
Dan Espen