Now would be a good time to make sure the water shut off valve to your house works. Mine did not, had to replace the washer. If the water goes off you need to close the valve. It will keep what water is in the pipes there and stop unwanted stuff from getting in.

-- && (&&@&&.&), December 08, 1999

Answers

A tip for DIYs: It can be hard to solder a fitting onto a leaking main water inlet pipe. The bad valve always lets a slow feed in, cooling the joint and preventing a good solder job.

First, turn off the valve all the way and see if water still gets through. If it does, you've got a leak. Get some dry ice.

The pros FREEZE the pipe below the original valve. I did exactly that with dry ice. Wrap it around the pipe, hold it there with a rag. Go have a cup of coffee. Try a faucet and if the water's off, go ahead and cut the pipe. Don't remove the old valve, put a new one after it. The old valve will help act as a heat sink when you solder in the new one to keep from melting the ice.

Once you've got the new one in, remove the dry ice and you're ready to go.

-- Gary S. (garys_2k@yahoo.com), December 09, 1999.

If you are on town/city water, this is also a good time to find out how to shut off the water at the meter.

This is good information to have in case you need to shut off the water to your whole house but your house valve doesn't work or if you have pipe problems between the meter and the house.

-- walt (longyear@shentel.net), December 09, 1999.