The suburb is about 25 years old, and the water service (both mains and meter) was provided by the developer at the same time. If it was legal to lay the main without putting a valve at the tap, I’m sure they did. (If it wasn’t legal, then there must be a valve there).
I’m certain there is no kerb valve. If there is a problem, they crimp the pipe.
I’ve lived in areas with a normal kerb valve, including areas where the kerb valve is mostly just too much work to be economically useful
FWIW, if you deliberatly don’t pay your bills here, they normally install a flow limiter, rather than disconnecting. The flow limiter allows you to flush the toilet every hour or so…
I watched them doing one in my street for a new build. They used a more modern-looking tool with a lot less muscle needed, and no paddling in six inches of water. The new pipe came in horizontally. The whole job took less than half an hour.
Over here, the water company stopcock is nearly always under the pavement (sidewalk). You can see the little covers outside each house, or sometimes for a pair of houses together. My stopcock is in the kitchen. The house supply is through half inch (or 12mm these days) pipe and it may be copper or pex. Pressure at my house is over 2½ bars.
I’m a disabled individual on a fixed income and lately I’ve had some major problems . at my home I find a tag on my front door that the water company shut me off. I never knew because I was cooking and still had water. It’s been 10 hours now and my water is not off! My son let me use his credit card to get a turn-on fee but they let me know it could be as much has 72 hours to turn it back on. I made the payment this evening and as it was never off, now I’m wondering if I was an idiot for making a payment LOL. What would cause the water to still be on? I do have the digital reader but they’ve been wanting to replace the in-house water meter. The pipes are Rusty and it’s very difficult to shut off water inside the house, but if they shut it off from the street, why is it I still have water?
They haven’t actually turned the water off … there’s a valve and the water company just hasn’t gotten around to turning it off … that the best I can figure …
Did you have debts with the water company? That payment, where did you do it? Did you take the information on where to do it off your regular water bill or off the paper on your door?
It could be that the tag was a warning, it could be that it was a scam. Can’t tell with the information given.
I was working from home a couple of weeks ago and I saw the water guy pull up in front of my yard, so it made me start watching him. I knew we had paid our bill so I was quite curious.
Then he proceeded to walk across the street to the neighbors yard and lift the cover. He then used his T-handle to turn off the water, and put some sort of lock on it. Then put the tag on the door.
I am guessing the lock could be cut off, but they probably have it located in such a manner that it is quite difficult to do so.
My water valve out by the curb (and so many around Canada) is a metal disk about 5 inches diameter with a square nut in the center. I assume it drives a shaft that goes down to the water pipe several feet underground, where the actual valve is… Or it’s a cover and you remove it to insert a very long tool (as linked above) down a tube.
When I was building my new house about 10 years ago, we had a choice of sideways garage or straight out. Since the utilities were already piped in for each lot, my driveway went over the water feed - I have that small metal disk inserted flush with the concrete. If there’s ever a water problem needing pipe repairs, I would have to chop up half my driveway I suppose. But they can turn off my water without digging. Better stay current on my water bill.
A person has to come out and physically shut off the water, and the door tag also has to have a person come out and hang it. When I was a utility operator, I did both: first shut the water off, then hang the tag. This may not be the method in place for everywhere; they might have separate people do these separate jobs - it’s surprising just how many people fail to pay their bills and how long it takes to go door to door and do something about it. Your local regulations may also require a certain amount of time to elapse between hanging tags/notifying people and actually doing the physical disconnect. Privately provided high-tech services like your internet connection can be shut off fairly simply with a few key strokes and minimal consultation, but something like water is slower and more tightly regulated.
But no it wasn’t a waste of money to pay the fee; you were on their records for non-payment (or what ever the issue was) and they would have sent a guy out to disconnect - he just hadn’t gotten there yet. If he had of disconnected a day later you might have had to wait up to 3 days for them to schedule him into driving back out and physically turning the valve back on. It’s far more likely they simply hadn’t gotten around to finishing the job of disconnecting you rather then they just forgot about it.
I definitely am behind in my bill, I acknowledge that. I live on disability and I’m desperately looking for a job, I’m behind on all my bills! The water company did sent a verification and a confirmation number, via email, and did acknowledge the payment. My point was, they put a cover on my digital meter reader, but the water was actually never turned off. They did tag the door, and I called the numbers on the tag. I’m just wondering why the water was never actually turned off, and it was an absolute shut-off notice. I had to pay a $30 reconnect fee, as well as something on the bill. I’m just wondering because my house used to be a duplex, that something happened that they turned a valve but it didn’t cut off the water to my house I never really looked at the digital meter on the front of the house, the main water meter is old and in my basement, so they had no access to that. I thought the digital meter was a square Black Box, I looked last night, there’s a Green Box covering it. I’m sure the meter is still spinning, and I didn’t get any notification that they turned it back on yet, probably tomorrow. I just think it’s really strange that it was still on. My ex was a contractor, nothing was done right in this house! LOL
By the way, thank you for the comments and input.
They even told me to shut off the main, as if they heard water running for 2 minutes after they turned it back on, he would shut it back off again to not be responsible for any potential damage in the house. I’m just wondering what he shut off because it certainly wasn’t the water to my house and my neighbors would have been out bitching, LOL
I’m surprised they let him do anything at all what with liability for mashed fingers and such.
I once had gas – not water – service restored at a house. The main was in the alley behind the house but there was no trace of what- or whereever the entry point might have been. A large pit was dug and the main was tapped into; not being Bob, I didn’t even hang round the area to find out how. What was fascinating was restoring the plastic line from the tap to the newly-installed meter by the house. A machine then rammed a leader with a bullet nose with the service line following through the sandy soil from that pit to an intermediate pit in the back yard. There a slight bend aimed it at the meter and the machine in the alley continued to pound it until it reached a third pit by the meter. There an elbow and metal riser were installed and the connection to the meter made. I don’t know the reason for bend. It was less than 15-degrees and at about two-thirds of the distance from the tap in the alley to the meter. Perhaps they weren’t confident enough in their aiming ability to strike directly for the meter from the alley.
Once when I was financially embarrassed the power was shut off. I was home that afternoon so the guy from SRP knocked on the door, explained why he was there, and proceeded to remove the meter and put a cube where the meter used to be. In it was a restricter that allowed only a few hundred watts of service, enough to run the refrigerator and a few lights (still incandescent at the time) but nowhere enough to run the stove or heat pump. This was in May here so the latter would have been highly desirable. He pointed out the button used to restore service if the maximum was exceeded and said that if the bill wasn’t made good in a week, he’d be back and the power would be off-off. Payment was made the next morning and he was back that evening to restore services, so it was about 24 hours elapsed.
The one in the street often doesn’t work due to age, or maybe removed or never existed,
but for whatever reason they can’t shut off with a simple twist of the stop cock,
they might freeze the water inside the pipe, and do as required to install a new stop cock .
Just last Saturday, I had a plumber come by to replace a faulty toilet inlet valve. Background: I was planning to do a sort of “overhaul” and replace all the parts in the toilet, which were aging and leaky. As I was preparing to get started, I turned the inlet valve to “off”, and water was still coming in. I planned to replace that valve as well, but I didn’t know where the house water turned off (we just moved into a new house in October, and I hadn’t searched for it). So I just called a guy to replace that valve and had him show me where the house cutoff was.
Like many of you, ours is out back, in the alley, underground. He used one of those T-handles to turn it. I did notice that the valve had a loop on it that would match up with another loop on the pipe when fully closed, I’m guessing so that a lock can be snapped on it when you don’t pay. So, that’s how they keep you from just turning it back on yourself.
I posted this and got on this site and I can’t believe the stupidity of people not reading and comprehending what I wrote. I am so detail-oriented and everything I say, can I get these comments. I was actually looking to get feedback from somebody that worked for the water company and I did indeed get that. So read my regional post and it said my water was turned off, they put the note on my door, they came out here, they use their Machinery whatever they had to do, but there’s something off that my water was never shut off. My front sidewalk was torn up before I bought this house, so they went into that Avenue try to valve, and my water was never shut off. So I know someone was out here because the cat on the water valve is recapped and I think it had something to do with the fact that my house used to be a duplex or maybe there’s a split in the line. But some of the comments come from idiots because they didn’t read my actual post. I was looking for information and I come across comments and everything else talking to me like I’m an idiot with 165 + IQ. I use the English language so prolifically. Thank you for the guy that was out there that used to work for the water company and explain certain things so when they decided to turn off my water there was different things going on because my water was never actually shut off. I did pay the price to have it turned back on, I live on disability and it’s not enough to pay the bills and it’s very stressful, but then you get these idiots trying to say certain things. I thank you all for your intelligent responses, but I can’t deal with idiots and people who don’t read what I write and comprehend. This is been a total hardship in my life, we were all talking which language
A technician was definitely here, he put a note on my door, my house used to be a duplex and whatever happened when they put that machine down the hole that the cover has been off for years because the water company left me with a black top sidewalk where the water valve was, whatever. It seems like no one here understands English. My house used to be a duplex so if they put that Machinery down there and turn the valve and they said they shut my water off, and never shut my water off. I was looking for answers there. This is why I hate websites and everything else because you and Connor people that don’t read, don’t comprehend and our total freaking idiots. I’m done with this subject, I still have my water, and never got shut off, and we’ll see what happens with the next bill. Thanks for your input from you intelligent people.
