The Leak

While fixing one of the other leaks, I had to shut our water off at the meter. Well, ever since then the water meter box has been full of water. Not knowing exactly what the problem was, I called the city. They determined that it was just seepage and not a leak. When the seepage never stopped I called them out again telling them that it was definitely a leak. This time when they came out they determined that it was a leak, but that it was on my side of the meter. I scooped out all of the water and sure enough I had a very slow drip where the house line connected to the meter. I figured since it was on the meter itself it would be the cities problem, but as long as the meter is turning and they can charge me for it, they don't seem to care.

I haven't had much free time lately, so I had to let it leak for a couple of months. Nothing serious, but the meter box was always full of water and the grass around it was 3-4 inches taller than the rest of the yard. Since Leigh is out of town, I figured it would be the perfect weekend to work on it. Luckily my dad was nice enough to come up and help. I wasn't exactly sure what needed to be done, but since it was copper, it could have involved soldering which I have never done before.

So, like any bachelor on a Friday night, I dug a hole around the meter box. When my dad got there on Saturday morning we finished digging out the hole and removing the meter box. There were lots of roots that had to be dug out as well. We then wound up removing the water meter and noticed that there was a gasket missing on my side of the meter, but the city conveniently remembered to put one on their side. So like any good citizen, I bought a new gasket and put it on my side, but had to remove the cities gasket so mine would fit. We put the meter back in place and suddenly the leak was on the cities side.

We noticed that water was still filling the hole in faster than the leak was dripping, so we dug out some more and saw water squirting out of the main valve. I called the city and asked that they come out and fix their leak and the valve. After a couple of hours a guy from the water department showed up and replaced the valve and added gaskets to their side of the meter. It probably took him less than 30 minutes to have it leak free. Too bad it took them three trips to finally fix the problem.

Either way, it is now fixed and my meter box is drying out. I can't thank my dad enough for helping me out. I have a feeling I may have to help him fix a leak at his house in the near future. But, that is a small price to pay for not having to hire a plumber to fix my leak.