This is an odd one. The only whole house shut off is on the city side of my meter and the person from public works I talked to said only the city could operate it and if it were to break while I operated it I could be held financially liable.
Does anyone know of a ballpark price to get a plumber to install on my side of the meter?
Last year a plumber charged me about $300 to have a shut off valve replaced. Took him about an hour.
Cutting a pipe and adding a valve is a really simple thing and should only be expensive to the extent that any plumbing job is expensive.
I would specifically ask for a quality 1/4 turn ball valve - there’s no point in cheaping out on that part when you’re mostly paying for labor. And as long as you’re doing that, you probably want two of them. For the same reason the city doesn’t want you touching theirs, you should have a shutoff that you actually use when you need to do plumbing work in the house, and one before that that you never touch unless it’s an emergency and you can’t shut off the other one.
For a bit more expense, you could consider an automatic shutoff leak detector. I have one called Phyn that keeps track of water usage, tests for pressure drops every night, and detects unusual flow patterns and can automatically shut it off.
There is a pretty slick automatic water shut off that you can put wireless sensors at places like outside of a sump pump well or in a tray under the hot water heater. If the sensors detect water, they tell the valve to shut. I think they run a couple grand all in, but it is cheaper than having to gut your basement because the sump pump failed during a downpour.
There are several. I have one as I mentioned in my comment: it’s called a Phyn Plus. It works with and without sensors. I have some in strategic places like under the water heater.
It actually caught a leak, although it wasn’t from the plumbing. It was rain getting into the chimney and dripping into a puddle in the boiler room that set off one of the sensors. I like the cable-style sensor they have – it’s like a 4-foot-long headphone cord, but the whole length is a water sensor, so if any part gets wet it goes off.
While doing some repairs prior to closing on my house the previous owners found their shutoff didn’t close all the way and their plumber had a way of freezing the line in order to install a new shut off. I have no idea on the details aside from a 2nd hand retelling but I thought it sounded interesting at the very least.
I saw this in youtube when I was watching videos about propress, planning a whole house plumbing redo.
http://easyfitisolator.us/
I think it’s only available in the states, but you don’t even need to shut off the main to install the shut off valve.
There’s also the c/plumbing at lemmy, they might be able your question.
Yeh I think these are currently like $400-500 here in Canada. My boss just ordered one (or something similar), interested to see how they function.
I had to install shutoffs in a unit this week and building management refused to shut the water off (for the floor).
I used a Rigid Super Freeze and it worked really well. Installed all 5 shutoffs without a disaster.
Full disclosure, I’m a carpenter/project manager, not a plumber by trade.
Rented from United Rentals, which is North America-wide I believe.
Pretty sure a random fitting company isn’t paying for marketing on Lemmy.
Had a pipe burst in a rental in Seattle. No shut off. I called the city and they came out and installed a shut off the same day.
Give em a call and see if they’ll put one in.