ronstory
New Member
Hi--
I have a 50+ year old ranch house with a 3/4" copper main supply coming out the slab. It has a sweated gate valve about 5" above slab and then a sweated pressure regulator in-line with 3/4" main line for the rest of the house. The gate valve does not fully shut off (steady dribble) when closed and city water shut-off *almost* complete shuts off when turn if off at the meter. It has very slow drip (~1 drip every 2-3 seconds) matter how tight I close the value at the street. Normally this has not been a issue, since I can open a tap in the basement and away from where I'm working and have no drip to contend with.
Since this is the main supply line, with the slow drip from the street, I'm concerned that I may not be able to get enough of the water out of the supply pipe to sweat on a new connector before it fills up again. I sweated a bunch of 1/2" copper over years and with no issue... but always with a supply line I could complete shut off.
So I'm thinking of just cutting out the gate valve and pressure reg, clean up the Cu pipe and install the 3/4" FIP compression fitting on the supply coming out of the floor, being careful on tightening to not mess up the supply piping. Once that's done, just add the ball valve and new pressure reg call it done.
That said, I've used 3/8" and 1/2" compression fittings a bunch but never a 3/4". So any wisdom and advice is appreciated.
Thanks,
Ron
I have a 50+ year old ranch house with a 3/4" copper main supply coming out the slab. It has a sweated gate valve about 5" above slab and then a sweated pressure regulator in-line with 3/4" main line for the rest of the house. The gate valve does not fully shut off (steady dribble) when closed and city water shut-off *almost* complete shuts off when turn if off at the meter. It has very slow drip (~1 drip every 2-3 seconds) matter how tight I close the value at the street. Normally this has not been a issue, since I can open a tap in the basement and away from where I'm working and have no drip to contend with.
Since this is the main supply line, with the slow drip from the street, I'm concerned that I may not be able to get enough of the water out of the supply pipe to sweat on a new connector before it fills up again. I sweated a bunch of 1/2" copper over years and with no issue... but always with a supply line I could complete shut off.
So I'm thinking of just cutting out the gate valve and pressure reg, clean up the Cu pipe and install the 3/4" FIP compression fitting on the supply coming out of the floor, being careful on tightening to not mess up the supply piping. Once that's done, just add the ball valve and new pressure reg call it done.
That said, I've used 3/8" and 1/2" compression fittings a bunch but never a 3/4". So any wisdom and advice is appreciated.
Thanks,
Ron