Replacing Whole House Shutoff--What About Upstream Piping?

[Lightningwill]

I have to replace a leaking whole house shutoff valve in my own home. House is under renovation and shut off in the street so the valve replacement is straightforward enough. My question is... if this were your own home, would you go to the effort of replacing the upstream piping as much as possible while the water is off?

Part of me wants to do as much as possible. The other part of me wants to leave well enough alone and not risk getting into a tricky situation with so little pipe sticking through the foundation.

 

[Cjlambert]

You've got plenty of meat there to work with. If it were my home, I would replace it, mostly because of the steel fittings I'm looking at, but also because the opportunity is there (with the water already off at the street).

If you remove the ground clamp, and cut the copper pipe tight to the steel fitting (gently, with a hacksaw), file the pipe edges, then solder on a copper coupling, you'll be good to go from there.

Just remember to re-attach the ground clamp to the new piece of copper afterwards. Tightening both screws on the clamp is also a good idea.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[TOTOtalitarian]

will need a brass connection due to copper going to galvanized steel due to potential corrosion of copper.

 

[Reach4]

Part of me wants to do as much as possible. The other part of me wants to leave well enough alone and not risk getting into a tricky situation with so little pipe sticking through the foundation.

Use a magnet to see what is galvanized and what is not. If it is not galvanized, you can stop worrying.

If part of it is galvanized, I might not swap it out, but I might worry about it.

 

[hj]

Regardless of what it LOOKS like, the flare adapter should be brass and the only steel you should change is the elbow, if is is actually steel.