Well water to city water conversion question?

[equips4o]

Hey guys, I live in Sarasota, FL and the city is just finishing up plumbing my neighborhood with city water. I am planning on connecting my house to city water so that i avoid the maintenance of the well and the occasional sulfur smell from the well water. The city has so far installed a water meter box (no meter) in the ground and plumbed a water pipe coming form the main water supply into the box.
My question is if it's doable to connect my house to the city water myself (to save money, already poured a ton in it for different issues)? As to my understanding i am obligated to hire licensed FL contractor to install a back-flow and water meter, correct me if i am incorrect on that. After that i am guessing its pretty straight forward digging and basic copper plumbing. Anyone ever done that or have any experience with switching from well to city water?
Thanks.

 

[Themp]

You own the pipe after the city meter. I assume you will have to pay for the city to install a meter which will have a stub that you can connect to. Today meters usually have a backflow valve in them. You need to get a permit to connect, however, as this has to be inspected. What you need to look at is do you need a pressure reducing valve(PRV) and an expansion tank. The city should be able to tell you if this is needed as it will be based on what the city water pressure is to you. If the meter does not have a back flow valve and the pressure from the city is reasonable, not over 80psi, then you might not need the PRV and expansion tank. But if the city pressure is over 80psi then you would need to reduce that with a PRV and then an expansion tank is needed as the PRV usually make your house a closed system.

https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/expansion-tank-w-water-pressure-regulator.29598/

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Jadnashua]

A backflow device will essentially make your home now a closed system, and you WILL need an ET. Whether you need a PRV would depend on the supply pressure.

Utilities tend to be kind of picky about who and how things are directly connected to their supply system, so you probably will need a licensed plumber to put in the meter and backflow, but you should probably be able to continue things from there to connect into your home.

 

[Valveman]

Even with Sulfur smell I wouldn't trade a little maintenance on a well pump for letting the city have full control of my water supply. Look what they did to people in Flint. Those people had been living with SOLID LEAD water pipes without any problems for a hundred years. The city officials decided to switch to a cheaper water supply and didn't treat the water properly, and a lot of that lead and lead oxide got dissolved right into peoples drinking water. So now we have all these new rules about lead in plumbing that is costing every American a LOT of money, for nothing. The solid lead pipes were never the problem, expecting city officials to know what they are doing is the problem. I would be glad to take care of your bank account for you and save you the maintenance.

 

[equips4o]

Thank you all for the input. I didn't consider the pressure aspect of it. i will look into the water pressure from the city and consider the PRV for the job. I was under the impression that the back-flow and the meter would take care of the pressure and reduce it to about 6o psi. I know that i need to hire a contractor for the back-flow and meter. I am just trying to avoid paying $100/ft (probably) for someone to dig up a trench and run a copper pipe to my house , which is pretty self explanatory in my mind.