Water main valve from street can't seem to get to it.

[Blly8325]

Hi all, new to this forum. Anyways I have a leaky main inside of a rental house that I'm re-plumbing. The leak is coming from a ball valve that got frozen.(house vacant for4 yrs) yes I can't believe it has lasted this long. Need to change it but I need the water off curbside. So my predicament. I have access to the pipe which has the main valve from the city. Looked down the pipe no sign of valve. Took out about a pint or so of dirt and rocks. Still no sign of valve. Meter is on the inside of house. Hate to say it almost looks like someone put some concrete down the pipe or some fell in when they did the walkway. I checked the depth and I'm right there with height of the main coming into the house. Not sure what I'm suppose to see either. Should I keep trying or call the city? I was told by the city when they found the cap which was under some red brick pavers, that they couldn't shut it off a plumber has to. Sounds Fugazi to me. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. The house is located in Middletown NY.Thank you in advance.

 

[Zeppelin5000]

Along with dirt inside the valve box, the valve might also be off set from the ground shifting. The valve you're looking for is probably a curb stop and you'd need a slot key to shut it off. Did you try a shop vac to suck out the dirt?

 

[Blly8325]

Yes used a vac today. It almost seems with the large rocks that I'm pulling out of the box that it was done on purpose yrs ago to prevent the water company from turning the water off. I checked the depth I'm at now with the depth of the main coming into the house and it seems like I'm almost there. I have a slot key but it's too short. Gonna have to weld a piece of rebar to it. If I get to the valve it should look like a gas valve type shut off right? Still gonna call the city to see if they can turn it off. Just hope I'm not opening up a can of worms. Just can't Chang the ball valve inside w/o the water being shut off. I could do it live but why should I if the city can turn it off. After all I will be buying water from them.

 

[Zeppelin5000]

Yeah that valve looks like a gas one. 1/4 turn.

 

[Blly8325]

So the City DPW guys came by to see if they could find the valve. Long story short, no success. They blasted the hole with a street compressor(Jack hammer type) stuff was fly everywhere. They went past where the valve should be. NOTHING. So a plumber I hired is going to do the inside valve live. He explained to me that to find the curb stop they're gonna have to excavate. With the 4 ft frost it would be approx. $2500.00 Hopefully he has good news for me tomorrow.

 

[Zeppelin5000]

Rather than the plumber doing it live, did he mention using a freeze machine? He could just freeze a section of pipe before the ball valve then replace the valve.

 

[Blly8325]

Nope no mention of a freeze machine. They got in there this morning and did it. The historic gate valve that was there I guess it was enough to do it live with a threaded ball valve. Thanks for the advice. Now on to re-plumbing this place.