old gate valve

Larry (from OSHA)

I have a gate valve below the water meter and a globe valve above. The globe valve needs new washer and packing which is easy enough but the gate valve has not been turned in a very long time and is pretty stiff. I don't want to screw anything up and I've seen gate valves break or get stuck half open or be otherwise problematic so what I want to know is there anything to do that will give me a better chance of not creating a huge problem? Or should I just let the globe valve weep until it corrodes itself drippless?

JUGHNE

Do you have a good floor drain at the meter and anything of value raised 2" of the floor ??
When the globe valve corrodes itself shut you may not be able to operate it either. Then in the future with a broken pipe what do you do? Shiuff happens, especially with old gate valves, I regret using them in the past but years ago ball valves were spendy.
IMHO I would shut off the curb stop and replace both valves with high quality ball valves. And exercise them occasionally.

Larry (from OSHA)

Your answer is the one I already knew! I have ball valves everywhere else but the incoming main is last on the list. Thanks for your perspective. Hopefully the curb stop is not screwed up either.

Larry

hot_rod

Do you know anyone with a freeze kit?

If the curb stop has not been operated, it could be in the same condition. It's good to have a plan B & C when working with old shut off valves like that.

JUGHNE

Just a story on how really bad & unusual shiuff can happen:

This Sunday AM I get a call from the local nursing home, there is water on the floor in the dinning room and boiler room that share a common wall. Sure enough is and there is a RTU just above that wall. The RTU condensate drain seemed a little plugged and slow and someone did not put it together very well.
Corrected what seemed to be the problem. Still water on floor. Put hand in water and it was damn hot. In the kitchen there are some under slab water lines. Kitchen help said it is always hot under the cook's sink. It was like opening an oven door. The floor temp read 114* in front of the sink. The sink cabinet base broke open easy to expose dry concrete that was over 115*.
These under slab HW copper lines are fed by the 180* water heater that does kitchen & laundry.
Thankfully there was a remodel 2 years ago and I had added isolation valves on every line available. Found the offending copper line and capped it after a WAG where the piping manifold was buried inside a wall.
The hot cabinet under the sink was reported to the supervisor a month ago...o well..Duh!!! The water had pressurized under the bottom of the slab and followed electrical trenches dug in 1971 back to the boiler/mechanical room and then had enough pressure to exit out the top of a 12" high curb poured to enclose all the UG conduits risers in the boiler room.
It is over 65' from sink to boiler room. The whole day seemed unbelievable that this could happen. As I look back there were clues, such as the 180* water heater had been really sweating on the bottom and running a lot, every AC condensate line was peeing like a fire hydrant, and the kitchen AC especially just wasn't keeping people comfortable anymore. The walk-in cooler & freezer was producing more condensate than usual.
So strange things can happen any time. Today, Monday, the floor under the sink had cooled down to 91* and the floor front of sink was 75 (normal).

MikeSpeed6030

In my area, the curb stop is the responsibility of the city water department - and I have to call them to come out and shut the stop. If your situation is similar, and the curb stop is boogered, the city should fix it.

Your local water department needs to be responsible for the curb stop - they need it to shut off your water for non-payment