Gate wheel valve replacement

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oakumboakum

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san francisco, CA
I would like to replace the water shut off valve in front of the house with a ball valve but I don't recognize its connections. Do any of you plumbers know how the bottom half of the valve is connected to the pipe going into the ground? Here is a picture of the valve.

I replaced the same gate wheel valve in the garage with a ball valve. It was connected to 3/4" copper pipe. I just cut the copper pipe and removed the valve. I then used a couple to connect new 3/4" pipe and soldered the ball valve in.

Thank you
 

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And that looks more like a seat or globe valve than a gate valve.

jack vines
 
Definitely gate valve .
The union is needed so you don't have to solder near the PVC. Looks like a fairly easy replacement, but before cutting make sure that the valve at the street is shutting the water off completely or you could be without water for a while.
 
Check your pressure to see if you might need a pressure reducing valve (if over 75 PSI)
Swapping out into a lever handle ball valve will be a major deal because of the limited space, unless you go deep and lower the PVC.
Here in the SF bay area, I have found that PVC becomes embrittled over decades and often cracks readily from ground movement we have regularly, so we use flex SS water heater connectors to prevent those strains.
 
Thanks to all who replied. I always thought that water shut off valve was called a gate valve because I was always told to shut off the water at the gate in front of the house.
I am not familiar with the copper union fitting and decided not to install one. I don't know if code requires one when connecting to pvc.

I was concerned about damaging the threaded pvc fitting. I cut the pipe above the gate wheel valve and very carefully turned the assembly unscrewing it from the pvc fitting. I cut the 1" copper pipe near the stucco and all the old copper plumbing was now removed.

I first soldered the 1" threaded fitting to copper pipe. I soldered the lower part of the ball joint onto that length of copper pipe. This was done in the garage. I immersed the 1' threaded fitting, pipe, and ball joint in water. When the pieces were cool, I screwed the threaded copper fitting , pipe, and ball joint, into the pvc fitting. I next soldered a 1" couple into the pipe coming out of the wall. From this point on I started connecting pipe and fittings to a configuration I drew on paper. I cut all the pipes very carefully and cleaned every piece with SOS.

Every 90 degree elbow, 1" x 1/2" reducer, 1" tee, couples, 1" pipe, 1/2" pipe, ball joint, and 1/2" male threaded adapter were connected and ready to be soldered. I started at the 1" couple and ended at the 1/2" male threaded adapter. Finally, I screwed the new Arrowhead #253 hose bibb in.

I looked at every soldered connection and was satisfied that they were water tight. I turned the water back on at the curb and checked for leaks. I saw none.

Here are some pictures of the finished job. The work took me about 3 hours from start to finish.
 

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Last edited:
Good for you.
FYI, they make a fitting that does the entire tee as a single piece.
Called 1 x 1 x 1/2 C x FIP tee.
You are showing a Propress connection at one coupling. Why solder if you had access to Propress?
I cannot remember the last time I soldered.
 

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