First Homeowner Hardship: Water Pressure Valve

This was actually taken care of last week, but it took me a while to get around to writing about it.

When I had my inspection on my house, Mac The Inspector said everything was in great condition and the only thing he wanted me to do immediately was replace my broken water pressure valve. It's this thing connected to your main water pipe on the outside of the house which, you guessed it, regulates water pressure.

Water Pressure Regulator Valve

Mine water pressure was at 110. Normal/Safe is 50-60. Not only will it hurt to take a shower when the pressure is this high, it can cause problems if you leave the house for something like a vacation and the water isn't turned on for a while, all the pressure builds up in the pipes and can break them when you finally do turn it on. At least that's how I understood what was explained to me.

So on my first full day in the house, Monday June 29, I had my surf buddy Alex come over to check it out since he does pipe fitting stuff for a living. He assessed it and it was something he could fix so he came back on Tuesday with all his tools to get started (I had purchased the replacement valve already, they cost about $50). He came over at 4:30 and had forgotten some pipe that we needed, but luckily I've befriended Carl, the handyman working on the remodel next door and Carl hooked us up with the 3/4 inch pipe we needed.

My valve is in a very awkward spot, right behind the huge (ugly) juniper growing by my front door which makes it hard to work on. And the fact that whoever put on the original valve jimmied it into place. After 3 hours of trying to do it what was supposed to be the easy way and, Alex had to admit defeat for the day and he needed to do it the harder, right way tomorrow (he has to crawl under the house). The actual pipe coming out of the house needed to be converted from the rusted out T-pipe that has the unused T joint plugged off into a 90 degree pipe instead. The old pipe started leaking when it was all disconnected, so we had to shut off the main water to my house.

So no running water for me Tuesday night until Alex could come back on Wednesday. Luckily I was able to shower at my old apartment since I had to go over there after Alex left to clean.

Wednesday Alex came back over, SUPER excited to crawl under my house with the spiders and bugs. Who wouldn't be? He put on a long sleeve shirt and I outfitted him with a beanie to keep the creepy crawlies out of his hair (in his defense, I offered this to him, he didn't ask). Then he crawled under my house with a blowtorch and the new pipe. I made a mental note of where my fire extinguisher is located and hoped the fire department was close because I could hear Alex when he made it to the corner of the house where the pipe was and all I heard was the sound of the torch going off for several minutes. Don't set my house on fire!

A few minutes later my cell phone rang. It was Alex calling me from under my house lol. He needed me to pull the old pipe he had disconnected out through the wall.

After he installed the new piping, getting the new valve on was a breeze and he finished just in time for me to get to band practice on time. And now I had running water in the house again! But I still couldn't take a shower because the previous tenant broke the handle off right before I bought the house. More on that project soon. At least I could flush the toilet again.

My new pressure valve and pipe (and the hole I talked to Alex through).