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Tapping main line.

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DJORaziel

Active Member

Posts: 7

1

Tuesday, April 9th 2002, 8:31am

Tapping main line.

Help. I am not sure, but I have a 5/8" water meter that is in a small strip of grass on the other side of my sidewalk near the road. it's in between my house and the neighbors. now I am not sure, but I assume I have either 5/8" mainline copper pipe or 3/4" mainline copper pipe. There is a pipe that comes up from the ground about 2" and it's tee'd at the top, going into the house, then to a hose bib. I am having the darndest time figuring out how to tap into the main line. where should I tape it and how? I have asked a number of poeple and get all different answers that don't make sense. I would like to avoid having to weld copper piping if possible.

SprinklerGuy

Supreme Member

Posts: 358

2

Tuesday, April 9th 2002, 10:48am

YOu can avoid welding but you will still have to solder....hire a plumber to tap the line and put a tee in for you with a threaded connection that you can then use. Make your life easier and do it this way......

Sprinklersolutions.net

Sprinkler Solutions, Inc.
Arizona and Colorado
www.sprinklersolutions.net

DJORaziel

Active Member

Posts: 7

3

Tuesday, April 9th 2002, 11:04am

doh. i already called a plumber and they want to charge me $200 for it. i dont mind welding if i have to. but is that what i do? just cut a section in the pipe and weld in a copper T? the only one i could find at home depot was a 3/4 that has a 1/2 output. so i got some 1/2 pipe to cut a small snip, then a 1/2 to 3/4 female screw adapter so i could screw in a 3/4" elbow pvc to go to my PVB.

what's the best way to get the copper T into the copper pipe and should it be before the main water shut off valve? or after?

RVLI

Supreme Member

Posts: 462

Location: USA

4

Tuesday, April 9th 2002, 12:22pm

You probably have a 5/8" water meter, and a 3/4" mainline. If you live in a warm climate and your home's mainline is NOT in the basement, you can use a brass or plastic compression tee to hook into your home's service line. You'll need to cut a 1" section out of the service line(mainline). Also besure that you do not sut into the pipe before the water meter or shutoff valve, due to that there would be no way that you could shut the water off to install the tee. Slip the tee on and tighten the compression nuts. Using a compression tee gives you a water-tight connection without threading or soldering any pipe. Do not use a compression tee if your mainline is in you house or basement. Then install a gate valve of ball valve (for system shutoff) and begin the pipe run to your valves. Be sure to install a backflow prevention device between the shutoff valve and the valve manifold.

Although I lean towards soldering the tee on, this is a much easier way to tap into your mainline.



DJORaziel

Active Member

Posts: 7

5

Tuesday, April 9th 2002, 12:40pm

ok yes i do live in warm climate, florida :) and ok, i guess what i need to find is a compression T that's 3/4" that goes to 3/4" the only ones i saw were 3/4" to 1/2" then i can put in a shut off valve. ok. i guess that's what i will do. thanks.

also, i looked at home depot, they have 3/4" X 3/4" compression T's if i can just FIND one. if i get that, that can be installed vertical? on the pipe, just after the shut off right? that way i can go off it, now do i need to put that shut off ball valve before the PVB? do i need a shut off if i have a PVB? (pressure vacuum breaker)

and do those compression T's last a while? will i have to worry about it breaking or leaking or anything? thanks again.

ok nevermind home depot doesn't carry the stuff. so now i am back to square one.

if anyone wants to take pity on someone who doesn't know what they are doing and wants to offer some help you can email me at jmjohnston@tsiconnections.com

Edited by - DJORaziel on Apr 09 2002 5:50:48 PM

Edited by - DJORaziel on Apr 09 2002 6:09:34 PM

DJORaziel

Active Member

Posts: 7

6

Tuesday, April 9th 2002, 2:13pm

ok lemme ask this. with that 3/4 main there, it's T'd off going into the house, then to a hose bib. can i just connect to the hose bib, use that as a shut off value and then just screw pvc into it and go to the PVB from there?

SprinklerGuy

Supreme Member

Posts: 358

7

Wednesday, April 10th 2002, 4:09am

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Please do not use a compression tee. Also, please do not use a 3/4 tee that goes down to 1/2......

The reason the compression tee is a bad idea is for obvious reasons....if they don't want you to use it inside as per code there must be a reason right? There is a reason.

If the plumber is too expensive, call a sprinkler company....usually cheaper.

Also DO NOT USE THE HOSE BIBB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Call a sprinkler company in your area.....if someone called us we would probably do this type of thing for about 100 bucks.

Good luck man!

Sprinklersolutions.net

Sprinkler Solutions, Inc.
Arizona and Colorado
www.sprinklersolutions.net

DJORaziel

Active Member

Posts: 7

8

Wednesday, April 10th 2002, 9:28am

so i can't use the hose bib. ggrrr i called a few sprinkler companies, they didn't want to "get it started for me" and let me do the rest. and i called a plumber but they said like 200 bucks. so i guess i need to just take a regular copper 3/4" tee that goes out at 3/4" and solder or weld or whatever that into the main line?

just curious what's wrong with using the hose bib?

laroc109

Starting Member

Posts: 1

9

Wednesday, April 10th 2002, 10:00am

I was also thinking that I could maybe use a hose bib as a starting place for a sprinkler system. Just like DJORaziel, I am a bit nervous about tapping into the main line (and my wife is extremely nervous).

Why is this a bad idea??? What kind of problems does this cause??



DJORaziel

Active Member

Posts: 7

10

Tuesday, April 16th 2002, 8:32am

hmmm i guess we will never know :) i have opted to just use a 3/4" by 3/4" copper Tee. just gonna hack off the length of the T and solder the tee in there. then i got a 3/4" female adapter to just screw in some 3/4" pvc elbow to go up to my pvb. ill let ya know how it turns out :) gonna attempt this this weekend.

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