Water Meter

[gyn_paul]

I am re-routing pipes in the kitchen and need to move the water meter. Traditionally they are horizontal because that's the way the pipes are running. But is there any reason why it shouldn't be mounted vertically? The new supply pipe to the rest of the house runs down the wall, replacing one which snakes around under the sink (effectively removing any chance of using the space to store things) and eventually disappearing into the wall.

p

[Gluestick]

Surely, GP, the pipework up to the water meter is the responsibility and property of your water supplier?

Are you actually allowed to move the meter and re-plumb?

Might be worth first checking.

The beauty of this is that the water supplier must suffer the cost of replacing the pipework from the main right up to your meter. Ours had to as a result of leakage on "Their" side: and it was quite a job!

 

[gyn_paul]

[quote user="Gluestick"]

Surely, GP, the pipework up to the water meter is the responsibility and property of your water supplier?

Are you actually allowed to move the meter and re-plumb?

Might be worth first checking.

The beauty of this is that the water supplier must suffer the cost of replacing the pipework from the main right up to your meter. Ours had to as a result of leakage on "Their" side: and it was quite a job!

 

[/quote]

Well it's a 20mm plastic pipe coming out of the ground to a stop tap and the meter, thence to the non-return thingy and the pressure restrictor, so it would be just a case of flexing it from the horizontal to the vertical, and attaching it to a pipe clip. All the bits post-meter leak if moved at all (I've just had a 10-minute struggle to remove the sink waste and in the process clouted the ludicrous serpent of 16mm loops bends and 'T's and it immediately started weeping from 2 separate unions), and they're clearly my responsibility.

So things are different here in France then. Back in the UK we (in the Midlands at least) were responsible for the pipework once it crossed the property boundary. I suppose that made sense back in those far-off days B.M. (Before Meters).

p

[Gluestick]

In our commune (Which is supplied together with a number of others locally) by a Syndicat on a Not For Profit basis, they have been gradually changing all the old lead feeds for plastic.

My friend Phillipe's old restored farmhouse will require the tarmac courtyard dug up: and the the terrace (Typical small red times) dug up and all restored afterwards.

So he's rubbing his hands with anticipatory glee, awaiting the moment when le Syndicat realise their problem!

Expensive!

 

[gyn_paul]

[quote user="Gluestick"]

In our commune (Which is supplied together with a number of others locally) by a Syndicat on a Not For Profit basis, they have been gradually changing all the old lead feeds for plastic.

My friend Phillipe's old restored farmhouse will require the tarmac courtyard dug up: and the the terrace (Typical small red times) dug up and all restored afterwards.

So he's rubbing his hands with anticipatory glee, awaiting the moment when le Syndicat realise their problem!

Expensive!

 

[/quote]

hmmmm... it will, of course, come back to bite him on the bum (proportionally) when the costs translate into a larger abonnement.

The reason I need to move the meter and re-route the pipes is to clear that particular bit of floorspace (in a corner, and just to the side of a doorway) for 8 x 16mm underfloor heating pipes to be temporarily terminated.

They have to stop there because we can't continue with the piping in this room until we can finish off the other ones and decant everything to there and camp in that room for a few weeks.

Honestly, I never realised that logistics would play such a big part in a large building project!

[AnOther]

I thought incoming supplies were in 25mm pipe not 20mm ?

To answer your actual question, the meter will work in any attitude.

[ericd]

Correct, the meter will work at any angle.....in order to change it you could move it with two bits of pipes attached, re-site where you want it to be and create 2 x new connections.

[gyn_paul]

The incoming plastic (really is 20mm) popping up out of the floor some foot or so from the corner feels very stiff and old*. I'm planning to slowly ease it up into a vertical position (god bless flexi connectors!) over the course of a couple of days until it gets into the proper place.

I dread cracking either the incoming or the joint to the stoptap, as the stopcock in the road needs a special key to turn it off, and the water people are at La Souterraine, some 15 miles away. I'd get awfully wet by the time they got here with the key!

I've already had one of the compression elbows blow off (entirely my fault: didn't tighten it up enough) that's quite enough. 

 

p

Mains water didn't arrive here in the sticks until the '60s... so its likely to be the original plastic, having avoided the lead problem entirely.