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I noticed some water seeping up from the ground inline of my water main and to my surprise, under the grass was another valve that I never knew was there. It is PVC and about 3 feet after the main shutoff valve at the street.

It is 1" PVC with a PVC ball valve going to the water meter I assume. The valve has a pinhole leak and I need to replace it. I've replaced many sprinkler pipes before but never anything to do with the water main.

My question is do I repair this line with a normal PVC ball valve and normal PVC glue or do I need to use something else in this situation?

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  • @isherwood, the title edit isn't really accurate. It is the water main ball valve I am replacing. It is a valve that comes after the water main. Here is a picture to better show what I am talking about. It is the one flooded with water that needs replacing imgur.com/a/GLfE4 – Ronnie Mar 15 '17 at 16:25
  • it isn't the water main ball valve^ is what I meant to say – Ronnie Mar 15 '17 at 16:32
  • Feel free to edit. What you had was vague and not a question. – isherwood Mar 15 '17 at 17:06
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I would not use a PVC valve. Those components need to be heavy-duty, as they're buried and remain in place for decades. Failure means expensive water waste, time and messy effort.

Your water line is probably polyethylene (Pex), and not PVC. Pex is much more flexible and durable than PVC. This calls for clamped connections to brass/bronze hardware.

To give you some idea what I mean by heavy duty, here's what happened to one of my properties last year. My neighbor's brass shutoff valve sprung a pinhole leak. The water jet fanned out and cut through the metal over time. It created a thin slice through the coupler that appeared as though it was made with a hacksaw.

enter image description here

Once the leak grew strong enough it dug through the soil for several inches and ground all the way through my property's valve, with the aid of sand from the soil, creating a large divot in the brass.

enter image description here

I wouldn't mess with PVC unless you want to do the job again in a few years.

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  • I have PEX throughout my house. It is def not PEX pipe. Someone on another forum suggested it was the start of my landscape irrigation and in that case it was just PVC pip which sort of makes sense. Here is some photos to better show what I am looking at imgur.com/a/GLfE4 – Ronnie Mar 15 '17 at 16:27
  • The irrigation lines may be PVC, but I'd be surprised if the main line to your home is. – isherwood Mar 15 '17 at 17:06

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