I have no water

[willshak]

There won't be water running inside while the pipes are still frozen. The ice in the pipe is sealing the crack, if there is one. When the outside temps start rising above freezing, The ice in the pipe will melt and unseal the crack. That's when the water will pour into the house. Years ago, there was a similar situation when there was a long spell of below freezing weather (I don't think it was as long as the current spell) pipes in numerous houses belonging to 'snowbirds' (people who spend the winters in Florida) froze because no one was home to see that there was no water running which would indicate a frozen pipe. When the warmer weather replaced the freezing weather, the ice in the pipes melted and the water flowed out of the pipes. Neighbors noticed water running out of the houses from under the garage doors and burst sillcocks.

[DerbyDad03]

I know you said "generally" so I'll just tell you how it works where I live. The meter is in the house with a shut off just before it. In my case, the shutoff is about 6" from the block wall. The water authority considers anything inside the house to be mine. Thus the inside shutoff and the meter are technically my responsibility.

Years ago I wanted to install a shelf just above the meter so I called them and asked if they could come over an twist my meter 90° to make it easier to read once the shelf was in. They told me that's it's mine and all I had to do was close the shut off, loosen the nuts on both sides of the meter and rotate it. I really didn't feel like messing with the old plumbing and the shelf was not that important so I never did it.

If the inside shut off ever went bad, I'd have to call them to shut off the water at the underground shutoff and replace the inside shutoff myself.

To be honest, I'm not sure what would happen if the meter itself ever went bad. Obviously I'd need a current reading reading so they could keep the billing straight, but I don't know if I could just buy my own meter or whether they need to certify it, supply it or what. I'm sure I asked them years ago, but I don't remember the answer.

[dpb]

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Try taking it out and replacing it with a straight pipe and see what they think of "responsibility"... :)

[dpb]

But, the real question is who's responsible for the run from the tap/cutoff from the main to the outside wall, then? If it's visible inside and no issues there and there's no water at that point out of the meter is it your problem or the utility's?

I'd think the more like breakpoint in a case where the meter is inside the house would be at the external shutoff--can't imagine the utility laying claim to the feed line to the house from that point.

But, I've never been anywhere w/ inside meters as outlined above -- they put the meter as close to the main as they can for precisely the reason of minimizing that supply line that's theirs plus, of course, in the olden days before wireless it was quicker/easier for reading to only have to walk the street easement.

[clare]

They OWN the meter.

[clare]

Here in Waterloo Ontario, with the meters in the basement, Inam responsible for the waterline from the shutoff at the street to the meter - including the inside shut-off, but the water utility owns the meter. The inside shut-off on mine was seized when they came to change the meter. I told them to shut it off at the street and a ran out to the hardware store and picked up a new ball valve. When I got back they had just gotten the water shut off. I grabbed my torch and swapped out the valve in about 10 minutes, and the installer was able to install the new meter. H e was impressed at how quickly I had that valve changed. (I stuck a small hose down the pipe and siphoned the water out to below the valve so I didn't have any water to boil out before melting the solder - he'd never seen that done before!!

[clare]

Unless the "low spot" is under the floor ----. My pipe comes up through the floor, straight up to the shutoff valve, LB into the meter, and straight up from there to the basement ceiling.

[Stormin Mormon]

Sounds expensive, to me. I help take care of a couple trailers, for the church. Have to blow out the lines, and then pump pink stuff through, to chase any traces of water. Drain the small water heater.

[DerbyDad03]

We do our own readings and mail in a card once a quarter. In the 25+ years I've lived here they have never come into the house and verified a reading. They do keep some sort of eye on the numbers because they called me a few months ago to ask that I read the meter again and give them a call. It seems that someone else who lives in my house, whose marital relationship to me will go unmentioned, forgot to open the cover to take the reading and instead wrote the meter's serial number on the card.

Used to be that if you didn't pay the water bill they added to your town taxes. I guess enough people did just that and it was causing a cash flow issue with the water authority. Now they charge you a $25 late fee each time you don't pay a quarterly bill. They'll still add the bill to your taxes, but it'll cost you extra, as much as an extra $100 per year.

The "upside" of them adding it to your taxes is that it shows up in the total real estate taxes paid, so a not-so-honest person could claim it on their tax form, thereby not paying income tax on the amount they spent on water.

[gregz]

The patch is visible. I have no idea when that was done, or why. Th house was also vacant for two years. The blue and yellow marks were first done when th gas line was replaced. The second time when I had the garage shed torn down. Today we found the gas and water points with metal detector. About 3 gallons of warm saltwater, and a lot of picking around the frozen gravel. The points were flush until contractor tore garage down and added gravel.

Greg

[dpb]

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Which is precisely what I would expect and surmise would be OP's case as well...it makes no sense otherwise.

OP just needs to get to it and determine if his supply is frozen at the street or after...or wait 'til the spring thaw since apparently it's no crisis.

[Robert Green]

We agree again. When my faucets produced nothing but whistling air last week at 1AM, I checked the shut off valve (no sound difference between open and closed) and then opened the outside hose bib slightly to see if I could hear something. No sound. Then I called the water company at 1:30AM and after talking to the billing answering system for a while, rechecked the number and called the emergency service number and the guy who answered said there was a water main break on my street and they were already on it.

I think that's were GregZ should be at right now - calling the water people. FWIW, it was fixed by 6AM and almost none of my neighbors knew it had been off - except for the requisite "spitting up" that occurs when water service is restored. Apparently the break drained all the water in all the connected house lines.

On a positive note, it encouraged me to set up my old darkroom 5 gal tanks to store some emergency water. When I first moved in and the plumbing needed constant repair/replacing I had them set up on a stand over the toilet fill tank to provide at least four flushes with the water turned off. One good thing about low-volume toilets is that if you have to flush them with stored water, a 100 oz empty laundry detergent bottle provides the necessary volume and flow rate (with the pour spout removed) to get a good flush.

[Robert Green]

I remember that. If you own a second home, it really pays to have some kind of alarm/monitoring system for such events. These days with smartphones you can get all sorts of remote monitoring setups, from water/smoke/fire/intrusion detection to video monitoring. If I had a second home I would make sure I could remotely answer the door/video cam. I've learned through bad experience that burglars often ring the bell to make sure no one's home before they break in.

If I were young enough to start a new business, I'd been selling "remote video doorbell/intercom" packages to homeowners with smartphones. I don't think a burglar would know if he was talking to someone actually inside the house or 1,000 miles away and I doubt they would break into a house they thought was occupied. I'll bet you wouldn't even need a high speed connection, just a dial up line.

[Cindy Hamilton]

Conditions vary.

Pretty much the entire easement in front of my house is a drainage ditch (no storm sewers on my street, a couple of miles outside of Ann Arbor, Michigan). Currently, it's under a 2-3 of feet of snow: not only the snow that has fallen in the last 6 weeks, but the snow that was flung there by the snowplows.. The water main shutoff is belowground at the property line; they use a long rod to turn the valve.

If the meter were in the easement, it would be more than 4 feet underground; that's where the frost line is. My water service comes in about 6 feet below grade; that's pretty typical.

Here in the snowy country, most people have their water meter in the basement. A retrofitted transmitter is pretty common, allowing the readings to be taken by a truck driving down the street. Before the transmitter, we would get a postcard every month from the utility. We'd mark the position of the indicators on the meter and send it back. Every year or so they'd send someone into the house to verify that we weren't lying about our meter readings.

Cindy Hamilton

[DerbyDad03]

My meter is like an odometer. We write the actual numbers on the card.

No one has verified my readings in over 25 years.

[gregz]

Water company came. The outside valve is not frozen shut. I guess they are going to TEAR up the street. Circles and arrows drawn. I can't believe it's going to be digging time in this weather. 5 degrees tonight.

The street is a fairly low point in my terrain. There is a stream, wash, 15 feet lower, about 50 feet away. It's not the ideal layout.

Greg

[gregz]

I had the furnace fail 3 months ago. Around 40 degrees inside. I should have a sister living there soon.

Greg

[Stormin Mormon]

Not many sisters will live in a 40 degree house. You have a real winner. I hope you leave her a box of chocolates.

[DerbyDad03]

...snip...

They recently replaced the gas main on my street. They started in October and by the time they were finished there was snow on the ground. When they packed up their equipment, I figured they were done for the season. I was wrong.

They moved their stuff a few blocks away and have continued working through all of the snow, ice, and sub-zero temperatures we've had this year.

It must suck when the first thing you need to do is deal with the pile of snow that the plow put next to your equipment, assuming the plow even got there before you started.