My wife and I have a leaking gate valve in our basement. Have attached a picture. The valve is an inside valve that connects to the pipe leading out of our basement to a hose bib / silcock outside. I think the idea is that you can shut the water off out there if needed. It comes off a T which is the main plumbing feed from our house (basically there's a pipe from the meter, a T which goes to this valve on one leg and the rest of the house on the other.

There was a water main leak in the street a few weeks ago, and the water department shut the water off. They couldn't fix it right away, so they ran water to our house by connecting a hose from a hydrant in the street to the hose hookup on the side of our house. This worked fine and they've since fixed the water main.

Since then, there's been a leak from this stem of this valve. I closed the valve, tightened the packing nut and the screw that holds the handle on (which was very loose) and the leak mostly stopped; however, if I open the valve at all, water pours out and I have to close it again and mess with it a bit to get it to stop.

Two questions:

1. How should I repair? I haven't done much plumbing and only own a pipe wrench. I've seen some videos about repacking a valve -- is that a good option? Or should I try to replace with a ball valve? The fittings are threaded, but I'm not really sure how easy the replacement is. Is this a DIY project or do I need a plumber?

2. Should the water department cover the cost of replacing? They came back out and said we should have a plumber replace the valve (they wouldn't do) and then we could send the bill to city hall, but they "had no idea" whether we'd actually get reimbursed or not.



Thanks so much!

It may not be a simple repair, but it should not be that difficult if one knows what they are doing... plumbing wise.

Notice the tiny port on the bottom of the valve body. That is a drain port for winter to prevent freezing.

Turn the water off to the house (unless you have another zone valve, closer)

With the line drained and no pressure, the bonnet nut can be loosen and the stem assembly can be removed for inspection. Check the internal seat and the bibb washer for wear and replacement. Use only flat bibb washers. Look for a packing gland to water proof the stem before re-installing and tightening the bonnet nuts.

You should be able to re-pressurize the system......
Best Wishes

You shouldn't do anything yourself. As you are in Massachusetts, you aren't permitted to do your own plumbing. If the valve is only leaking when turned on, it needs new packing. It is extremely simple to do, and you can use a normal teflon tape to do it instead of the thick a$$ teflon valve packing. If you simply loosen the packing nut and slide it down the stem, you can just add some winds of tape. I usually twist my tape into a small string and give it about a foot to 18 inches of wrapping before sliding the packing nut and all the new packing down. Once you get it down and the packing nut tightened a full turn or so, turn on the valve and see if it still leaks. This is of course for informational purposes only, as you are in Massachusetts. Oh, and I wouldn't expect the city to cover the bill. If the valve was sound to begin with it wouldn't have leaked.

1. That is NOT a "gate valve", it is a stop/globe valve
2. In addition to being a gate valve it also has waste/drain opening to remove the water in the winter time when you shut the valve off'
3. You would need to replace it with a "Stop and drain", not just a common gate or ball valve.
4. It had nothing to do with what the city did, so they would not replace it or pay for someone else to do it.

without getting too technical, yes the city could have caused the leak.
fixing it is no big deal.
as suggested, take a short piece of teflon tape, twist into a string shape and wrap it around the stem under the nut. a touch of grease and tighten away. all will be well.
PS, do you really expect marty walsh to send you a check???

assuming that the packing did not leak before...
the packing never gets full city pressure applied to it.
the design of the globe valve is such that the full comes from under the seat. so the only way pressure is applied at the packing is when the valve is open. when it is closed there is zero pressure at the packing. when it is open the water is running thru it so the pressure on the packing is much less.
when the city back fed the pressure, they applied full city pressure to the packing as the pressure now came from above the seat.

i will argue my case before perry mason, judd for the defense and the honorable joe wapner (and win).

That valve can be open and the sillcock closed and it would receive the same static pressure as the rest of the system. It is likely that the only reason it didn't leak is because it hadn't been used in some time and part of the rubber stuck to the stem and ripped when it was turned on.

quote; will argue my case before perry mason, judd for the defense and the honorable joe wapner (and win).

Don't quit your day job to become a lawyer. That valve is ALWAYS at "city pressure" because the flow is controlled by the hose faucet. Therefore, you LOSE.

well, that puts me in good company along side of the last place red sox and the last place D'backs..

Don't forget the Cubs.