idaho construction

Tuesday :: 06 January 2009 :: 10:05 PM
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Schematic For A Water Meter Set

©by Dean Isaacson

This is a schematic of a water meter set, or officially, a "Water Service Connection Detail." This is pulled from the files of the Idaho Department of Public Works. If you are familiar with these type of documents, you will notice that Idaho Standards are not much different from other States'. This may surprise you because most people think of Idaho as a backward nation or a State of rednecks and hicks. This is not the case. But if the stories convince even one Californian from migrating here, it is worth it!

When you work on public works, in this State, you soon come to expect some things to be a little backward -- namely the water and sewer maps! When we were connecting the sewer line at my house, the maps were fourteen feet off and it took us a half day to find the connection stub. On the other side of the hill, we were trying to locate another sewer, which was forty-three feet off the map! We finally found it after the sewer district brought in a camera -- only to prove they were right because they thought we were wrong all along. We got the last laugh but it took us an entire day.

One of the worst situations was when we were extending a ten-inch main in Hayden. We had to come off an existing elbow and install a tee before we could install the twelve hundred foot extension we were contracted to do. We had several meetings with the watermaster before beginning construction. Because he had never worked with us before, he kept going over all the little details continually and warning us to observe his markings and dig carefully. We began our dig fifteen feet away from his markings and immediately hit the elbow and snapped it off.

We had a gusher! We called him and he yelled at us, screaming he knew we were going to hot dog the job and blow something. It took him fifteen minutes to get to the site. Fortunately, we were in the middle of a large field and every utility had been located. So were just started digging. Our hoe had a twenty-two foot stick and boom with a forty-eight inch bucket. By the time the watermaster arrived, we had carved out a ten-thousand gallon swimming pool. It was full and we were increasing it to fifteen thousand gallons. He arrived on the job, yelling -- and then he saw his marks, fifteen feet away. He turned sheepish and started negotiating with us.

Because the nearest valve was a half mile away, by the time the water was shut off and the line evacuated, we had dug two of those fifteen thousand gallon swimming pools. The water district bought the parts and we provided the labor. In a couple hours, we repaired the line, had the new tee and gate valve installed and set in concrete and backfilled. By that time, the swimming pools had drained down to the aquifer and we backfilled the large holes. We only lost a half-day but from that time on, we worked well with that watermaster. Teamwork in the midst of crisis enhances male-bonding, I guess.

Anyway, we are way off the subject of water meter installation. If you click on the image above, you can download the pdf file with the schematic. Some things don't always work out the way they are designed and in my experience the curb stop and ball valve often get buried in the dirt outside the meter box. That doesn't usually happen when we are installing, but I find it true when trying to locate the darn things after someone else has installed it. Some take pride in their work, some don't. Take pride in your work, it pays for itself when you might need it.

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