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mmcgibbony · Jul 17, 2013, 07:52 AM

I added on to my home about 5 years ago. When I did, the plumbers added two new outside faucets for watering.

My home has a meter for inside water and for outside water.

The problem is that the added outside faucets were added to the inside water system. I need them to be on the outside meter rather than the inside meter for budget purposes.

Is this doable? If so, how do I proceed?
Thanks for your help.

ebaines · Jul 17, 2013, 08:40 AM

Probably the easiest way to do this would be to add new spigots to your outside watering system and use them for watering by hose, washing the car, etc. You can leave the existing spigots and just not use them, or perhaps cap them off. If you want to actually replumb so that the existing spigots get connected to the outside system it may be possible but would probably require more work to reroute pipes, and if the pipes are hidden behind walls will take more time, material and expense. Also your municipal water authority may require an inspection of the rework to make sure you aren't using water from the outside meter for inside purposes, so check your local code requrements.

mmcgibbony · Jul 17, 2013, 09:06 AM

Wow,
Thanks a ton. I was afraid this might be a really big deal.
I appreciate your help.
Mike

massplumber2008 · Jul 17, 2013, 01:15 PM

Hi Mike

If you want to discuss another idea or two just let me know that you are still around and I'll present my thoughts, OK?

Mark

mmcgibbony · Jul 17, 2013, 01:24 PM

Originally Posted by massplumber2008

Hi Mike

If you want to discuss another idea or two just let me know that you are still around and I'll present my thoughts, OK?

Mark

I am all ears sir!
Thanks a ton!

massplumber2008 · Jul 17, 2013, 03:50 PM

If you look at the pipe that goes outside (from outside meter) you may see a big valve (called a vacuum breaker or backflow preventer) and you might also see a boiler drain with handle (see image below). If you have the boiler drain (usually used to blow the system down to protect against winter freeze ups) it will probably be before the vacuum breaker and can be adapted to be used as an outside faucet... just add another, super cheap vacuum breaker (not like the big, expensive one for outside) onto the threads of the boiler drain and you have yourself at least one more outside faucet without doing anything but adding the vacuum breaker (see image below).

Let me know if this makes sense and if you have the boiler drain, OK?

Mark

mmcgibbony · Jul 18, 2013, 08:58 AM

Mark,
I appreciate the option. But, my outside meter pipe goes straight to a faucet. I don't have a sprinkler system to the yard. This faucet actually comes up out of the ground and that is where I connect my hose to water the yard. This faucet is in the front yard. Right now, I run hoses all over the place off this one faucet. Since the added faucets are all in the back yard and side yards, I was hoping to somehow run a line from the front yard faucet stubbed up in the yard. It would travel through my basement and I would somehow connect to the faucets in the other locations so that I would get them onto the outside meter. I hope that makes sense.