Low water pressure in an area known for high pressure
Greetings,
My wife and I are in the process of updating 1957 side by side split level. The previous owner (OK, my Mom as I bought the house I grew up in from her) said that when they moved in they had to install a pressure reducer into the line.
I have searched high and low but, I can't see any thing resembling what appears to be a reducer, other than the main shut off looks suspiciously like it isn't a gate valve. Could this be the culprit?
I am thinking of having the city turn off the water so that I can replace the main shut off with a ball valve (my valve of choice for any shutoff). I am also thinking of raising the main shutoff form 2" above the floor to 2' above. This would involve taking the same amount of pipe off the other side of the water meter or am I just being anal?
Speaking of being anal, whenever I have to replumb a fixture I have taken to placing a ball valve in the run prior to where it runs into the walls. Does this make sense or am I just wasting money. My reasoning behind this is that if I need to work on a plumbing run, I can isolate that section and allow the water to be available in the rest of the house.
Finally, we have a sprinler system installed for watering the lawn. Every year I turn off the water to the outside faucet, open the sillcock to allow the water to run out and then purge the system. However, in 3 of the last 4 years I have had to cut out and replace a section of pipe that burst due to freezing. Any idea as to what I may be doing wrong? The water line to the faucet is 1/2". The guy who installed the sprinkler put in an expander to bring it up to 3/4" from where it comes out of the exterior wall. It then goes to a vacuum breaker. Coming out of the breaker is a 1" PVC line.
Thanks, Dan