Water Meter Did Not Comply With Australian Standard.
Here one of my clients was issued with a notice from water company to have their water meter moved to comply with current Australian Standards.
The standards require the meter to be at least 300 mm above ground level with access for the meter reader. Here’s how we deal with the complication of stopping the live flow of water from the mains into the meter.
Normally, for other plumbing jobs, you can just turn off the water to the house. But this job requires cutting and work done before the meter and tap.
As you can see from this picture the current location of this water meter does not comply because it’s underground.
The water company gave the homeowner 10 days to have this rectified. Obviously, they had nothing to worry about and were in safe hands when they gave me a call.
The only way to complete this job and have it done the right way is to excavate around the inlet and the outlet of the water meter as shown below.
And then use liquid nitrogen to freeze the live incoming water supply. Note that, I’m using a bonding strap to prevent any earth leakage causing a dangerous situation (as shown in one of my previous videos. Earth leakage can be deadly) if you do not use the correct working practices.
Once the new isolation valve is installed and the meter unions. The hard part is now complete all that’s left is to install the meter and backfill excavation using nice soft clean topsoil to put around the pipework to prevent any sharp rocks or concrete from damaging the newly installed pipe.
Once I have backfilled the excavation and removed all rubbish it’s just a case of raking the garden applying some fresh topsoil and making everything look neat and clean for the customer.
Job done!
If you receive a similar notice from your water company stating you need to have a plumber move your meter because it does not comply, don’t panic. Just give me a call and I’ll be happy to provide you with a free quote to have the work done.