Can Faulty Gate Valve On Street Cause House Leak?

[Darkitect]

Hi.

We discovered a leak in our house's kitchen.

It was coming up through the floor in the corner and was about half a bucket of clear water an hour.

The kitchen sits 2 steps lower than the front of the house which is on the street.

Long story short, the plumber found the gate valve located out the front of the house in a pit in the street side pedestrian path was not working. So the plumber could not dig a hole in our kitchen to try to repair what he thought was a leaking pipe under our kitchen as he couldn't turn off the mains pipe supply.

The local water board arrived later that day, agreed the valve in the street was broken and 5 hours later an engineering contractor arrived and dug a hole at the pit and replaced the gate valve. With the water turned off at the new street gate valve, all of our house water supply correctly shut down. And the leak in our kitchen floor stopped.

The new gate valve at the street was turned on and has been on for 24 hours and the leak in the floor has not returned. My initial thought is that a water leak was happening at the street, at the gate valve, and the escaping water was flowing along the outside of the pipe, under my house and then entering my kitchen. This is a distance of around 20 metres (65')

Does any plumber out there think that this is possible or experienced this before?

I keep expecting the leak to reappear, so I'm watching where it came in carefully but there is no sign of water.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Chuck]

My initial thought is that a water leak was happening at the street, at the gate valve, and the escaping water was flowing along the outside of the pipe, under my house and then entering my kitchen. This is a distance of around 20 metres (65')

Very unlikely. In any case, you said the problem was with the gate valve not closing, which is not the same as leaking.

I keep expecting the leak to reappear, so I'm watching where it came in carefully but there is no sign of water.

You are right to expect it to reappear. The temporary reduction in pressure during the water company's repair may have allowed the pipe to relax and close a leaking joint but this won't be a permanent cure.

It's easy enough to check whether you have a leak by making sure everything that uses water in the house is off (all tanks full, etc.) and watching the water meter. If you haven't got a water meter your plumber will use a 'listening stick', which will allow them to hear whether there is water flowing.