How to disconnect water softener in garage

[Scott H in Wheaton]

My new-to-me house came with a water softner....but instead of being in the laundry room or basement, it is in the garage.

House is a ranch on a slab, no crawl space, no basement.

I am having the garage floors coated in 2 weeks and I want to disconnect the softener so the whole floor can get coated.

At this time I am not sure where the master shutoff is for the whole house. Inspector pointed to a valve going into the water heater and said "there's your shutoff", but that appears to be for the water heater only.

I see one shut-off valve that looks to be plumbed into the inlet line. I looked up the installation instructions and they show 3 valves for running or bypassing the system.

I think I should be able to shut off the valve, unplug the unit, disconnect the hoses, and then just reconnect one of the flexible steel hoses between the two copper pipes. Anyone see a problem with this?

Damn picture auto-rotated, sorry

 

[The Cobbler]

providing the flex lines have the same threads on both ends it will be fine. now would be a good time to replumb so you can take the softener out of circuit tho.

when you do shut it off, be sure to drain the out side by opening a tap or 2 .

 

[ducksface]

All you need is a ******.

 

[Scott H in Wheaton]

All you need is a ******.

Well, I have two of those

I just need to fart around with where the actual house shut-off is. Won't be back to the house for 10 days.

 

[EOC_Jason]

I have a main shutoff in the garage closet where my water heater is located, it's right next to the pressure regulator. But I also have a shutoff out by the street / meter valve...

I would think if you removed one of those flex lines completely it looks like one will reach from one copper pipe to the other. Otherwise like someone else said you could use a ****** to tie the two flex lines together.

 

[rayra]

main shutoff is probably on your main right up against the meter.

water softener in the garage is either right where the main supply enters the house, thru the softener first, or it's on a branch that feeds the house, leaving the external spigots on the main feed and not on the portions services by the softener. That way you aren't running water thru the softener for your lawn / garden or car washing.
Find your main / meter, look at the house, the cutoff ought to be apparent. At least they are in areas that don't experience hard freezes.

If you can't find one by your softener, then when you do find a cutoff you should retrofit a cutoff for the softener, on the supply side. Or even both sides to readily facilitate a softener change.

 

[ard]

My new-to-me house came with a water softner....but instead of being in the laundry room or basement, it is in the garage.

House is a ranch on a slab, no crawl space, no basement.

I am having the garage floors coated in 2 weeks and I want to disconnect the softener so the whole floor can get coated.

At this time I am not sure where the master shutoff is for the whole house. Inspector pointed to a valve going into the water heater and said "there's your shutoff", but that appears to be for the water heater only.

I see one shut-off valve that looks to be plumbed into the inlet line. I looked up the installation instructions and they show 3 valves for running or bypassing the system.

I think I should be able to shut off the valve, unplug the unit, disconnect the hoses, and then just reconnect one of the flexible steel hoses between the two copper pipes. Anyone see a problem with this?

Damn picture auto-rotated, sorry

That valve looks to be on the inlet. There is a Tee, and the pipe coming off likely goes to hose bibs and other 'unconditioned water' items.

Id turn off that valve and crack the fittings...see if that stopped it.

 

[Scott H in Wheaton]

Thank you for all the replies!
I am back at the house and thanks to my son-in-law we got the rest of the drywall hung in just an hour and a half.

I turned off the valve by the water softener and that shut off the water to the whole house.
Got the two flex hoses disconnected, but they are different sizes on the ends so I can't run just one line from copper pipe to copper pipe.
I need the water tonight so I hooked everything back up.
I'll go out tomorrow with one of the flex lines and either get a ****** to connect them or a bypass hose to connect the two copper pipes.

Garage Force is coming tomorrow morning to grind the concrete and apply a polyurea full chip coating.

Before: