In-ground retangular valve box...help?

[ezriderga]

This outdoor faucet and valve box were installed about 12 years ago. Until this year I have not had any issues with it. For some reason when I would go to use it this year, it would be full of mud. I have had to dig out the mud just to get down to the valve handle to turn the water on.

I thought the rain may have had something to do with it, and it may have, but yesterday when I took the cover off, it was full of wet dirt and we have not had any rain in more than two weeks. Like I said, we have not had this happen for the last 12 years.

So my next thought was the possibility of a water leak. I took a picture of the digital water meter, didn't use any water for an hour, took another picture of the meter and the meter read the same.

Has anyone else had the same or similar issue? Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions as to why this is happening? Solutions? Thanks!

 

[shawhite]

Yep my valve box always fills up with dirt. I have tried several different approaches and so far the one that worked the best was when I put the weed barrier cloth at the bottom and then 3-4in of gravel (make sure gravel covers the side holes).

 

[ezriderga]

Thanks. I just looked and I have some of that cloth and some gravel. I may just give that a try.

 

[kbs2244]

Who owns it?

In my experience those valves are owned and maintained by the water co.

 

[Iron-Iceberg]

Gopher? Sometimes they will push dirt into the box.

 

[driftpin]

Gopher? Sometimes they will push dirt into the box.

Here in so. Florida I'm 2 blocks from the Intracoastal Waterway and 1 mile from the ocean. We get land crabs.

My big problen was when the city hired in a contractor to re-do the water lines, they yanked-out my survey pins, and planted their installation exactly on-top of my property limit. They did that on two sides.

 

[HenryAZ]

Gopher? Sometimes they will push dirt into the box.

That is definitely my problem here in AZ. The suckers fill up the box and you can find evidence of their presence around the box (plugged hole). They are prodigious dirt movers. If I didn't keep a heavy rock on the lid, they would push it up, too. As it is, you can see the imprint pattern of the lid's bottom in the dirt. Mud instead of just dirt sounds like a gopher and a leak.

 

[ezriderga]

Who owns it?

In my experience those valves are owned and maintained by the water co.

When we bought the house 16 years ago it was only 2 years old. The builder (for some reason) did not have a faucet installed in the front of the house. I hired a plumber to tap into the main line that runs from the street and put in this faucet. It is between the sidewalk and the front brick wall of the house.

I believe it is my responsibility to maintain it. I have checked for leaks and didn’t find any. I think if you read the meter and don’t use water for an hour and the meter doesn’t change in that time, you wouldn’t suspect a leak, would you?

 

[PCustoms]

I hired a plumber to tap into the main line that runs from the street and put in this faucet. It is between the sidewalk and the front brick wall of the house.

I believe it is my responsibility to maintain it. I have checked for leaks and didn’t find any. I think if you read the meter and don’t use water for an hour and the meter doesn’t change in that time, you wouldn’t suspect a leak, would you?

Where is the meter?

Sounds like you might be leaking free city water to me....

 

[Provincial]

Here I have moles that fill these boxes with dirt, just like the description of the work of gophers. When I install a box I make a "floor" from worn-out abrasive cut-off wheels. They are free, impervious to water, don't rust, and nothing tries to dig through them.

If the box is larger than the wheel, I use more than one and overlap them, leaving no gaps. The center hole is too small for the critters to try to enter.

 

[Provincial]

If the leak is on the provider's side of the meter, the water could be travelling along the pipe to get to the box. That would not show up on the meter, and would not be the responsibility of the homeowner.

 

[ezriderga]

OK, here's an update. Last evening I went out and poured a little gas in the bottom of the box and left the lid off until this morning. Then, as suggested, I put down some weed blocker cloth and covered it with drainage rocks. I then spread some poison pellets in and around the box. I'll keep an eye on it this week and see what happens. Thanks for the tips.

 

[ezriderga]

A quick update and another question. It appears the process I went through has helped the situation. We had 1 1/2" of rain last night and no mud in the box...just a little water which I think should be expected.

As I was putting the lid back on the box I glanced back just long enough to see something white in color which I missed before. I trimmed around it so I could see what was there.

Well you can clearly see it now however I'm not sure what it is. I don't have much experience with outdoor plumbing so hopefully someone can chime in and tell me what I'm looking at. I can't tell if the white cap is glued on or screwed on. TIA

 

[Firstram]

That looks like a plumbing clean out. Are your gutters plumbed away from the house? A leaking sewer line could be filling that box with "mud" that's not really mud.

Unscrew that cap and have a look.

 

[ezriderga]

That looks like a plumbing clean out. Are your gutters plumbed away from the house? A leaking sewer line could be filling that box with "mud" that's not really mud.

Unscrew that cap and have a look.

Thanks. The mud I was referring to is in the first pictures I posted. I cleaned the mud out and put gravel in the bottom of the box.

OK, I went out and unscrewed the cap. It wasn’t easy to get a picture but here it is. I’d does appear to be some kind of clean out.

 

[Firstram]

I saw first photo of the dirt. The new pic of the clean PVC line confirms the dirt isn't mixed with "pretty girl poop"!

 

[mires]

That is your sewer clean out.