Compteur d'Eau

[Loup-garou]

For several months now Veolia have been giving us grief to have the water meter changed at the house in Autun. The company itself is quick to pass you onto contractors rather than get involved, although they seem to know when we have contacted the subbies.

Our problem is that we are not always there and it is far too difficult for them to work with dates when we can be there. Eventually, Veoila stepped up and sent a man and van convenient to us. Said man arrived at 08.00 this am. He was in the house for two minutes and left saying he couldn't turn the water off! I went down to check (him long gone, almost doing a wheelie up the road) and true, the robinet does not shut it off completely; I assume that the washer is perishing, but it only allows a dribble to pass.

I was a tad pi$$ed off, after all, they are WATER people and surley they are capable of replacing a tiny meter with a bucket under the open pipe to catch drips, given there is no pressure. So, to my point, is there a system in France for turning off the water to a house from outside, as in the UK with stopcocks in the road?

[L Austin France]

For several months now Veolia have been giving us grief to have the water meter changed at the house in Autun. The company itself is quick to pass you onto contractors rather than get involved, although they seem to know when we have contacted the subbies.

Our problem is that we are not always there and it is far too difficult for them to work with dates when we can be there. Eventually, Veoila stepped up and sent a man and van convenient to us. Said man arrived at 08.00 this am. He was in the house for two minutes and left saying he couldn't turn the water off! I went down to check (him long gone, almost doing a wheelie up the road) and true, the robinet does not shut it off completely; I assume that the washer is perishing, but it only allows a dribble to pass.

I was a tad pi$$ed off, after all, they are WATER people and surley they are capable of replacing a tiny meter with a bucket under the open pipe to catch drips, given there is no pressure. So, to my point, is there a system in France for turning off the water to a house from outside, as in the UK with stopcock in the road?

There certainly will be a 'water company' stopcock, probably tarmacked over or buried in weeds etc.
It's the water co's property & responsibility & invaluable if there's a leak downstream, which is the house holders responsibility.
That should have been the second port of call for 'meter man' if stopcock by meter didn't hold.
I'd be surprised if meter man didn't know this so probably couldn't be arsed to look for one.
You really should know where this stopcock is & if you don't should request the water co. to find it.
It'll be handy for others to shut it off if you're absent, there's a leak & water's pouring out from under the front door.
How do you turn off water in the winter if you're not there?

[Polarengineer]

These small leaks can be a bugger if you are only here for the summer. A pal of mine, as usual shuts off the water mains ands electricity when he leaves for the winter. A small water bypass on the valve filled the sanipump to overflow and without electricity to pump it out was left with a nice smelly brown stain on the floor.

[Loup-garou]

I've had a look and we have a three stone slab communications pit next to the house, a big round metal plate that says"GAZ" and a smaller, but not too small, plate that has no markings - that must be it. Further up the road there are small metal discs with EAU on them so I assume mine was changed at some time.

Off back to the Plateau de Langres tomorrow (only here for the water change) so I'll need to have a look under the strange plate next time.

Thanks for the contributions.

[widge]

We live in a small commune that has about 8-9 hamlets both sides of a valley, we are lucky enough to have our own water sources.

About 15 years ago two irish couples who had a maison secondaire tried on multiple occasions to get the mairie to replace the gate valve in the path outside, becouse it was seized up, and the stopcock inside wouldn't turn off properly, so it was impossible to turn the water off, the we had a very cold week one february where everything froze, we we actually on holiday in Lanzarote that week, but it was still below freezing, as the keyholder I went to inspect the house, and every flexible hose had split, and so had the bath and shower tap, not only that, the ice had smashed through the front of the water meter, luckily as it was still frozen, i could disconnect the meter and install a blank. But as the mairie had no money (the commune has less than 300 people) we ended up diging up the path outside installing a new meter box, meter and stop tap, and the mairie replaced the main gate valve and made good the path.


Then about 10 years ago the big boys tried to mussle in and take over all our sources, but our mairie stood their ground and told them to bugger off, but the consequence was that they had to update the system, install equipment to treat the water etc which has put the price up, but a small price to pay to still have control our own water.

[Loup-garou]

To end the saga.

Firstly thanks to all for your comments. LAF, our heating and plumbing firm confirmed what you said and agreed that neither us nor them were allowed to turn the water off in the road. Widge, we have a similar arrangement,in 52, of the village owning and supplying the water. We are just over 70 people but, a few years ago, the Mairie replaced all the meters for outside ones and provided new supply pipes into the houses. All we had to do was make good.

So, I went back to Veoila and, tactfully, pointed out this was not my problem - I didn't ask for their new meter and the faulty stopcock, although in my house, was on their side of the meter.

Each visit Veoila make requires me, or my wife, to do a 400+ klm round trip to give them access. Next visit was to verify what I told them - only that. Another visit, by a team resulted in, "No we can't do anything today as the supply pipe is lead so needs to be replaced and we'll need the Mairie's permission to close the road ........ we'll let you know when".

A call at 7.30 one morning "It's going to be today". "But we are two and a half hours away." "Just get here, they will start digging up the road at 8.30." When we arrived, sure enough, signs declaring the road (one of two ways through the city walls from the west) closed. Also no access to our house. Spoke to the person in charge and work stopped while we and four dogs picked our way, on foot, into the house.

We now have a new plastic supply pipe into the cellar, a new meter which they can read from outside and a tiny working stopcock which is an on/off switch type. There is also a huge hole against the house and two big steel plates allowing traffic to go up the street (medieval and very narrow) so we get a loud "bang, bang" every time a vehicle passes us. We have no timescale to repair the road or the cobbles which form the footpath along the house.

And finally, a letter today from Veoila saying they had addressed Our problem all at no cost to us. Wel-l-l-l not quite. There is still the cost of six unnecessary 400klm round trips involving fuel and toll costs.

Sorry for the long post but the letter did pi$$ me off especially as, at the end, Veoila invite our feedback. I'm mulling that over, in particular, about their first bloke who spent two minutes at the house, mostly drinking a coffee, and left saying "YOUR stopcock is knackered - you need to get a plumber".

[Blaze]

I don't know why such things seem to be so complicated in France !
I read an article recently which said that if the stopcock is not on the house side of the meter, you're not supposed to turn it off. The stopcock is in our barn/garage and right next to the meter, but not on our side. Rightly or wrongly, we turn it off every time we go away - as we have always done. There is no fear of freezing up here but there is always the risk of a leak ...

A propos of nothing, OH has always insisted on being able to isolate things (old submariner's habit, I suppose). It does make it easier when doing running repairs ...

[RobertArthur]

2019: the regional water company came to fit a new meter and stopcock in our cellar. Those guys know almost every village, street and house by heart, our guy knew also the whereabouts of the cock in the street. After 25 minutes: job well done. Not any problem finding a date: they well aware of those maisons secondaires and the fact that the owners are not always present, very cooperative. Large companies, subcontractors, sometimes not very client friendly. No T-shirts with the following text: Puis je vous aider?

[Hotrodder]

I once had a meter reader knock on my door. He was asking me where is the meter. I silently indicated for him to "follow me" and led him to his car and pointed to the round cement lid that housed the meter. It was barely a metre from his car door. What a useless moron.