What's this pipe in front lawn for??? B box or sabotage!?!

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Billbill84

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I need some pro advice guys. Something very weird happened to me today. Cutting the grass for the 80th time since I've lived in this house my tractor hit something was loud bang scared the hell outta me.
Upon investigation, I found this pipe sticking up about 2" above the ground. How could I have missed hitting something this high that many times? It's about 1.5" in diameter and looks to go down at least more than 9".
My plumbing buddy said that's the water main b-box with missing lid. If it is that, it raises the question then how could it get pushed up that high??? It was NOT there before because I would have hit it or even seen it in the 2 yrs I've been in the house. It's literally 2" above the ground!
The other scenario I was thinking is that someone pounded it in to mess up my mower, hell idk. Don't have any enemies that I know of lol. See pics
 

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Could be any number of things.
Just to name a few.
An old fill or vent pipe for a fuel oil tank.
What's left of one of four metal pipes used as a stand for an old oil tank.
A clean out for a drain line.
Dig it up and you may find out was it's there for.
Notice I did not even mention sabotage.
Before you ran it over it's likely where was a cap over the pipe.
Unless you have a Fescue grass you should not be mowing any lower the 3".
Check the air in your tires on your mower, I've often "found" things in yards I'd mowed for many years because of a low tire.
 
Could be any number of things.
Just to name a few.
An old fill or vent pipe for a fuel oil tank.
What's left of one of four metal pipes used as a stand for an old oil tank.
A clean out for a drain line.
Dig it up and you may find out was it's there for.
Notice I did not even mention sabotage.
Before you ran it over it's likely where was a cap over the pipe.
Unless you have a Fescue grass you should not be mowing any lower the 3".
Check the air in your tires on your mower, I've often "found" things in yards I'd mowed for many years because of a low tire.
Ok thank you for the insight
 
Maybe your lawn subsided, which exposed more of this pipe?

In my former home, the buffalo box needed to be dug up twice in about forty years, due to slow leaks.
Fortunately they were on the village side of the water line.

But the main symptom that made the village notice the underground leaking was that the parkway was getting lower in the area around the buffalo box.
Which left the round metal cap sticking up too high above the grass.

This cap covers the long hollow shaft that goes about 5 feet down to the copper water service line shutoff valve.

Also, the sewer and water line are sometimes laid in the same trench.
And if the sewer line leaks, it can also cause the ground above to subside.

The ground can also just subside as it settles, for several years after new construction.
That is probably the most likely explanation.

Call the village to fix that pipe, or it will soon fill up with dirt and grass and junk.
Then they will not be able to operate the underground valve if needed.
 
I agree with Jeff on the copper water line shut off. It looks like what we had when I lived up north. Here in the south our water meters are at the curb and everything is much closer to the surface since deep freezes don't last long. I'm curious how you missed it for so long though. There is usually a round cover on those.
 
The cover pbly got sheared off by the mower.

And your mower blade is pbly wrecked.

Sometimes even the drive shaft gets wrecked, unless you are mowing with something with a belt drive blade.
 
The cover pbly got sheared off by the mower.

And your mower blade is pbly wrecked.

Sometimes even the drive shaft gets wrecked, unless you are mowing with something with a belt drive blade.
My neighbor hit is meter box with his mower. It bent the shaft and the mower was toast.
 
Thanks guys for the input. If u look at the top of the pipe in them pics it is badly corroded to the top so I'm guessing that cap has been missing for a while.

Earlier today I stuck I narrow metal rod down in there to see if I would hit metal aka the valve itself or just dirt and unfortunately my rod only went in about 10" then stopped. It's probably completely filled up. I'm gonna have to call the city and see what they say.

As for the water meter, my meter is in the basement side of my basement foundation wall right at the residential shut off, not outside of that makes any difference to the possibility of the pipe being or not being the b-box.

Very curious about how it's been missed so many times cutting the grass. I can't see how the ground could have sank that much in such a short period of time.

Oh and the mower is a John Deere LT155 with a 36" belt driven deck and after i hit the pipe it survived the impact and I continued to cut without further ado lol.
 
If the cover has been missing the thing is very likely filled with debris. I assume you're in the north somewhere with a meter in the basement. Basements are pretty rare in the SE where I live, though I have one. Totally in ground basements are exceptionally rare here. Mine is a walkout.

I'd think the city water department would replace this as it allows them to shut off your water. A nice benefit to having your water meter in the basement is any leaks between the shutoff and the meter aren't billed to you. You're still responsible for replacing the broken pipe though. The city's responsibility ends at the curb shut-off valve.
 
Yeah I'm sure once I called out the issue to them they would schedule a repair but my concern is that they would then hand the bill over to me. Screw that! Maybe I'll just nonchalantly call and ask who's responsible if it's me then I'll simply hang up but if it's them then I'll proceed. As far as I'm concerned, being as it's a service shut off valve it's their problem I'm not paying for that BS
 
Have you tried pushing a rod into the ground around that pipe to see if there may be a buried tank there?
Geo
 
A curb stop valve normally has a 1 inch black pipe connecting the valve to the top, so my question is what size is the pipe?
 
In my area, the buried valve is reached by a long rod that goes down the shaft.

Meanwhile, just look at a few houses around you.
See if they have that same pipe out in their front lawns or parkways.
 
Oh no, that sounds like quite a surprise while mowing the grass! It's strange how you've missed hitting that pipe so many times before.
 
In my area, the buried valve is reached by a long rod that goes down the shaft.

Meanwhile, just look at a few houses around you.
See if they have that same pipe out in their front lawns or parkways.
Back when I lived in PA they were about 4" round. Water had a round cap, and gas had a square as I remember. Here we don't have shut off valves on our gas lines. I was talking to a gas company guy and our lines are all plastic. They can use a tool to cut and melt the end closed when they need to shut off a cut line. We have a lockable valve on the meter at the side of the house. For water our meters and the shut off valve are in a shallow curb box since deep freezes are rare.
 
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