Iowa Fire Hydrant Restoration

Iowa Valve Company Early Model "50" with PAT FEB 14 1928

This project is all my sister's fault. She saw an Iowa Fire Hydrant in Pacific Grove, CA and posted a pic to Facebook. I look up the company and find out that they made these hydrants from the early 1900's to the late 1960's. Apparently they are located all over the U.S. Iowa Valve Co. History

 

 

This is all pretty cool in my book. I get to wondering if there are any around for sale so I check Craigslist and low and behold there is one for sale in San Diego. I call the guy up and 24 hours later it is sitting in my garage. Now what?

 

Iowa

Valve Co

Oskaloosa

Iowa

Pat

Feb 14 28

The short term plan is to tear this thing down, powdercoat it, and turn it into a automatic dog waterer. I hit all the nuts and bolts with some PB Blaster and let it sit overnight. The top came off, no problem.

Except for a couple of whacks with the hammer on a large pipe wrench, it came apart pretty easy.

 

There isn't an actual valve in these hydrants, they were made for cold climates and the hydrant controlled a valve that was below the frost line. These are considered dry hydrants. This is how the valve would control the water from the main.

 

 

Sod Installation

The wife wanted some grass in the back yard so I took the opportunity to add a horseshoe pit. Since our yard is on a slope, I had to terrace out a couple of sections. The lower section is about 18 feet wide and 45 feet long. The upper section is about 13 feet wide and 60 feet long. 

 

 

 

The top section gradually slopes down to meet the lower section. We cannot get a Bobcat or any large machinery into the back yard, so the terracing was all done by me with a flat shovel. After gettting it shaped up, I installed sprinklers to keep everything green.

 

 With the sprinklers in, it was time for sod. I installed Marathon I sod which was developed for Southern California. Although this shows only me carrying the sod, I had a lot of help.

  

 

We put down about 1300 sq feet of sod in about 3 hours.