I turned off my inside stop cock last night as i had to bugger about with a tap. Nothing happened,. I left the taps on to drain the pipes and the flow didnt change..

What do people reckon. Dodgey cock or ive done summit wrong??

Was there any detectable reduction in the flow rate at all? Could it be furred up and not actually fully turned off (i have been advised before to turn on and off a few times to release any furring (correct term????)

If not id suspect that this is the wrong stop cock or you have another one somewhere.

Is it a modern or old house? Has the house been subjected to major change at any time?

Reason i ask is that i had old cottage with lead main. I fitted a whole new plastic mains. The old lead one was simply switched off at the stop cock under kitchen sink. The new one had its own stop cock just inside front door.

If the taps on the low pressure side and you have a storage tank in the loft you will be emptying that. need to see if the tank has a stop cock on the outlet side.

If the taps on the mains pressure (high) then looks like you have a problem.

Dave

If you are on a water meter, you can switch your supply off outside in the meter housing.

Usually there is a plastic tap inside which you insert and then turn off all water supply to the house.

As said if there is a tank in the loft you will need to wait until this has emptied.

Also, make sure you don't switch off next doors supply by mistake which I almost did once

Cheers

Mark

Mine's like that so I turn off outside, can't be bothered to fix it. The loft tank should only supply the hot water tank but if you tie the ball up it will stop the hot supply once the header tank is empty. Ledge a stick across the top of the tank and tie the ball stem to it to stop it.

good advice so far. Id always recommend finding your outside stop tap, and make sure it works. Its dead easy to fix the stop tap inside if it is knackered, if its on copper pipe or if its goes to copper before it branches. Just snip out 6 inches with a circular pipe slice, tighten on to the supply side a compression isolation valve, then reconnect to the house side with a short compression flexy. Dont over tighten. Then just leave the old cock on, and use the iso valve to turn it off in future. You could even splash out a few more quid and use a real new stop cock rather than an iso valve!

If the tap dribbles you can tighten up the nut at the base of the handle.

Number one suspect is a large water tank, if it lasts 15 mins then you have either the wrong tap (most likely) or a knackered tap. If it was a missing washer im sure the flow would reduce somewhat.

Also, when you turn on a stop tap, wind it all the way out and then close it a half turn to prevent it siezing open. It wont affect flow.

When I turn back on I leave a cold tap running and turn on till the water hits the bottom of the sink and splashes out, then back in till it stops splashing out, saves wetting the carpet. Use a blue handled valve on the high pressure side as the red handled ones don't always have a rubber seal in them.


[Edited on 25/11/05 by Peteff]

Its on the main feed to the house under the sink. The flow didnt change at all. Im gonna have to find the outside stop cock. Iv got a funny feeling its in my neighbours side.

if you cant find it, ring the water board. Also, if its full of soil or leaking outside call them, as outside is their problem In yorkshire theyre nearly all bang outside, and usually soiled up

Its gonna have to be a job for tomorrow now. I only want to blank off an outside tap to temp remove it before its moved. (its inside my conservatory at the min.)

Theres a tap on the tap to stop the flow to it and one of the olives has a slight weep so i need to stop the mains to fit a new olive. Easy 5 min job thats being a bastard.

Thanks for you help. Muchos appreciados.