How to hurry up water company to change the stop cock

[cox377]

Hello guys,

After xmas I had to cut the lead pipe that was routed in my house, a small amount of water still came out with the internal stop cock closed. This has now changed to almost no slow, from the valve. I looked at the stop cock in the road and it was locked solid as I doubt it was used since its installation in 1887.

The water Co sent an engineer round to turn it off for me but deemed it needed to be replaced. He told me 10 working days. That was 07/01/2011. I called about two weeks after that and told it was now 15 working days from the date of engineer visit. Waited, called again, was then told 28 days.. that time has now lapsed and I've got water flowing from pipe straight back outside and down the drain.

What would be the best course of action to speed things up?

Thanks

J

 

[danhiltonplumbingservices]

i know this sounds stupid but try and hit the outside stoptap with something to make it leak into the street as this is deemed to be a emergency i got told that from a engineer a while back but becareful not to get wet

 

[cox377]

haha If I hadn't posted this on a public forum that may have been an opion

 

[xr4x4]

haha If I hadn't posted this on a public forum that may have been an opion

i doubt they will find out..!!

 

[Axel]

Those ancient stopcocks - if you turn them hard enough they will fracture and you get a small geyser on the pavement.

 

[mfarrow]

Are you allowed to pour plusgas over them?

 

[cox377]

I dug about 7 inches of solid mud off the top of it before I found it and looking at it I woudnt even want to give that bugger a go. I called the water co again, hopefully will get things moving

 

[Axel]

Give the bugger a go - maybe it will burst. That'll speed things up.

 

[Gees]

Give the b*****r a go - maybe it will burst. That'll speed things up.

Don't you beleive that
I had a water feature in my yard for a month before they came to fix the stopcock ( leaking after attemting to turn it off ) Upside was that they did replace all my lead pipes for free.....

//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=8448#8448

 

[Stingray13]

Give the b*****r a go - maybe it will burst. That'll speed things up.

Don't you beleive that
I had a water feature in my yard for a month before they came to fix the stopcock ( leaking after attemting to turn it off ) Upside was that they did replace all my lead pipes for free.....

//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=8448#8448[/QUOTE]

Then there breaking the law, my understanding is there is not allowed to be any undue waste in the water regs?

 

[JohnD]

Write them a letter notifying them that it is leaking. Then another one next week to say it is still leaking. If you have a lead pipe ask them to come and test your drinking water for lead content, you may get a subsidy to replace it, and they will replace their old lead pipe as well.

In my experience with utility companies, they often fob off phone calls, but carefully log and record letters.

Unless of course it is Thames Water, who have had two letters of complaint from me recently.

 

[cox377]

All changed. Had a phone call from the engineer earlier to say I must have a leak because the meter was spinning like mad.. I was like yeh that would be the bloody leaking going through the kitchen then out the drain.