Locating Main Water Supply valve in my apartment

Hello

I live in a ground floor apartment in wimbledon. I am in need of locating my flat's main water supply valve.

I had a hefty water bill and upon investigating with ThamesWater technician at my flat, we found that my flat's water meter (which is located on the street) is still running but very slowly. This was done after making sure that we are looking at the right meter. Now inorder to ascertain whether the leak is inside the property or outside, I need to shut off the water valve for my flat to check the water meter's movement.

No help from apartment management company!

any one living in london apartment knows how to locate? any pics pls?

Thanks

I once had a call from a lady who wanted me to do some work on her taps.

I asked if she knew where her stopcock was. She replied " I have no idea, you are the plumber so you should know"!

I paused and replied that I had never been to her flat so there was no way that I could know!

Some more modern flats have all the stopcocks on the ground/basement in a specific cupboard.

Tony

Agile said:

Some more modern flats have all the stopcocks on the ground/basement in a specific cupboard.

Tony

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Thanks for your quick reply Tony.
In such cases do we have any 'standard procedures' to locate the valve? I checked with my neighbours with no luck!

To be frank i was under the impression that ThamesWater people would know but i was wrong!

Any suggestions?

Can we identify stopcock covers by any etchings or marking or text ?

You should have a stop tap associated with the meter in the street, but closing that will not isolate the supply pipe from the internal plumbing.

The 'traditional' position for an internal stopcock was under the kitchen sink, as the cold water to the sink was always fed directly from the mains.

Changes in use of buildings or rooms, or other work on the property may mean your kitchen sink is no longer where it used to be, but the chances are the stopcock will still be where it was originally installed. Some builders and kitchen fitters seem to revel in making access to stopcocks and other services as difficult as possible.

Found one a few weeks ago tiled in inside bathroom wall.

Under front doormat area is common in Victorian properties, but in an apartment there might be a cupboard on ground floor somewhere with many stopcocks, or, if the one in the pavement only turns off your apartment, then that's probably the only one.

The standard procedure is to ask the neighbours and the previous owners.

I find that 80% of people here dont know where it is.

One wonders what they think they will do in the case of a serious leak.

Tony

thank you very much for all your replies.

Sounds like its not a straight forward job! wonder why builders wants to complicate things... how easy to have them all in one place or inside the flat where it it visible to the naked eye may be with small closet!

even if i get a plumber, i'm not sure how helpful he can be other than charging me with hefty hourly bill!

I already inquired with one neighbor who does not have a clue. need to check with others... my previous people are out of the country

ThamesWater technician did inform me about the outside stop cock / stop tap which shuts off the supply to the property. Well this doesn't help to fix my problem (finding where the leak is) although this can be used in case of any flooding in the flat...

my garden has two pot holes covered with usual metallic plate. I was told they are drain holes. Upon searching internet in other forums, I found few pics of how a typical stopcock cover looks like. Although i'm not sure whether these covers have any 'specific' markings like the watermeter cover has 'Water' on it....?

thanks once again...

infoseeker said:

even if i get a plumber, i'm not sure how helpful he can be other than charging me with hefty hourly bill!

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I can assure you that a plumber is going to be far more reasonable than an accountant, dentist or particularly solicitor ( they are often £150-£350 per hour! ).

You might even find a local plumber who might come and see if he can fine it free on the basis of the expectation of dealing with the leak when found.

Tony