I need a bit of help. I live in a property built in 1936 which is currently in need of changes to CH/HW system. I have condensing boiler ready in a box, I'm fairly proficient with soldering copper pipes, would like to do CH pipes myself and let CORGI registered plumber do the gas bit. However there is one major problem with doing anything plumbing related since we moved in 2 years ago - a lack of working stop cock. The stop cock on main suppoly inside the house doesn't fuction at all and to make matters worse there is no separate valve for each of the houses outside properties and the only way to close water supply for any works from the outside is to get water board to turn off water for two streets (about 30 houses) and get them to pump the water out of the system. They usually need all neighbours to agree to it as well, unless it's documented emergency or repairs can be done at night. As you can imagine this is completely unacceptable and I need to get my own mains stop cock working as soon as possible or one day I will have major disaster. And here are the problems:
- Existing stop cock is very old, I don't know exactly what's wrong with it, except suspition that it was possibly forced at some point in the past, probably hammered. Turning it all the way in doesn't stop water and there is small ammount of water dribbling from it. That slight leakage stops when stop cock is fully open
- Mains pipe coming in to the house is made of thick metal, not copper
- The amount of space around the pipe is very, very limited (see the picture)
I don't quite know what to do with it, don't have money for major overhaul, especially that with all the issues with switching off water supply and pumping out of water from the system the plumber would have to be available at night and be able to do everything in one go, that would be extremely pricey. What can be done?
Pipe freezing spray? Does it work, can it be trusted for mains supply?
Cut the metal pipe and try push fit or something similar?
Any suggestions, any help would be really appreciated.
- Existing stop cock is very old, I don't know exactly what's wrong with it, except suspition that it was possibly forced at some point in the past, probably hammered. Turning it all the way in doesn't stop water and there is small ammount of water dribbling from it. That slight leakage stops when stop cock is fully open
- Mains pipe coming in to the house is made of thick metal, not copper
- The amount of space around the pipe is very, very limited (see the picture)
I don't quite know what to do with it, don't have money for major overhaul, especially that with all the issues with switching off water supply and pumping out of water from the system the plumber would have to be available at night and be able to do everything in one go, that would be extremely pricey. What can be done?
Pipe freezing spray? Does it work, can it be trusted for mains supply?
Cut the metal pipe and try push fit or something similar?
Any suggestions, any help would be really appreciated.