A simple job....not!

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Hello everyone.

I hope you can help me out of a hole with this one. My “simple” task was to change the taps on my kitchen sink.

The problem I have is, I can not turn ALL the main water supply off. I know where the stopcock is, and it works perfectly well. I turn that off and it shuts off all of the water upstairs. I can drain down the hot water/immersion tank to stop the hot water BUT the only tap I can not stem the flow of is the one tap I need to change!!

I have checked under the sink, in fact everywhere to seek out an additional isolation valve, but alas nothing. I have left it running for ages thinking I needed to drain the tank. I have even closed off the ball valve in the tank to stop it refilling. Rather strange, but I am beginning to think there is another mains supply to the house?

I think maybe a little history about the house may help?

The house was originally a detached property, I believe built in the 1920's. In the 1970's the current owner decided to split it into a pair of semi's and build identical extensions to the sides of each semi to house the kitchen and second bedrooms.

There are a couple more anomalies. I have a tap in the garden to the front of the house about 5 meters away, this also continues to run. The main supply I mentioned earlier is at the rear of the house and within the property (a small lean to extension/conservatory) although underground with a regular old cast iron type hinged cover.

If you managed to find the time to read through all of this, thank you. If you manage to read through all of this and give me a solution. Thank you very much and there could be a box of chocolates heading your way.

Kind regards
Buster
 
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Traditionally the kitchen tap on a low pressure system is taken direct from the mains supply and not stored water. So you either have a second stop tap or you need to turn the supply off using the external stop tap on the property boundary.
 
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Anything's possible. Can you tell if the water is mains pressure?

You can get pipe freezers if you can't get any other way of turning the water off.
 
Have you checked under the hall floor? Used to be a common hiding place for stopcocks.
 
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You've done all the normal checks, and as Prentice asked, was it mains pressure coming out of the dodgy tap, or reduced pressure from a tank. I suspect it was mains pressure, and a previous owner has done a branch off of the mains supply, prior to the stock cock that you know off.

The simplest way to fix the tap, it to find the main stop cock in front of your house, and turn it off there - you can by a long key from screwfix - and then make sure that you put in an isolating valve when you fix the tap.

What you need to do next, is to try and trace the main supply pipe from outside the hose, into the garden, and then link it up with the stop cock/cocks. If it looks as though there are any detours, then you need to look for a second stop cock. Now daft as this next suggestion will sound. Some water board engineers are water dowsers, but stupidly, the water board makes them use electronic equipment instead. If you're desperate to sort out the problem of the missing stop cock, then try finding one to trace the water path.
 
Now daft as this next suggestion will sound. Some water board engineers are water dowsers, but stupidly, the water board makes them use electronic equipment instead. If you're desperate to sort out the problem of the missing stop cock, then try finding one to trace the water path.
Yes, when our water supply was being changed, the water board sent a man who claimed to be a dowser. I thought this was a joke at first and politely told the man that, but when he brought out his two bent pieces of thick metal wire (nothing special about them, he explained) he did seem to locate the route of the water main.
I'm still not sure about that; perhaps he already knew where it was before he came!
 
It's quite common to have a second, mystery supply. I do the plumbing for my local, and the gents toilets at the rear of the pub that was once the only outside toilet has a cold supply that no one knows where it comes from. It has it's own internal stop tap, but before that, there's no way of isolating it.

The landlord recently suggested buying a couple of Cistermisers for the urinals, but I told him not to waste his money, as the urinal cisterns are fed with free water that doesn't come through the metered supply from the front of the pub. Just left the urinals flushing on ordinary pet cocks. They don't block up half as much as other pub's urinals on rationed supplies that keep the polar bear huggers happy.
 
I can not turn ALL the main water supply off. I know where the stopcock is, and it works perfectly well. I turn that off and it shuts off all of the water upstairs

Are you sure the stopcock is original? Have you tried turning off underground stopcock?
Have you asked your nextdoor about their stopcock?

I have come across some where they fitted stopcock under sink and claimed it is the main stopcock when in fact it tee off the original rising main so it does not turn off upstairs when using stopcock under sink.
Maybe you have something like that the other way?

Daniel.
 
Its amazing where stopcocks turn up.
After half a day fuming and swearing in an old terrace house I found it upstairs under the landing floor right in the middle.
 
Whenever I uncover an important valve in an obscure location I try and leave a reference to it, somewhere a future plomberer might be able to see :D
 
First off I would like to thank everyone for their advice.

I have a few things to work on now to help me try and resolve this problem.

The water pressure is (in my mind) without a doubt mains pressure. I tied up the ball valve in the tank and emptied it, yet the tap still flowed as normal, as did the outside tap I mentioned.
I think, in the short term I am going to go the pipe freeze route. I am really worried about the tap I need to replace. I feel that it will let me down without any notice and then I will be in big trouble. Once I am able to fit an isolation tap I can get on and change it and then think about finding where the supply comes into the house.

I guess this is one of the problems with older houses that have been changed so much over the years.

Again, thank you for your advice. I will let you know how I get on.

Regards
Buster
 
Ask your neighbour if they can turn their stop tap off for a few minutes. I wonder if your tap is fed from their supply!
 
The water pressure is (in my mind) without a doubt mains pressure. I tied up the ball valve in the tank and emptied it, yet the tap still flowed as normal, as did the outside tap I mentioned.
The water pressure in your house is off the rising main for the kitchen cold tap ans possibly the outside tap.
As you have stored water, the rest of the system is low pressure and not mains
 

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