Please help me as I am now really stuck. To cut a long story short, we bought and old house to do up and the old mains stop tap had been leaking for some time creating a soaking wet wall and floor.
This then came to a head when we had some work done on the house and it started leaking a lot worse. As the workmen found out there was no stopcock in the road to turn off the water to the house.
Well in the end the workmen had to dig a hole in the concrete floor and freeze the blue plastic mains pipe below floor level and fit a new section of copper pipe and new mains stopcock. As it turned out the leak was not caused by them, they charged me only a small amount to have done this work and which I thought was fair.
The problem is that later that evening as the frozen pipe returned to normal the bottom compression joint on the new stop tap started leaking. Still not leaking massively but sufficient to leave a small pool of water overnight. We called them back out the next morning and they tightened the compression joint some more and it seemed to stop leaking. Well within an hour the pipe was wet again, indicating a much smaller leak (wrapping kitchen roll round the tap has soaked it all up and prevented it from reaching the floor) but it's still leaking.
The fix I thought I was going to have won't happen. We have called the water company out and they were going to fit a stop tap in the road today but it turns out they have been unable to locate the pipe to fit a tap to.
So now I need some help and advice, I am a fairly capable DIY plumber but not being able to turn off the water makes me nervous. Also we have had an asphalt scree done, so I do not want to have to dig the floor up again.
Firstly - Am I able to use a pipe freeze kit to replace the main stop tap or will it not work due to the water pressure? (I'd be fitting the new stop tap to brand new 15mm pipe, so it should be quite quick)
Secondly - Should I use my small pipe cutter or a hacksaw to cut the pipe more quickly?
Any advice would be gratefully received.
This then came to a head when we had some work done on the house and it started leaking a lot worse. As the workmen found out there was no stopcock in the road to turn off the water to the house.
Well in the end the workmen had to dig a hole in the concrete floor and freeze the blue plastic mains pipe below floor level and fit a new section of copper pipe and new mains stopcock. As it turned out the leak was not caused by them, they charged me only a small amount to have done this work and which I thought was fair.
The problem is that later that evening as the frozen pipe returned to normal the bottom compression joint on the new stop tap started leaking. Still not leaking massively but sufficient to leave a small pool of water overnight. We called them back out the next morning and they tightened the compression joint some more and it seemed to stop leaking. Well within an hour the pipe was wet again, indicating a much smaller leak (wrapping kitchen roll round the tap has soaked it all up and prevented it from reaching the floor) but it's still leaking.
The fix I thought I was going to have won't happen. We have called the water company out and they were going to fit a stop tap in the road today but it turns out they have been unable to locate the pipe to fit a tap to.
So now I need some help and advice, I am a fairly capable DIY plumber but not being able to turn off the water makes me nervous. Also we have had an asphalt scree done, so I do not want to have to dig the floor up again.
Firstly - Am I able to use a pipe freeze kit to replace the main stop tap or will it not work due to the water pressure? (I'd be fitting the new stop tap to brand new 15mm pipe, so it should be quite quick)
Secondly - Should I use my small pipe cutter or a hacksaw to cut the pipe more quickly?
Any advice would be gratefully received.