How to cut off hot and cold water

[Roger465]

Lets do this in easy stages ....

First .... if the internal mains stop tap doesn't work then you'll have to go outside and find your mains stop tap (or phone you water company and ask them to come out and check it isn't seized). That then allows the internal one to be changed. Once that's all done then report back

Yep - I know where it is. And I think I have a key somewhere...

 

[Madrab]

Yep - I know where it is. And I think I have a key somewhere...

Don't force it, if it won't budge with a reasonable effort then call your water company out to free it up. Last thing you need is to snap the head off the valve.

 

[Roger465]

Don't force it, if it won't budge with a reasonable effort then call your water company out to free it up. Last thing you need is to snap the head off the valve.

Thanks - yes, given my temper and impatience, that had occurred to me

I have a cunning plan, to get the plumber who installed my new boiler a year ago to come out and service it - I know he'll do that, as I watched him do my parents' one, at £65 for maybe 20 minutes' work (so £200 an hour - I'm in the wrong job), and I'll collar him to look at the taps etc at the same time, waving cash around...

 

[Roger465]

Managed to persuade the plumber to come on Thursday as above - will report back how it all went after that

 

[Roger465]

Well, that was interesting. First of all, the outside mains tap turned out to be a dinky little plastic-knobbed thing that you could turn with your finger and thumb. So the plumber put a new one under the sink for me, stuck an external tap through the wall while he was at it so I can wash my car, and serviced the boiler.

He then looked over the other jobs (little isolators under the sinks etc), found all sorts of adapters changing diameters etc, and said while he was happy to take my money, I’d be insane to do it all when I didn’t really need to – if I want the old taps changed at some point in the future, do it all in one go.

I guess, now that dilalio has explained how to drain the system etc, the need for this stuff is reduced anyway, so I’m reasonably happy with where I find myself today… for now…

Thanks everybody