Leaky stop cock

[hjalfi]

My stop-cock dribbles.

(I'll wait here for people to make funny comments... all done? Oh, wait, one more there at the back. Dude, that just wasn't worth the effort. Don't give up the day job.)

I have a plumber booked to come round and replace it, as well as do some other work, but in the mean time it's dripping at a rate varying from four or five drops a second to one drop a second depending where it's set to. This is all going under the kitchen floor and soaking away in the earth and rubble beneath --- my house is built on brick piers.

Is there anything I can do about this? I don't have access to the outside tap --- I think it's been tarmacked over. This means that I really don't want to mess about with it too much in case a bit falls off. The mains pipe is a thick and chunky (and rusty) iron thing which is probably immune to any form of amateur pipe-freezing kit, not that I'd want to try.

The water's coming up the tap shaft which suggests the gland's gone. The further it's turned off, the less it dribbles, but the tap itself is nadgered and won't turn off completely. Besides, I need water...

 

[Bahco]

Turn off your water at the boundary if you can and then undo the gland nut .
Repack with ptfe tape and screw nut back on.

Should hold off until your plumber sorts it.

 

[hjalfi]

Alas, I don't have access to the boundary tap --- I've found a small patch of tarmac where it should be. It's either been moved or covered over.

A call to Thames Water indicates that they really couldn't care less (in very nearly as many words). The local council were more helpful, but it'll take them months to get around to doing anything.

 

[JPC]

try tightning the small nut at the base of the "handle"...not too tight or u wont be able to turn the spindle.

 

[ChrisR]

You could stick a bucket under it until your plumber comes!
It would be possible to freeze the pipe, but with a lot of effort because of the drip.
I'd turn the nearest tap on (lowers the pressure), undo the spindle nut so it slides up the shaft (it will all need cleaning - emery paper), twist some ptfe tape until it looks like dental floss and wind 12 ish turns around the shaft to make a washer, then screw the nut back.

I've heard about the ridiculous attitude to boundary cocks in north London - is that where you are? It beggars belief, especially with an iron mains pipe which is bound to need replacing sooner or later.

 

[hjalfi]

Actually, I'm in Reading.

The drip has since become a bit worse. Luckily, I've got the floor in the kitchen up, so there's enough vertical space to rig up some old guttering and a gorilla bucket, which will hopefully last overnight so I can empty it in the morning.

I've tried, very carefully, adjusting the gland nut; it's wedged solid and won't move. (Years of dust, stuck on by the moisture, turning into concrete.) I'm loathe to apply too much force in case something breaks, because then I'm screwed --- not only do I flood the place, but emergency plumbers cost serious money.

Crossing my fingers and hoping it'll last..

 

[Paul Barker]

sounds like you're on a ground floor, no problem don't panic Mr Mannering, if you don't mind a five minute soaking all can be renewed live.

 

[ChrisR]

Yeah don't worry about a bit of water. Ask yourself what would happen if you tipped a bathful of water down there. Nothing much really.

Besides, it washes off

 

[kevplumb]

carrier bag and put your hands through the handles

 

[Paul Barker]

Why didn't I think of that, I always emerge drenched like I jumped in a swimming pool, but I haven't been beaten yet!

 

[hjalfi]

The worst that could happen... hmm. The added water could cause a tiny but of the foundation to soften, triggering the nascent subsidence in my 105 year old house to move just a tiny bit, so causing all the expensive building work I've just had done to collapse in a heap, in the process shorting out an underground mains cable and causing a cascade failure among all the poorly-maintained electricity substations in SE England resulting in a widescale blackout, so resulting in growing riots culminating in a highly unlikely but fundamentally amusing mixup of communication (hinging on the fact that the word 'Reading' sounds like 'radiation' --- through the right accident) which in turn causes several hundred megatonnes of ICBMs to be fired at the Vatican, so spawning World War III and the extinction of the human race?

In other news the drip managed to collect 10 litres of water in the bottom of a gorilla bucket in twenty-four hours. Panic over. Thanks, everyone.

 

[JPC]

so have u fixed it ?