In a Victorian terrace, the stop tap is immediately under the floorboards as you enter the house (there is also one in the pavement outside).There's no formal hatch to access it, but the floorboards above have been cut historically so you can prise one up and turn the tap. The local water company replaced the incoming lead pipe just recently, but annoyingly they have reinstalled the stop tap at an awkward angle, so its now a bit of a faff to turn on and off, as well as having to reach below the boards.
In a couple of weeks the floor is being sanded and some laminate flooring in the hall is being removed. The flooring company will be installing one of those recessed doormats which they say will be simple to lift up to access the stop tap. It also means that I have an opportunity to install a tap above the boards, slightly further into the house, as lifting some boards up now isn't doing damage that won't imminently be fixed.
Maybe i'm overthinking things, but I see my options as follows.
1) Do nothing, tolerate the awkward tap placement but it will be easier to get to with the recessed doormat above.
2) Replace the existing awkward tap with a lever style thats easier to use
3) Move the tap (or add another tap) a few meters into the house and get a plumber to move it above the floorboards.
Mainly interested in opinions on option 3. Beyond the hallway, the route of the pipe becomes uncertain and its much harder to access so it couldn't get put in a kitchen cabinet or anything like that. In the hallway there is already a little bit of boxing going up to the fusebox that sticks out, so a stop tap could sit next to it. The plumber says the tap boxed in or have an access panel, but I'm struggling to visualise how that would actually look. They've said you would effectively have to loop the supply pipe up above the boards install the tap and then drop it back below the boards.
I didn't know where the stop tap was for years, but once I did I thought, hang on, when we're on holiday then maybe it would be a good thing to turn the water off etc etc. Perhaps I'm getting a little bit too carried away with how often I need to turn it off and therefore how much of an inconvenience it is in the current location.
Anyway, does anyone have an pictures of how a stop tap in a hallway, set up as my plumber describes, might look? Will it stick out like a sore thumb and just get knocked every time we hoover past it?
In a couple of weeks the floor is being sanded and some laminate flooring in the hall is being removed. The flooring company will be installing one of those recessed doormats which they say will be simple to lift up to access the stop tap. It also means that I have an opportunity to install a tap above the boards, slightly further into the house, as lifting some boards up now isn't doing damage that won't imminently be fixed.
Maybe i'm overthinking things, but I see my options as follows.
1) Do nothing, tolerate the awkward tap placement but it will be easier to get to with the recessed doormat above.
2) Replace the existing awkward tap with a lever style thats easier to use
3) Move the tap (or add another tap) a few meters into the house and get a plumber to move it above the floorboards.
Mainly interested in opinions on option 3. Beyond the hallway, the route of the pipe becomes uncertain and its much harder to access so it couldn't get put in a kitchen cabinet or anything like that. In the hallway there is already a little bit of boxing going up to the fusebox that sticks out, so a stop tap could sit next to it. The plumber says the tap boxed in or have an access panel, but I'm struggling to visualise how that would actually look. They've said you would effectively have to loop the supply pipe up above the boards install the tap and then drop it back below the boards.
I didn't know where the stop tap was for years, but once I did I thought, hang on, when we're on holiday then maybe it would be a good thing to turn the water off etc etc. Perhaps I'm getting a little bit too carried away with how often I need to turn it off and therefore how much of an inconvenience it is in the current location.
Anyway, does anyone have an pictures of how a stop tap in a hallway, set up as my plumber describes, might look? Will it stick out like a sore thumb and just get knocked every time we hoover past it?
