Pipe Freezing

[Mr. Tickle]

Hello Board!

My wonderful girlfriend came home with some lovely new taps for the downstairs cloakroom sink. GREAT!

Neither the hot or cold tap has a cut off valve that i can use to stop the water when taking the taps off.

I was wondering if I can freeze the pipes with a hired machine, cut them, fit some flexible tubing with cut-offs on them and then fix the taps.

Is this possible? The pipes go from underneath the sink to the wall, where they are plastered in. There is a drain on the hot water tap but not one on the cold. I did think that draining the whole system would be a lot of trouble. I've not done either before but i'd like to have a go at it.

If freezing is too much trouble for a newbie who's never fitted taps before – i presume draining the system is the only thing i can do?

Thanks for any help you can give.

 

[Diyisfun]

I think if were trying for the first time, I wouldnt feel happy freezing just in case something did go wrong ...murphys law etc..
And it will save you money if you can find the valves.

 

[Mr. Tickle]

Yea, that's what i thought, about the freeze.

What do you mean about finding the valves?

 

[Bahco]

If your cold is mains fed and hot from a combi, turning off the stoptap will kill the water and you can change your taps.

No need to bother draining as you will only lose a small amount which can be soaked up with a towel.

If your hot is cylinder supplied, post back.

 

[Mr. Tickle]

Yup, it's tank fed open system.

 

[Diyisfun]

Turn the valve that supplys cold water to the hot tank, be careful cos if its not been used u could break it be gently. Turn off run hot tap, prob get a pint or so, & away you go. Good luck

 

[slippyr4]

Turn the valve that supplys cold water to the hot tank,

which will be a pipe that comes from the loft and goes into the very bottom of the cylinder. it is the lowest pipe connection on the cylinder.

When it's turned off, turn ON all the hot taps in the house - this will drain all the HW out of the pipes down to the lowest tap which will minimise how much you have to mop up.