Shared water supply

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I cannot locate a stopcock to isolate the mains into my house.
The pipe dissappears into the concrete floor.
I need to isolate to remove a broken ball o fix.
Can the pipe be frozen?
 
You need about 150mm of pipe and access around it for the jacket.

The cheap diy kits are high risk as its difficult to know the correct amount of gas (risk of splitting the pipe).

Can you not find the stopcock at the boundary?

Talk to the water company - they may come out to find the stopcock (at the boundary) if you have a leak.
 
Is it terrace, or row of old houses, the reason i ask is, i had experience of a row of old houses that shared just the one isolation stop cock.

All the mains came straight out of the concrete floor, and nobody had thought of fitting a stop cock to each and every property. :idea:
 
Thats it!
A row of houses and no stopcock, just this dodgy isolator valve.

I have been unable to locate an isolation point for the mains at thefront or the back.
I sent an email to Thames water, but never had a reply.
I'm pretty sure its lead pipe as well!
 
Is the balofix valve on a 1/2 inch compression nut? Just clear away what you don't want to get wet, undo, remove slap on new one tighten. There will be a lot of water for a short while.
 
My neighbour in Cov holed the shared 3/4" lead water main which went along all the back gardens.

The single main stopcock was seriously letting by and the flow through his garden was about 20-30 li/min until I kindly wrapped it with rubber sheet to reduce it to about 5 li/min.

It was leaking under the now filled up trench and joining the water with the foul drains which were coincintally blocked as well.

Now the clever bit, the main stopcock was replaced, or at least the "works" without digging up anything ! How did they do that?

Tony
 
Cheers guys, interesting how did they do that!

It is on an old 1/2 inch which then goes to a 15mm modern pipe cofig.
Well actually it doesn't!
I think the original (lead?) pipe is 22m or 1/2 inch there is then a reducer then this ball o fix thing.

What is the point of the ball bearing please?

Surely I can't just hoof this thing off and stick another one on? There's gonna be at leat 10l/min flow pouring out.

Umm I spose it would only be for 30 secs or so! :roll: :!:
 
No it gushes out a lot faster than that, it's like jumping into a swimming pool, you have to be quite adept at the job to take on a live swap and if it's at the base of a kitchen unit forget it. I would change ball style service valve to a stop cock anyway, ball valves are rubbish anyway, get stuck when you need them and leak after you've used them. Stop cocks are well designed piece of kit cheap to buy and work for a very long time, never fully open any tap, turn it back slightly, so it doesnt stick. Don't put it in a stupid little hole at the back of the kitchen unit where you can't get a purchase on it at a future time you need it and it is a little stuck for non use. Your stop cock is your friend give it pride of place.

You have lead pipe coming in this isn't named by diameter but by weight of lead, 7lb is most common around here for household, has a half inch diameter hole in centre and is usually wipe jointed to copper as it enters house, sometimes directly wipe jointed to stop cock, which makes life difficult for you guys.

If there is decent length of 1/2" compression nut connecting to your ball type valve undo it and attach a stop cock instead, accept the fact water will wet you through and your kitchen once and for all but never again.

If you were stupid enough to have laminated flooring in your kitchen that's your lookout for stupidity. I would never fit laminated floor in a litchen or bathroom whatever the makers say.

If you were sensible and had a waterproof floor, you have nothing to worry about.
 
I had similar problem, but found mains stop cock on the gable end of first terraced house, from where it ran down through the rear yards of all houses.
:roll: :roll: :roll:
 
No it was on gable end pavement, but could have been mistaken for the stopcock for the end terrace only. The supply ran under the yards about 18 ins. from the house wall to supply all the houses on one side.
:roll: :roll: :roll:
 

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