mains water stopcock

baby-mechanic

Currently, our stopcock is out in the road, which is not helpful if you spring a leak when it's dark !!!!

How do I work out which pipework in the house is where I should be considering putting a stopcock, as I've looked and looked.
(Victorian mid-terrace, with concreted hallway !)

Is it as simple as running the cold water, and seeing which pipes run colder ?

Or is there another trick i'm missing ?

U've_been_framed

There should be a stopcock where the water main enters the house. This is often under the sink. So take a look there and if there is a water pipe coming up out of the floor that is probably your water main.
Otherwise, try following the pipework from the cold tap at the kitchen sink and see where it goes.

toffeegirl

Is your kitchen at the front or the back?

I assume that you've checked any cupboard under the stairs (that's where we have one in our mid-terrace) .... maybe its under the floor in the cupboard?

Our in-house stopcock is in a bit of an awkward place - for complete ease of access we'd need an empty cupboard! The Waterboard put a new stopcock in for us just outside the front door - we keep the long handled 'key' hidden behind the door curtain and the torch is always nearby...

ormus

main stopcocks can be placed anywhere.
ie mine is in the bathroom!
my DD stopcock is right behind the front door, halfway up the wall! with just the handle sticking out.
its possible someone could have boarded it up. check for any boarded up pipework. ive seen it happen.

baby-mechanic

Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions.

Our kitchen is at the back of the house, with the bathroom above.

We don't have an understairs cupboard, and the only pipes on view under the stairs are for the central heating !!!
And there's not a pipe to see in the rest of the hall.

Think I'm back to tracing what cold water pipes we have, and seeing where they all go !

EliteHeat

Victorian houses often had their stopcocks positioned under the floorboards as near as possible to the entrance of the property.

baby-mechanic

Unfortunately for us, the hallway was concreted just before we moved in !

toffeegirl

Just a thought... any chance of getting in touch with the previous owners to ask them? (e.g. via estate agent?)

Alias_Omega

Try under the sink, in the kitchen.

Stopcock in the street probably isolates the whole row of houses.

Pyewacket338

The mains water pipe could be made of lead and run under the floorboards of your lounge to the back of the house, even though your hall floor is concrete, it doesn't mean it isn't a suspended floor, can you access the crawl space?

Have you asked a neighbour where their stop-!!!! is? yours should be in the same place.

martindow

We had a Victorian house and the stop !!!! was below the floor just inside the front door under a hatch - concreted up in your case!