broken stopcock... help!

nurse_nina

our stopcock under kitchen sink won't turn off, and we need to plumb in new appliances/pipes... we know where our water meter and stop valve is outside, but we haven't got a key to turn it off (recently purchased house) rang the ever helpful seven trent and was told we could get one from a DIY store, have rang a plumming specialist as well as asking our own plumber and they can't help... seven trent say they can get an engineer to us in about 2 weeks! (really not helpful seeing as we already have the stuff to plumb in and more to the point, if we do have a leak, can't turn the mains water off!) have also asked 4 neighbours and no one knows or has a key!
what can we do? advice appreciated.

Cardew

Any plumber will fix or replace the stopcock under the sink very easily.

I know what I would do(as a non plumber) - get something like WD 40 or any commercial 'easing oil' spray for seized threads and try to free it off.

nurse_nina

but the water needs to be off at the mains before we change the stopcock surely? its not so much the stopcock thats the problem, more that we can't turn the water off at the mains to change it! also... have tried the wd40 route... no joy

Premier_2

Turn it off at the valve in the street.

I think the local water authority is supposed to do it (in case you knacker the valve) ... but it's dark now and no one will see you

I don't know what sort of key you need - all the ones I know of (and that includes some in the Severn Trent area) just need a socket - I think it was supposed to be square iirc, but any suitable sized socket works.

What you will probably need is quite a long extension as they are often quite deep in the ground.

nurse_nina

we would... except we haven't got the key thing to do it! and seven trent said they can't come for 2 weeks!!

keystone

If you can't get a key from either a DIY shed or a proper plumbers merchant then a piece of wood (sized to go down the hole of course) with a "V" cut in the bottom will usually do it.

Incidentally your stop c o c k is probably not broken - just seized up through sheer lack of use. Dont force it in case you break the spindle but open and close it a number of times and you'll probably find it frees up enough to shut off supply completely. If you do replace it (probably easier to put a second valve in downstream) then use one of these:



Cheers

mcc100

If your water meter is outside then it is likely that there is a plastic tap in the meter chamber that will turn off your supply.

Have you actually lifted the lid and had a look in the meter chamber?

keystone

Get one off teh interwebz CLICKY

Cheers

bigblackdog

dont panick , dont panick , look at your options
its only water not boiling acid
it will only get you wet
some excellent suggestions so far , just do that , turn the water off outside
lift the lid , shine a torch down there , is there a water meter in there?
if so turn off the tap in front of it , use the open square end of a socket set extension bar and twist the bar with some pliers or molegrips , or if there is a more tap like 'tap' cut a v in a piece of timber and use that ,if you cant summon the strength to get your arm down the hole and do it with your hand , simples
a stopcock can be changed indoors simply by freezing the pipe , a towel thing is placed around the pipe freezing gas is squirted in and a bung of frozen water is created inseide the pipe , lasts about 40 mins , plenty of time to change an in line stopcock , relax

keystone

bigblackdog wrote: »

a stopcock can be changed indoors simply by freezing the pipe , a towel thing is placed around the pipe freezing gas is squirted in and a bung of frozen water is created inseide the pipe , lasts about 40 mins , plenty of time to change an in line stopcock , relax

The DIY spray kits are useless in this environment and should not be used anyway on mains pressure water unless you want to get very vey wet. Only a professional pipe freezing machine should be used on mains and even then that can be a tad dodgy.

Cheers

Gothicfairy

You can really not expect any water company to come out on your demand because you have stuff to plumb in. If there was a major leak then it would be a lot quicker ( I hope ) then 2 weeks but to be honest 2 weeks is not a bad turn around for something that is not at all important to anyone else but you.

I really don't mean that to sound nasty but there needs to be some reality here. It really is not the end of the world if you don't have a washing machine/ dish washer for 2 weeks is it ? I think that if no one can help you then you will have to wait but I would try the internal stop tap myself with a local plumber before giving up because if they can free that up then you can have your things put in and worry about the external stop tap later.
Although I connected my washing machine without turning anything off which might have been slightly daft but nothing major happened, not sure about a dish washer as I don't have one. Or are you saying there are no pipes for the machines and it all needs to be laid ? In which case I would think it is a slightly different matter.