What can I do with two baths full of hot water?

daisiegg

tru wrote: »

The stopcock down the drain will be the mains one (or something!). You should still have one in the house. It might be in an awkward place, like behind one of the kitchen cupboards. The backs are easy to get off, just 'pop' one edge forwards.

Hope you find it - what a nightmare.

Oh I think the one in the house is in the loft as well (so i'm told) which is no use to me!

Thanks

Plumber should be here in the half hour. Have called work but hopefully won't be in too late. By a stroke of luck both my first two classes today are getting on with independent work that they started yesterday so quite easy for a cover supervisor to do. Almost looks as though I planned it! (I didn't!)

Badrick

I'd ask plumber to fit a stopcock that's easily accessible in case of future catastrophes.

valk_scot

I remember the last time we had a leak and OH was here with just the kids. I was in having a scan or something at the hospital and not contactable by phone, OH was running around like the proverbial headless chicken looking for the mains riser stopcock, which had been moved when the kitchen was remodelled. MyDD, who was seven at the time, reported back that she kept telling him that the stopcock was behind the dishwasher, I had told her about it the last time the dishwasher had been out. He just ignored her though and kept trying to prise up the floorboards under the kitchen sink/take the bath panels off/phone me repeatedly/trying to phone a plumber/pacify the downstairs neighbour who was getting flooded out. Eventually my twelve year old son came home and yelled "Dad it's behind the dishwasher!!!" Even then OH was saying that this was impossible (?) but eventually pulled out the dishwasher. And guess what??

It's good for everyone to know where the main stopcock is. And the fuse box. And the drainage stopcock for the boiler, if relevant. And for them to be accessible to all the adults in the house if possible. Including dozy husbands....yes, he had been told after the kitchen remodel but he never pays attention to that sort of thing, that's my job apparently.

pigpen

Ring the community wardens to see if the can send someone to help. They usually have someone mooching about and have handyman types too.

I'd sling a duvet in the wash.. but if you need to go out.. pull the plug out there isn't much you can do..

Do you not have a large spanner to extend your reach to the stopcock?

blossomhill_2

The stopcock down a drain should have a longhandled key to turn it - people sometimes have these in a shed or understair cupboard without recognising what they are - like a long metal handle just under a metre long, with a spanner-like section on the end

daisiegg

Thanks everybody! Plumber came and replaced a valve and no more leaking. Apparently we do also have a stopcock under the kitchen sink...I am a stupid useless woman. Ended up wasting a lot of water, though...but at least it's fixed.

blossomhill_2

You are only stupid and useless if it happens again and you can't remember/don't have a note of where the stopcock is!
Hopefully this is the only time, glad you got sorted

anguk

Glad you got it sorted. The same thing happened to us once, the ballcock was stuck in the tank and the water flowing out of the overflow, we couldn't turn off the stopcock and the plumber couldn't get here until the evening so I turned the hot tap in the bathroom on a little way. It was just enough to stop the water flowing out of the over-flow but not so much that it wasted too much water.

THIRZAH

At least you tried to save the water. DH has just been fixing a tap in the bathroom and I've discovered that he has drained the hot tank-all that hot water down the drain and I'm longing for a bath!

daska

Glad you got it fixed. Can I suggest a list of useful information for future emergencies. I keep mine on the boiler, mum used to keep hers in the 1st aid tin LOL. Off the top of my head it has:

Locations of stopcock, and utility meters
Main and emergency Numbers for letting agent/ maintenance
Plumber, sparks and chippy's details
Car insurance details and mechanic's number
ideal water pressure for boiler (ours likes to leak every now and then)
local taxi company
police station

I think there's a couple more bits as well that just seemed like a good idea.

also candle and matches, so long since we had a power cut that the batteries in the torch ran down so I thought I'd revert to analogue.