external mains water cover stuck

bookduck

Outsed the house, there is the mains water stopcock and is covered by a round metal lid. on the opposing sides of the lid there are 2 narrow screwdriver slots. Now with age and crud, I can not pry the lid open - any ideas? Ta

jimbo_the_jetset

Contact the local water company and tell them. I understand it is their responsibility. It certainly is if the outside stopcock has busted, ours did and they came out to fix it (free)

adaze

Yup, they have do keep their stopc0ck accessible, so they will come out and fit a new lid or fix the old.

bookduck

Thanks, but a slight misunderstanding. It is the cover I can not open, not sure about the stopcock yet.

It is outside my house but inside my property, so is it mine or theirs?

ukwoody

AFAIK, Adaze is correct. The water board are responsible upto and including the stopcock outside your house. This means they are also responsible for the lid to that stopcock as it must be accessible in case of emergency. Give them a call, should be free, it certainly was when the lid to my industrial unit meter got cracked in the road a couple of years back.
Woody

BobProperty

bookduck wrote: »

Thanks, but a slight misunderstanding. It is the cover I can not open, not sure about the stopcock yet.

It is outside my house but inside my property, so is it mine or theirs?

If it is inside the boundaries of your property I would think it is yours. There may be another one belonging to the water board in the street or they may use a stoptap on the water supply which covers part of your street if they need to do some maintenance.
Simple answer is phone them.
If it is yours then clean it up as best you can and maybe try spraying it with a penetrating oil like WD40.