Guess it's a bit like asking how long is s piece of string but How long should it take for the water to stop coming through after isolating the stop cock ? Had it screwed out fir a good 5 minutes and water still coming through.
Stopcock in the street or in your house. Sounds like it's shagged! Stopcock in street your water board will replace it foc.
Hi Enc. The water is definitely coming from the 'mains' side and not from your internal plumbing? If definitely the 'mains', then it does look as tho' your stopcock isn't. Stopping. If you decide to replace it, fit a full-bore ball lever valve instead. Worries over... But that would either mean shutting off the water in the street for a few minutes, or getting yourself very wet as you do a 'live' swap. (If you go for a live swap, don't forget to set a video recording going first - you'll become a YouTube lege... )
Tempting fate doing a live swap. Did one years ago,simple job I thought, copper pipe came out of floor to old stop cock, loosen stop cock only for it to come away complete with pipe from floor. copper pipe had been sweated into old lead pipe, ended up using a snooker cue rammed into lead pipe to stop flow. Ended up digging up floor to replaced incoming lead mains.
It's the thing above .. inside the house. What has just occurred to me... the original position was screwed "in" and in an attempt to switch off the water I'm screwing it "out" that seems to go against convention doesn't it ?
I replaced on once. I had to get water board to turn off water to my house as their stop in the street was solid! I couldn't budge it.
It would be against convention and standards. Was it fully in? Often people will only partially open the stop-cock to reduce the flow. What happens if you screw it right in?
Hi Enc. Yes, it's almost certainly pooped. I don;t know of any stopcock - regardless of how old - that shuts off anti-clockwise. It must have been partially closed/open all along, and probably 'froze' in that position (scaled up insides). So, by all means try shutting it off properly... Yup - clockwise As Pollo says, sometimes peeps partially shut off the stopcock to reduce flow if they find it excessive. And it's actually good practice to not fully fully open them anyway, as this can cause them to seize in the 'hard-open' position. You can try spraying release spray where the spindle disappears in to the top nut whilst turning the tap back and forth as many turns as it goes. Is the pipe feeding it - and coming from it into the house - made of lead?
Initially i had to spray it with release fluid over 24 hours as it wouldn't budge at all. Not sure if it's screwed fully home at the minute ... I'll check when I get home. Pipes are heavily tarnished but I'm pretty sure they are copper not lead.
Not sure what the material is 'your side' of the stop tap. But I'd be getting the water off in the street (you might need your water board to do this for you) and cut in a new tap above the old one and just leave the old one there. Looks a bit tricky but better than touching that old tap
My old one looked like that but i had just enough room underneath to cut the tap off and fit a new one! Wasn't an easy job as it was in a restrictive position.
Might be copper above stop cock, job to tell,scrap abit of paint off will soon tell you. If you can isolate water from outside, then I would completely remove that old stop cock & fit a full bore lever valve. Really do need a working stop cock in a house.
Forums
Facebook
Twitter
You Tube
Instagram
Shop