To ask if you know where your stopcock is?

[girlfriend44]

If you need to turn off your water at home. Do you know where your stopcock is?

If not might be good to find out.

Yes but the one in the house is really difficult to get to, the one in the front garden cuts off next door too which is not good.

I just asked my husband so now I know it’s under the kitchen sink.

Thanks - I'll look into this as I have spinal stenosis and can't lug washing machines out anymore.
Going to go and Google now.

Your water company will come out and find it.

we have always known about the stop tap in the kitchen , but when that started dripping , we couldn’t find the one at the property boundary - we dug around ( literally ) and found the one for teach neighbour in the hedges but not ours. Plumber didn’t know either

ST came out for free and located it and got it working - turns out the one side the cover is hiding 2 access points.

we also got the water tested for lead etc at the same time as we have an older house with a long pipe run from the road up the drive to the house ( that is probably iron pipe )

It was the same for us for years, plumber spent hours looking for it once and gave up and turned it off in the street. But when we eventually had a new kitchen we found it sitting behind the back of one of the kitchen cupboards. So now have a gap cut in the back of the new cupboard (the bin cupboard!) so we can access it. I have no idea why people would make it inaccessible and impossible to find.

Not only do I know where it is I also know where the house shut off is on the pavement and where every valve is in the house for all the sinks and toilets etc.

And where my drains lead (and which other houses feed in near me) in case there’s a blockage (old neighbour used many wipes and flushed them down loo) so I had raw sewage cascading through my garage extension and drive a few times a year…

Yes I do, and I was told many decades ago to turn it fully on and fully off at least every three months, so it doesn’t seize up.

Unfortunately I wasn’t advised to do the same with all the valves and gate-wheels on the pipes in the airing cupboard, so I never touched them. After many years here a plumber tried turning them off and three seized gate-wheel valves broke off.

Mine is really tight to the wall in the cupboard under the sink, so I've had a button fitted just inside the cupboard to make it easier to switch off.

At floor level, below our sink, we have to remove the cabinet plinth to access it 😩

And the gas and electric!

Thank you for mentioning this. The plumber fitted one in my mum's bungalow as her stopcock is on the floor a cupboard which also has the other meters in. And not practical for a 80 year old to have to turn off if needed. And she couldn't remember what the 'blue button' was for.

Yes, ours in next to the downstairs loo. It has a tap turn firmest that is really stiff so DH fitted a switch instead.

Thank god it’s not just me. I was reading the thread thinking “yet another thing that should have been in the How To Be An Adult manual”!

What a coincidence, we had a plumber round today who asked me this question. I had no idea! We found it eventually but it took me ages.

Same here. Sometime we need to replace it.

Yes and the first time we had to use it it was seized and snapped! Replaced and checked once a year (behind the washing machine)!

Of course I do. Doesn't everyone?!

Our internal one is stuck and no plumber will touch it in case it starts hosing when they mess with it.

So we just use the one in the street too. Much easier

We had plumber in today to fix the toilet and I was able to proudly tell him I knew exactly where the stop cock was!

I am now working, even though it is my lunch break as I don't want to be judged as lazy WFH softy. 😬

Yes, but if I turn mine off it also turns off 3 other houses (next door don't have one and would have to ask me to turn it off if they had an issue)

One in a cupboard underneath the kitchen sink, behind tons of crap and completely seized up. Another one in the water meter outside that I had no idea about until plumber located it whilst installing a new boiler!

Yes, its a red button next to the light switch in the kitchen, it has an app as well so if we want to we can turn it on/off with that.

Of course why on earth wouldn't you?

Oh that sounds heavenly. Mines under a kitchen step in a tiny spider hole you have to stick your hand in. I always feel like Indiana Jones at that point.

Mine is in its own little cupboard by the front door.

As pp said it should be opened and closed periodically so stop it seizing and when you open it turn it back a fraction and a squirt of wd40 will also help it seizing.

I do it every 6 months ,
Put the clock back or forward ( back in the autumn)

Test smoke alarms.

Open close stock cock.

And for those you with cars check your wiper blades.

All of this only takes about 15 mins and could save your life or prevent a disaster.