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Original poster

I can't find my stopcock!

33 replies

Lillyludge · 20/06/2014 20:53

I'm so embarrassed Blush
I've lived in my house for 5 years and I still can't find it. It's a big house but not THAT big. However, the electricity meter was hidden away at the back of a cupboard behind some shelves...really odd place for it be...so I'm wondering if the previous owners (who had list of work done on the house have hidden the stopcock somewhere odd too.

The last time I had a plumber round to service my boiler I asked him to look for it but he couldn't find it either -so it's not just me being really stupid- and he looked everywhere he could think of. I'm a bit embarrassed to hire someone specifically to look for it!
One day I'll have a flood or a leak or something and then I'll be buggered...
Can anyone think of a way I can track it down?

OP posts:
PestoSurfissimos · 20/06/2014 20:55

Have you looked in your garage? That's where ours is.

TheGonnagle · 20/06/2014 20:55

Do you live on a road with similar houses? Ask them where theirs is? Dh says if you find the point where the cold feed comes in you can just fit another one so long as you can find the outside one to turn the water off first.

specialsubject · 20/06/2014 21:00

do you by any chance still have the documents from your purchase? The location of it should be on there.

somewhere in the bathroom?

if not - fitting a second one should be prioritised. If the tap hasn't been turned in 5 years you can guarantee it will either be immovable or leak when you try.

GiveTwoSheets · 20/06/2014 21:00

Mine was in the kitchen behind a bloody panel. After 3yrs i found it.

I agree with pp if you got similar house to neighbours ask them

gamerchick · 20/06/2014 21:04

Yes ask your neighbours where theirs is.

PigletJohn · 20/06/2014 21:08

how old is the house?

what is between your house and the road?

have you got a water meter?

how old is the kitchen? Is there an appliance that you can pull out, adjacent to the sink?

TheOneWithTheNicestSmile · 20/06/2014 21:10

ours used to be at the back under the kitchen sink but that was from an old shared main (Victorian terrace). We had that one shut off outside (very poor pressure) & now it's in a cupboard next to the front door, as we got a new private mains supply from the street

HTH Smile

TheOneWithTheNicestSmile · 20/06/2014 21:13

yours could conceivably be outside under a small manhole thing; we have one of those too, in the pavement beyond our boundary, which we can control our pressure with (but given that your plumber couldn't find it either, goodness knows)

Can you contact the vendors?

smokedgarlic · 20/06/2014 21:46

1930s terrace ours was hidden under a floorboard in the hall by the front door ( obviously)

Marmitelover55 · 20/06/2014 22:48

Ours is in the front garden hidden inside a drain pipe...

Original poster
Lillyludge · 22/06/2014 12:30

Hi everyone

Thanks for all the replies!

The house is 1930s semi....the two joined houses are unique in the street. I don't know who owns next door (it's been rented out in the past) it's now empty and up for sale so there's no one to ask....

It's definitely not in the garage or next to the sink. I don't have a water meter.

It's possible that it's under the floor somewhere but I can't get any of the floorboards/fitted tiles up very easily, so that'll be a last resort.

It's also possible that it's understand a manhole cover. There is one outside the house near the kitchen. I'll have to get someone to help lift it...

I'll also dig out the original documents from when I bought the house...see if there's anything there!

OP posts:
TheOneWithTheNicestSmile · 22/06/2014 13:41

A big manhole cover will probably be your drains (but it's worth a look)

How modern is the kitchen? Have you looked in all the kitchen cupboards? If the sink has ever been relocated the stopcock could be where the sink used to be.

You could ask the agent selling next door to ask the owner (assuming he/she is still alive & it's not an estate sale)

PigletJohn · 22/06/2014 14:56

you are looking for a trap about 6" wide.

If you have a 1930's house then there will have been one next to where the front gate used to be, just inside your boundary, when the house was built. There will have been a wide reach-down pipe with the stopcock at the bottom. In the past 80 years some idiot has probably dug over it or put concrete over it. If you have a semi, ask if your neighbours know where theirs is, yours will almost certainly be in the equivalent place. As they are not available, look in their front garden and root about under hedges. They might have a water meter in the pavement, and their service pipe will run directly from that towards the house.

If the pavement is tarmac, and the water mains have been renewed, you may be able to see patch marks where they connected to your service pipe.

SaskiaRembrandtWasFramed · 22/06/2014 15:03

We never found ours, probably for similar reasons - the previous owners did a lot of strange DIY jobs. They also built a patio over a drain in the garden, and tiled the bathroom floor with wall tiles.

When we needed plumbing work done the plumber had to switch the water off at the mains outside. So yes, it may be well hidden and you'll need to get a new one.

springlamb · 22/06/2014 15:05

Is your kitchen at the back with the sink under the window looking out over the garden? Kitchen door almost in line with the front door?
In my 1930s semi with this layout my stopcock was just the kitchen side of the hall/kitchen wall, just before the pipe divided between the supply to the kitchen sink and the upstairs supply. It was in a cupboard very low down, but yours could be behind the plinth.
In an emergency the supply can also be turned off from outside, via the little manhole cover, make sure you have the stick-tool thing.
We are having to do this at the moment (we've moved from the semi) as the indoors stopcock is totally inaccessible unless you remove the toilet.

Kasterborous · 22/06/2014 15:11

Do you have a downstairs toilet? Ours is in there.

NoArmaniNoPunani · 22/06/2014 15:42

Ours is in the downstairs loo

BornOfFrustration · 22/06/2014 15:45

In our 1930s semi it is under the stairs as far down as you can get. It's a big handle, not a tap.

Thumbwitch · 22/06/2014 15:49

Um... your stopcock may be next door.

My house in the UK, I had the stopcock for both my house and my semi-detached neighbour. The stopcock in the street could be turned off to turn off the water for both houses if they had a problem and I wasn't in, or they had to ask me if I was in because they couldn't just turn my water off as well.

I only found this out when I had some plumbing work done, turned the stopcock off in my house (under the kitchen sink) and an irate neighbour turned up with soap in her hair to find out what the hell had just happened to the water?

The house is now let to tenants - and before we left it, we put in a separate tap, so that my house can be turned off without turning off the neighbour's water, but they still have to come and either ask if the tenants are in, or turn it off in the street if they're not.

Means we can't have a water meter though...

Missda · 22/06/2014 15:51

Is it called a stop cock?
I have always thought it was a stop clock. Blush

mousmous · 22/06/2014 15:51

ours is out under the pavement in the front.

AWombWithoutARoof · 22/06/2014 15:53

We don't have one at all, in an emergency we'd have to use the little round manhole cover on the pavement to turn off the supply to the house.

Mitzi50 · 22/06/2014 15:54

Mine was hidden behind a panel. I would suggest locating it or having one put in. I had a disaster when a mains pipe burst when I was on holiday one Xmas eve. Nobody could find the stopcock or a plumber to turn it off - the damage was horrendous.

wonkylegs · 22/06/2014 16:45

Ours is now in the cupboard, under the boiler, behind a removable panel. We moved it when we replaced the water main & heating system last year. Before that it was in the downstairs loo where it was moved by the previous owner from behind the dishwasher. They moved it because they couldn't get to it when a pipe burst flooding the house.
In our previous house it was in the utility room under the sink.
The house before that took me ages to find.... In was completely in accessible behind a fixed kitchen cabinet, I only found it when I ripped out the old kitchen. It had been in a sensible place (under the original sink) but the previous owner had extended the kitchen & moved everything but the stop cock and then boxed it in. I'm guessing they never turned the water off!
If there has been any building work it's worth trying to work out what was there before.

PigletJohn · 22/06/2014 17:04

I strongly agree with Mitzi50

Before the emergency occurs.

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