Can't find internal water stopcock....need plumbing work done

[Greenwitchhorse]

I just bought a 1935 terrace and lots of issues are cropping up.

This morning the latest one is that the plumbers can't find the internal stopcock (the boiler needs replaced so they need to be able to switch off the eater supply).

They lifted some floorboards, looked under the stairs, poked inside cupboards, nothing.

The suggestion was that potentially it would be somewhere in the kitchen but the kitchen fitters who installed the kitchen some years ago probably covered it.

So I am having to contact the water company to come and fix the one we have outside the street (as again that one is old and the plumbers could not turn it off or on properly...) which will delay everything.

As anyone had the same issue and how did you manage to find your internal stopcock?

I really would like to have somewhere accessible in the house to be able to to stop the water in case of the leak.

I had an initial phone chat with the water company engineer who will come in the look at the outside supply but he suggested my plumbers were a bit on the lazy side not to investigate the inside of the house further and that there has to be an internal stopcock somewhere...

This house is such a pain at the moment. The plumber did remove and old gas fire this morning from the living and told me I was lucky I had not switched it on as it had been installed incorrectly without proper ventilation and it could have killed me...

We never found ours (have lived in our house 19 years) and so had to switch off from the street for plumbing works. When we had our kitchen replaced we had one fitted for the kitchen only.

Ours is in the back of a kitchen cupboard 4 ft away from where you would expect it to be i.e under the sink!

Do any of your kick boards come off? Maybe take one off and have a look?
We can’t actually reach our stop cock by hand. We have to lie on the floor and insert a metal key for turning the outside one off, through a square hole in the back of the cupboard underneath the carousel unit, and use that to twist the tap. It’s bonkers.

Is any corner of your kitchen underneath a bathroom / loo?

Can you see see any internal pipes coming down from upstairs into your kitchen area at all?

Have you got neighbours in similar houses ? If so ask as they might know.

It's not a good idea not to know how to turn your water off because if there is a leak your house could be deluged with water for hours and do massive amounts of damage.

Normally there is a stopcock at the meter. If there is not one at the meter I would probably trace back the shortest route of piping from where the shutoff valve is (should be under a metal cover outside the house) to where the water supply is likely to first enter the house. This is probably where the stopcock will be if there is one.

This is what we did. Ours is located in the cellar and was hidden originally under some foam the previous owners had put over the pipe.

Do you think the layout of your house may have changed over the years? Ours is an Edwardian property. The kitchen used to be right at the back of the house and was tiny. At some point the kitchen was relocated to what was thought to be a breakfast room (twice the size!) and the old kitchen is now a utility room. Our stop cock is therefore hidden behind the washing machine in the utility and impossible to access.

Our indoor stopcock is in the very back of the cupboard under the kitchen sink and difficult to get at. Plus it doesn't turn easily when you can.

There are also two flow valves in the airing cupboard (one for hot water and one for cold. They seem to turn easily enough but I can't reach them as they are very high up and I am a short-arse.

Other than that, there is one just outside on the road next to the water meter, under the little cover.

If your plumbers are experienced then I find it hard to believe that they can't locate yours. It is possible that kitchen fitters did build the carcass and back of a cupboard over it, but I wouldn't have thought it would have been too far from the back of your kitchen sink area, especially if that is the main inlet and rising main. They might just need to cut a couple of spy holes in there to check and if necessary make access.

There wasn't a stopcock in mine (also 1930s).

When my water went off during my neighbours' works, I rushed out and asked the workmen where they'd managed to turn it off. They pointed to a stopcock in the street covering 4 or more properties!

Thankfully, as part of their work those workmen installed stopcocks for two properties; next time I had a plumber in, he put a stopcock in my property.

Why can't your plumbers just use a freeze kit to enable the fitting of an isolating valve to the feed to the boiler? very simple job, do the same at the point the mains comes into the house.

You could spend a fortune pay them to look for a non existent stop cock.

We ve fitted gate valves to every water feed around the house in UK.

Thank you everyone for the replies so far.

I am starting to wonder whether that plumber just could not be arsed and I should actually get a second opinion/quote for the boiler as well.

@Topseyt123, yes It makes absolute sense to just do a couple of spy hole under the kitchen sink cupboard and investigate whether it could be there. It would have been fairly easy for them to do...

@GPTec1 ''Why can't your plumbers just use a freeze kit to enable the fitting of an isolating valve to the feed to the boiler?'' I did not know they could do that but that also makes absolute sense.

Yes to answer everyone I wanted them to install a new stopcock if there isn't one already but then the issue is that they could not work out where the water pipes came into the house...although the water company engineer was saying, it usually is just a straight-ish line from where the little cover on the street is.

I would definitely get a second plus.bers opinion. There are various options.

In another place I've lived <warms to theme>, the mains came into my neighbour's house from the street, then T-ed off to my house under the floor in the back room.

Neighbour had a stopcock on the mains just inside their front door, with a hatch through the floor to access. If they turned their water off, that was mine off too.

Ask your neighbours where theirs is. Yours might be in a similar place.
Do you have water stop taps in the street?

There was a problem on our street and their stop tap didn't work so the water board had to come and find the one in the street for them. It's not uncommon for councils to tarmac over them.

@mumda Yes, I was going to try the neighbours. I could not see anyone in today though so will drop a note tomorrow.

I have asked recommendations for another plumber as well from my electricians who has done a decent job on the house, as I am not convinced about the one who came in today (who was recommended by a former landlord).

Out of curiosity how much have people paid roughly to have an old boiler replaced? this one would either need a full replacement or a fan replaced. I think I might go for the temporary fix and then do the boiler next year as I have already spent quite a lot on rewiring the house...

Ours is in the road where the water meter is.

Ours was found after years in a bedroom miles from the kitchen behind some boxed in pipes, however this was close to where the original front door was, has the house layout changed over time?

Mine is in the living room next to the chimney breast. Odd.

The layout has been changed but just to add a small extension to the existing kitchen, nothing has been moved...

No floor board in the corridor, only concrete under the carpet.

A straight line from the outside water cover would actually lead to the middle of the living room...

In our old house (victorian terrace) it was under the house just inside our front door (accessed by a little access hatch under the small doormat style strip of carpet). We would never have found it had our sellers not told us where it was. In our current house, the previous owners had to track it down - it was behind a fitted cupboard in the utility room and so we had to remove the back of one of the cupboards to access it. Again, we would have struggled to find it if we hadn't been told where it was! Slightly mind boggling that builders and plumbers don't make sure access is super easy when doing renovations and extensions!

@Reeniebeanie78

I know it is crazy that there is no easy access to something so important within the house.

I even tried the estate agents this afternoon and the previous owners said they turned off the water at the external water thing when they did previous works which is not that helpful as the plumbers indicated that looked old and in need of replacement.

At least hopefully the water company can fix that.

I am dropping letters to my neighbours as well to ask whether they have one accessible in their house...

Although I can’t help with your exact question, one thing I have learnt the hard way recently is to always get a second and maybe even a third opinion when it comes to tradespeople in the house. We often think it’s easier/quicker to go with the tradesperson standing in front of us but trust me, it’s worth waiting a little longer and do research first.

@Clickncollect
Absolutely. I did that with the electricians.

I did not like the 1st guy who came in to do the initial testing and hired somebody else to do rewiring.

The guys who came in also did not seem very professional so I will get someone else in. I think I will also patch the current boiler for now to reduce outgoings for this year and then replace it when I have saved a bit more.

We don’t have one in the house. Every plumber we’ve ever had out (a few as we’ve done quite a bit of work) has used the one in the street at the metre.