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...

For some strange reason, we had ours in the back garden under the patio.

We asumed the Lee would be a reason why the patio crazy brick was slightly larger than all others and it was underneath.

I woukd be very surprised if your kitchen installers covered it completely. Look under the sink or on the back wall (draw a straight line from the one outside, through the centre of the front door all the way to the back wall, you may find it is just there hiding behind a drawer or the dishwasher.

Mine is in the bathroom next to where the toilet is plumbed in . Took a while to find it as I thought they were always under the kitchen sink unit .

Usually detailed in the fixtures and fittings form.

Mine's next to the front door. Previous ones have been behind a loo in the garage, and in the airing cupboard under the immersion heater.

I would expect it to be somewhere along the external wall that faces where the meter / external stop tap is. I'd start by looking along that wall on the inside for any boxing in or cupboards that it could be behind, where the water initially enters the building.

Agree that your plumbers don't sound particularly good though, and that a freeze kit would have been the obvious answer. They're not even expensive!

Ours was behind a curtain behind the front door. Took the first plumber we had out ages to find!

Thank you everyone. I am so glad I posted this and got so much feedback and support.

I bought as a single woman and I feel like every single tradesperson is out to rip me off sometimes...

I decided that I did not like the look of these plumbers so will get someone else and will get them to patch the current boiler for at least another year as spare parts (the fan) are still available for it.

I am focusing on getting the water company to sort out the outside access first. I have a long term health condition so come up as a priority/vulnerable customer and the engineer I spoke to on the phone today was actually really helpful.

I will see what my neighbours say about whether they have a stopcock in the house as that might solve the mystery.

Mine is under the bathroom in what used to be the kitchen, right at the back of a pull out cupboard, so you have to remove the shelving (and contents) from the cupboard to get to it. I can't see it, need a torch. Is there a saint of lost stopcocks we can pray to?

If you are getting work done @pigletjohn is very helpful with advice. My advice is get trades in by word of mouth if you can, don't trust websites like checkatrade etc.

1930s house here. Ours is under the floor in the front porch. Nowhere near the kitchen.

Our house has been extended and there's a bathroom where the kitchen used to be, and that's where the main stopcock is. Is also doesn't look like a normal one with a big red wheel thingy, it has a little square bit that a key fits on like where you bleed a radiator but bigger. If that makes sense. Our plumber had a key that fitted it, and got us one from a plumbers merchant.

My house is 1830 and it's under the stairs

But was under the floorboards under the stairs

Yes I have read a lot of informative responses by @pigletjohn. Hoping they might see this thread!

Everyone I use has been recommended but I can see that the quality of the service/outcome is still patchy unfortunately with some of them...

Or survey OP.

From my own (very bitter!) experience, I would no longer trust reviews on Checkatrade or Trustatrader. The plumber we used recently appears with glowing reviews on both, and he was honestly the worst and most unreliable tradesman we have ever used. We had a new bathroom, the timing of works was a fiasco and went on seemingly a forever, the mess was unbelievable, and he managed to install the shower, toilet and towel radiator with leaks. The sink didn't leak, but then he didn't fit that....traders pay to be in Checkatrade etc, so that tells you where Checkatrade's loyalty lies.

My mothers is at the back of one of the kitchen drawers. You need to pull the drawer right out to get to it.

@Roselilly36 Unfortunately the survey just says that it could not be located and simply pointed out the one outside...

@dontchaknow I only used Checkatrade once for a handyman to do some basic, small jobs like dismantling or assembling furniture.

The guy had great reviews but turned out to be a complete weirdo. I would never trust any of their recommendations.

@dontchaknow Absolutely agreed. In fact, I think I would go as far as saying I wouldn't use anyone who was on those sort of sites at all.

As you said, they pay to be on there. If they're so short of good word of mouth that they need to be on checkatrade to get work, I'm not interested.

Mine is under the kitchen sink. I had it covered because of mice but made a point to write in water in large black letters for future reference

At our old house, it was behind a set of kitchen drawers, opposite side of the kitchen sink. They are large drawers, and you can pull both out to get to the stop cock behind. Have you pulled all the drawers out to look?

Do you have an outside toilet or where an outside toilet would have been? my last house it was in there. My nans is in next doors dining room!

I just turned mine off in the street (I did eventually find it but it wasn't easy)

We had this! They had to turn off in the street.

Six years later we had a new kitchen and they found it behind the kitchen cupboard that housed the dishwasher, between the sink and the back door. We would never have found it without ripping out the kitchen.

Mines in the attic