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...

Mine was directly under in the floor just inside my front door. Previously owners screened over and laid tiles, I'd never have known if it wasn't on the form when I bought the house. We use the water company one when needed

We had the same problem, on the house inventory/report it listed it as being in the kitchen, drove me mad finding it, and then we found that where the pipes went into the units from the washing machine there was a hole and you could just about see a stop cock in there, honestly took us months to find the bloody thing. Only works for part of the house as well 🙄

If you know where the outside stopcock (or meter) is

(Very often next to where the front gate used to be when the house was built)

Then the pipe most likely runs in a straight line to where the kitchen sink used to be when the house was built, and comes up through the floor, often next to the wall in a corner. The pipe often runs under the hall floor, and you can see it if you take some boards up. Sometimes there are loose boards in the cupboard under the stairs.

In terraced houses, unimaginative builders, not given to flights of fancy or creative whimy, usually put it in exactly the same place in every house, so if one of your neighbours is willing to speak to you they may know where to look.

A hundred years of numbskull residents and builders may have done their best to hide the pipe and jam the stopcocks. You should find out where they are and learn to operate them before you get a leak or burst. Finding out afterwards is not as good.

If the house is 50 years old or more the pipe might be thinking of leaking, and is probably half inch so gives poor water flow. Consider replacing it with 25mm plastic (32mm if you have two bathrooms)

Is it the original kitchen layout? If it’s like mine the water comes in from the corner where the two outside wall join, nearest the kitchen sink. The stop cock is under the kitchen cupboard directly under the sink.

We have to cut the bottom of our cupboard out to get to it. Take the kickboard’s off and see if it’s there.

Ours turned out to have rusted shut so they had to freeze it to put a new one in. I got a push button one and it’s great it’s at the edge of the cupboard now and you just push it to stop the water.

(Just remembered a friend with a 1930s house found her’s in the cupboard under the stairs. So check there too!)

Mine, in a similar age house, turned out to be behind a loose skirting board that could be jiggled off

Places I've found them in different houses,
In the airing cupboard (hot press)
In the cupboard under the stairs
In the gas cupboard
At the side of the bath, behind the bath panel

Often the outside ones are silted up. It's the water company's job to make them useable, so accept if they suggest that. Then at least you have an emergency cut-off.
Good luck with the rest. PS. Old gas fires often get gas fitters sucking their teeth and telling horror stories- I think they rather enjoy it....😉..but of course they are right all the same, best to not use it, and get it out.

We couldn't find ours for years. It was found behind the integrated fridge when we redid our kitchen. Until then we just had to shut off our mains from the street every time we needed something done. I still have that massive key thing you need to do it.

So to update everyone, the next door neighbour said that hers is under the sink so that might confirm the theory that when a new kitchen was put in by previous owners the silly installers covered it when they put the cupboards...

I have the water company coming next week to inspect the outside one and book the works to fix it and I will get a different plumber to investigate what is happening behind the sink cupboard to try to see if indeed this is where the internal stopcock is.

Our was under the kickboard in the kitchen, at the back of the sink, but on the floor, very awkward place to get too.

We didn't have an internal stopcock - we had to switch off supply at the mains in the street while our plumber fitted one for the house.

They are mostly under sinks, though not always. Can you get the back of the sink cupboard out? If not, and you have to have the unit taken out, you could have a hole cut in the back where the tap is, if it's there.

If you've just bought the property was it not listed in the fixtures and fittings form and/contract? When we sold our house we had to list where the stop clock was located

Mine is under the sink but my kitchen fitter left it exposed 😇

DS is in the wall with a random white plastic cover on it in his old house. It’s down his cobbled drive in his new house that’s under a metal grate.

mums is halfway down the garden path under a grate.

DDs is also under the sink, same kitchen fitter moved it and exposed it so it’s accessible.