Can't find stopcock

[PurpleCoated]

We bought our house a year ago and have never found the internal stop cock. Asked the sellers at the time after we moved in via solicitors but never got an answer. We have fortunately never needed to find it but do now. I don't have any original building plans, it is an 80s build. The water company don't know, they just know external one.

Any ideas of how we might find it? Thanks

My tenement flat didn't have one - the external stopcock beneath the pavement had to be used (which stops water to all 8 flats in the close). So it's not impossible for your home not to have one.

That would not be a sensible place to fit one, because even if you turned it off the pipe from the main to the stopcock would still have the potential to flood the house.

Thank you, I didn't think to look there, I will do that tonight

A stopcock in the loft will tend to be one of the additional stop cocks throughout the system rather than the master stop cock

Giving the option to stop the water tank filling and / or to stop water coming out of the tank when working on specific elements of the system (depending on the position along the way)

The loft would be risky for the master as it’s at risk of freezing if not fully insulated and would have the knockon effect of flooding the house if burst in front of the stop cock

We have one behind a panel under sink cupboard and also one in the road!

Thanks for all the replies, the house is an odd layout, we know where the outside one in the pavement is but the kitchen is up the hill on the opposite side of the house to where that one is. Some of you have mentioned hatches which I can't find but it being I'm the dining room or living room would make sense given the layout of the house.

We have turned the water off at valves near appliances when needed but now a valve needs to be fitted near the stopcock to reduce water pressure coming in so need to find it.

Thank you all!

Our 80's house didn't have one when we moved in...actually neither did our Victorian Terrace. There should be a t shaped metal bar thing about a foot long somewhere. You go out to the water main / meter thing on the path or front garden and twist that to turn it. (Both the current house and my old house do both have internal stop cocks now. After we redid the kitchens we had them added.

Definitely ask the neighbours if their homes are a similar layout.

Mine was in the bathroom, next to the bath taps but hidden in the wall with its own teeny-tiny door hiding it away!

DSs is like that, only he's in a Victorian semi, didn’t realise he had shut a few houses water off when he turned the stop cock off, which is on his drive. When he gets a new kitchen he will be having one fitted to the house.

It is, but only if you can actually find where the mains pipe comes into the house, and that's usually where they put the stopcock...

Have you asked any neighbours, that have the same style of property? Hopefully it will be in the same place as theirs. In our previous house, it was under the kickboard, where the sink was, very awkward to get too, we had it moved up into the cupboard. In our new house it’s down by the side of the downstairs loo.

Good idea. Before doing that I'd ask any neighbours whose houses were built at the same time if they could help.

Mine is actually in the sitting room, hiding in some boxed in pipe work with a movable lid. We moved the kitchen so unless you know, you would never suspect.
We will let the new owners know if we ever move.