lost stopcock

[charlie-ia]

we cant find the stopcock to the mains water. any hints?
tried following the pipe out of the wall, and there seems nowhere obvious to me.
its not near the house (not close up, though the place is so overgrown its hard to tell further away) and its not near the road. have tried dowsing, found a few interesting places, but not near where it could be.
is it really possible that there isnt one? we're on a "group water scheme" but other than that i have no idea where the water comes from.

 

[CHRIS]

Try looking for any sawcuts in the tarmac in the road, if you cant find anything you can rent a CAT and Genny from HSS or like and clip onto the pipe (metal only) inside the house and trace it that way.


http://www.speedyhire.co.uk/technical_catalogue.aspx?id=1306&fSize=smaller&fImages=1&nav=

 

[Geoff Flegg]

If you've got a lead pipe running into the house, you could hire a "Cat & Genny" from a tool hire shop. A "Genny" is a signal generator - you hook it up to a bit of pipe you can see, and it pulses a signal along it.

The "cat" is used a bit like a metal detector - it picks up the signal so you can trace the line of water pipe. OK, you still wouldn't know where the stopcock was along the length, but it would narrow it down!

http://www.speedyhire.co.uk/technical_catalogue.aspx?cat=211&subcat=954&item=1148&fPage=1

I've seen them for hire much cheaper than that, shop around.

I was originally a civil engineer, we used these to trace underground phone cables (which needed the signal generator) and power cables (which you don't need the generator for). They don't work on plastic though, so if you've a blue plastic water pipe coming into the house think again![/url]

 

[Geoff Flegg]

Oops, Chris beat me to it and posted whilst I was typing...

Great minds think alike?????

 

[Raylea]

Hi Charlie,

In our survey we were told where our stop cock was, even though we found out later it was disused and the stopcock is now out front. Have a look over your survey again, ya never know.

Thanks for private email, lots of work for you ,hope all turns out good.

Keep me posted, nice to talk and listen.
Raylea

 

[MdB]

We have a stopcock under the kitchen sink, one by the side gate with the water meter and one 50m away at the end of the lane. Our neighbours on the other hand only have one at the end of the lane which is 200m away for them. I guess every property can be different.

 

[DaveBrigg]

We couldn't find ours either, and in the end asked a nice man from Anglian water to check. He searched the front of the house with a metal detector and found a couple of old beer cans, then used one of those Jenny things and managed to trace the pipe halfway down the driveway. A couple of test holes later he decided to work the other way and started at the neighbour's stop cock. A few turns of the tap and 'our' water supply dried up. The good news was that the neighbouring barn conversion was not yet finished, so there was no problem turning off the supply for a while, and we were allowed to continue using his supply to make tea.
The bad news was that a new (expensive) mains connection was needed. Moral: Speak nicely to your neighbours first!

 

[Lime]

we cant find the stopcock to the mains water. any hints?
tried following the pipe out of the wall, and there seems nowhere obvious to me.
its not near the house (not close up, though the place is so overgrown its hard to tell further away) and its not near the road. have tried dowsing, found a few interesting places, but not near where it could be.
is it really possible that there isnt one? we're on a "group water scheme" but other than that i have no idea where the water comes from.

I don't know what "group water scheme" means.
A description of where the house is and how old would help.
How old is the supply?
What is the supply pipe made of?

Is it possible to have a supply without a stopcock?
Yes, particularly if it is a shared supply.
However there is often a stopcock near a boundary which sometimes gets lost or forgotten.

 

[Penners]

I presume you're asking about the water supplier's stopcock, and not the one inside your house?

In our last house we "lost" the supplier's stopcock, so we contacted them, as DaveBrigg did. They sent along chap with a detector and found the hinged access plate buried in the grass of the village green about 20 yards from our property. The hole that contained it was also about 5 feet deep - longer than an arm! So a special "key" was needed to turn it.

They didn't charge us.

 

[charlie-ia]

i still have to find out more about group water schemes myself, but the house is up a mountain in ireland. my mothers supply comes from a well that they all club into for repairs etc. the water supply isnt exactly mains, but it does come throught a pipe. the neighbours are renting and moved in the week before us, so while they appear nice, theyre not a lot of use!, we yet have to find anymore neighbours to talk to (though we did wave to the man with the cows)

the supply is relatively modern. where it leaves the house it is black Plastic pipe. we're looking for any type of stopcock, indoors or out!

the road was tarmacked 2 weeks ago, but there wernt any marks on it before either.

the survey failed to find an entire thatched roof, let alone anything minor!

im baffled!

 

[Penners]

the survey failed to find an entire thatched roof

It should be at the top.

Hope that helps.

 

[charlie-ia]

its in the middle actually. explains why the silly man couldnt find it. i shall pass your usefull advice on. thanks penners!

 

[Penners]

its in the middle actually.

Ireland, did you say? :wink:

 

[charlie-ia]

i guess the stopcock will be in a similar sensible place

 

[Penners]

i guess the stopcock will be in a similar sensible place

Have you looked up the nearest telegraph pole?

 

[Penners]

Charlie - did you find it? Do let us know.