On 14 Feb, 21:56, "the_constructor" wrote:
"Dave Osborne" wrote in message

...



GMM wrote:
Six months ago, Severn Trent (or their contractors) came along and re-
piped all thewatermains in my road. *Unfortunately, I was away at
the time, so didn't get to see how everything worked or have a chat
with the blokes doing it.
I would very much like to change one of the internal stopcocks in the
house as I'm doing up the room and it leaks just a tad. *I know they
will come along on request and turn it off for you, but I'd rather not
have to take a day off just to do this job, so I was hoping to deal
with it myself (after all, it's not exactly complex/dangerous etc etc
to turn a tap off for a bit!). *I had a look over the weekend and
couldn't see how to get at the shut off in the street.
The access *is now in a circular plastic plate about 8 inches across
with a key hole. *Of course, the key hole is full of asphalt from
where they re-surfaced as part of the job. *Even digging all that out
doesn't help a lot as I can't really see what's going on. *Does anyone
know how these things are opened and, particularly, whether the keys
are available anywhere? *Everything I've found so far seems to be too
small for the job.

Any help much appreciated, as ever.

Call Severn Trent "Operational Contact Centre" 0800 783 4444 and enquire
about the location of your Controlling Stop Tap (CST) at the boundary of
your property, which will be owned by Severn Trent and be their
responsibility. *Tell them that you need to move/repair the Internal Stop
Tap (IST), so you need to isolate thewaterat the boundary of the
property.

They will send an inspector to try and find your Controlling Stop Tap, and
if it's not there or not accessible, the inspector will raise a work order
for a crew to come and sort it out/fit a new controlling stop tap (at no
cost to you).

HTH

Would you like to hear about a similar story...?

My friend asked me to fix a leaking tap on his bath yesterday, so off I goes
with the toolbox.

I tried to turn the stopcock off inside the house under the kitchen sink.
This was jammed
solid. I later discovered that the stopcock was only for the kitchen sink.
Searched all over for
a stopcock for the upstairs and found absolutely nothing.

I decided to turn thewateroff in the street jut outside the back gate.
This stopcock belongs
to NorthumbrianWaterLtd and is one of those funny things that is turned
with a plastic tool with
an hexagonal tip. Couldn't move it at all. Used a metal tool given to me by
one of their engineers
a few years ago and still couldn't move it. It only has to turn 1/4 of a
turn andwaterwill be off.

I rang NorthumbrianWaterand explained the situation to them and was
promptly told not to touch
their equipment as it would cost me if I damaged it. They then informed me,
that they would send
an engineer out to turn thewateroff, here's the sting, at a cost of £57.20
+ VAT. *I explained, that,
their equipment was faulty and they were breaking their duty of care by not
allowing me to operate
their equipment in the case of an emergency. Do not touch it was the
warning. I rang off.

I rang again 5 minutes after and stated the problem again. I was told
exactly the same thing. I was
gobsmacked.

So, if no householder can not touch their equipment, in the case of a burst
pipe inside the house, do
they phone thewatercompany and wait several hours for an engineer to call
and be totally flooded
out in the meantime *?

Your suggestions would be most appreciated.

James

Sounds like a bit of a fix to be in: I thought they were obliged to
come and turn off for freebie on request and they would normally fix
any faults when they found them, like a seized fitting (when I posted,
I was simply trying to find a way to turn it off without taking the
day off).

At a previous house, I had a different problem: The stopcock within
my boundary was buried about twice as deep as usual and, being a bodge
job, started to leak. I dug a trench (which duly filled with water),
but I couldn't find the water board stopcock, which is normally in the
street right outside, so I arranged with them to come and turn off
while I fixed my stopcock. After a day of twiddling my thumbs without
them showing, I called and complained vigorously and arranged another
date. Same again, no show, so I managed to get through to the local
manager, who promised to come and deal with it personally before the
start of the working day.

The guv'nor duly arrived in his suit and Jag and scratched his head
looking for the stopcock. In the end, after I pressed my point
further, he got into the trench and, thigh-deep in muddy water in his
suit, repaired my stopcock then dripped off back to his pristine Jag.
Great service, but I wish I'd had a video camera in those days(!).

Oddly enough, the following week, a team went along the road and
fitted stopcocks outside each house....

By the way, good suggestion Roger, I'll post a photo somewhere as soon
as I get home (working away right at the moment).

Cheers chaps.