"JM" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I've sorted out the leak on the washing machine valves I posted about last
week (thanks to everyone who replied). Now I've got another problem.

The stopcock itself has a smallish leak - perhaps enough to lose half a
pint
of water per day. It's quite low down so it's difficult to put a large
enough container underneath it so I'm getting a fairly wet stone floor in
my
kitchen, causing the carpet next to it to become fairly damp towards the
edge.

My father advised turning the pressure right down to reduce the effect of
back pressure (e.g. around a quarter turn from the 'off' position), which
I've tried without success, unfortunately - the only effect was to reduce
the water pressure to the taps around the house.

There is another stopcock/tap immediately after the water meter and I
think
that this one is pretty much 'full on'.

Any ideas on how to best deal with this?

You can't stop any (slow) leak by adjusting stopcocks (unless you turn them
right off). For most of the time they are affected only by the hydrostatic
pressure, which will be unaffected by how much a stopcock is turned on (as
you discovered), wherever it is in the circuit.

You need to [turn off the one in the street] and mend the one indoors. You
may be able to tighten the nut around the top of the shaft of the stopcock
to reduce the weep. More likely, it will be easier to replace it (if in a
copper pipe). If it's not in a copper pipe, you may be better off getting a
plumber (easier said than done, I know) to fix it, if tightening things
doesn't help.


--
Bob Mannix
(anti-spam is as easy as 1-2-3 - not)

Cheers,
John.