In article ,
Brian Reay writes:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Mr Pounder Esquire wrote:
Not being crude.
The cold water stopcock is under the kitchen cupboards and is the usual
nightmare to get to. I'm not getting any younger and sometimes wonder about
turning off the cold water if something bad happened.
Has anybody had experience or opinions with this?
http://www.surestop.co.uk/owners/

It's rather unusual to actually need to cut off the entire cold water feed
to the house.

My stopcock is reasonably accessible, but I've added another after the
kitchen cold tap. So I can turn off the rest of the house but still have
water. And put that in a readily accessible place.


After seeing the damage a neighbour suffered when a toilet cistern failed
when they were on holiday *, we always turn off our water when going away.

*we could see the water pouring from the over flow. Couldnt reach the main
stop cock in the street. Water board more interested in fining for wasting
water. Eventually found someone with tool to turn off water in street.
Damage was extensive- skirting boards downstairs swelled to several inches
thick. Owners forced to live in hotel for over a month.....

I woke one morning to the sound of running water.
It was pouring out of the upstairs bathroom toilet cistern overflow
into the front garden, which had become a pond.
The fault was that the ball valve arm (plastic) had snapped, leaving
the inlet valve running at full pelt. I was very lucky the overflow
handled the rate - it was a close thing. I had not previously
considered the possibility of one of these failing without warning at
full flow.

It doubled my 6-monthly water consumption IIRC. I don't know how long
it was leaking before I found it, but a max of 8 hours.

When I was a child, a school friend lost their house for a year or
more when the loft pipework froze whilst they where away, and then
spent a week or more pouring water through the house. They lost all
the floors and ceilings, and almost everything in the house.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On 29/12/2018 15:31, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Brian Reay writes:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Mr Pounder Esquire wrote:
Not being crude.
The cold water stopcock is under the kitchen cupboards and is the usual
nightmare to get to. I'm not getting any younger and sometimes wonder about
turning off the cold water if something bad happened.
Has anybody had experience or opinions with this?
http://www.surestop.co.uk/owners/

It's rather unusual to actually need to cut off the entire cold water feed
to the house.

My stopcock is reasonably accessible, but I've added another after the
kitchen cold tap. So I can turn off the rest of the house but still have
water. And put that in a readily accessible place.


After seeing the damage a neighbour suffered when a toilet cistern failed
when they were on holiday *, we always turn off our water when going away.

*we could see the water pouring from the over flow. Couldn€„¢t reach the main
stop cock in the street. Water board more interested in fining for wasting
water. Eventually found someone with tool to turn off water in street.
Damage was extensive- skirting boards downstairs swelled to several inches
thick. Owners forced to live in hotel for over a month.....

I woke one morning to the sound of running water.
It was pouring out of the upstairs bathroom toilet cistern overflow
into the front garden, which had become a pond.
The fault was that the ball valve arm (plastic) had snapped, leaving
the inlet valve running at full pelt. I was very lucky the overflow
handled the rate - it was a close thing. I had not previously
considered the possibility of one of these failing without warning at
full flow.

It doubled my 6-monthly water consumption IIRC. I don't know how long
it was leaking before I found it, but a max of 8 hours.

When I was a child, a school friend lost their house for a year or
more when the loft pipework froze whilst they where away, and then
spent a week or more pouring water through the house. They lost all
the floors and ceilings, and almost everything in the house.

Yup same happened to a friend of mine a good few (probably 25) years
ago. They were on holiday and the cistern in the loft ruptured, and then
the ball valve attempted to refill it. Their neighbours worked out there
was a problem some days later when water came through their lounge wall,
and had to break in the shut the water off.

I seem to recall the insurance claim was basically to replace nearly the
entire house contents, and redecorate everything, plus all new carpets
and curtains.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

In article , Andrew Gabriel
wrote:
In article , Brian Reay writes:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article , Mr Pounder Esquire
wrote:
Not being crude. The cold water stopcock is under the kitchen
cupboards and is the usual nightmare to get to. I'm not getting any
younger and sometimes wonder about turning off the cold water if
something bad happened. Has anybody had experience or opinions with
this? http://www.surestop.co.uk/owners/

It's rather unusual to actually need to cut off the entire cold water
feed to the house.

My stopcock is reasonably accessible, but I've added another after the
kitchen cold tap. So I can turn off the rest of the house but still
have water. And put that in a readily accessible place.


After seeing the damage a neighbour suffered when a toilet cistern
failed when they were on holiday *, we always turn off our water when
going away.

*we could see the water pouring from the over flow. Couldnt reach
the main stop cock in the street. Water board more interested in fining
for wasting water. Eventually found someone with tool to turn off water
in street. Damage was extensive- skirting boards downstairs swelled to
several inches thick. Owners forced to live in hotel for over a
month.....

I woke one morning to the sound of running water. It was pouring out of
the upstairs bathroom toilet cistern overflow into the front garden,
which had become a pond. The fault was that the ball valve arm (plastic)
had snapped, leaving the inlet valve running at full pelt. I was very
lucky the overflow handled the rate - it was a close thing. I had not
previously considered the possibility of one of these failing without
warning at full flow.

It doubled my 6-monthly water consumption IIRC. I don't know how long it
was leaking before I found it, but a max of 8 hours.

When I was a child, a school friend lost their house for a year or more
when the loft pipework froze whilst they where away, and then spent a
week or more pouring water through the house. They lost all the floors
and ceilings, and almost everything in the house.

my daughter & son-in-law let their house while they were away studying for
Divinity Diploma. A very nice Spanish family who went home for Christmas
and, being economically minded, turned off the boiler berore departing. It
took 6 months for the house to dry out after the burst pipe. Luckily the
insurance company paid for it.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle

On Sat, 29 Dec 2018 15:46:02 -0000, John Rumm
wrote:

They were on holiday and the cistern in the loft ruptured, and then the
ball valve attempted to refill it.

The galvanised iron tank in my loft looks very rusty and I've been putting
off replacing with a plastic one but wondered if there was the need for
anything as large as the approximately 50 gallon one? I would need to
replace the 3/4 inch galvanised pipe in the under floor run which will
entail removing the floor and, possibly, bath.

The reason I'm thinking seriously about replacement is because of the
problems I had replacing the bath mixer tap. I couldn't turn off the taps
from the tank, I certainly haven't tried to in the past 40 years, as they
are seized and I didn't want to force anything, so I drained the cistern
and hot water tank to below the bath level. It was very cramped under the
bath to fit the taps so I tried not to disturb the copper and made the
mistake of not replacing the olive. Result was when I tightened the nut
onto the tap the old olive failed to seal and the taps both weep slightly
and I'll have to go through the whole rigmarole of draining, resealing and
refilling in the cistern.

Anyway would it be alright to use a bit of gasket sealant to the 20mm tap
inlet rather than have to renew the tails and olives?

AJH

In message op.zusrhfehtwqie3@fraxinus, AJH
writes
On Sat, 29 Dec 2018 15:46:02 -0000, John Rumm
wrote:

They were on holiday and the cistern in the loft ruptured, and then
the ball valve attempted to refill it.

The galvanised iron tank in my loft looks very rusty and I've been
putting off replacing with a plastic one but wondered if there was the
need for anything as large as the approximately 50 gallon one? I would
need to replace the 3/4 inch galvanised pipe in the under floor run
which will entail removing the floor and, possibly, bath.

The reason I'm thinking seriously about replacement is because of the
problems I had replacing the bath mixer tap. I couldn't turn off the
taps from the tank, I certainly haven't tried to in the past 40 years,
as they are seized and I didn't want to force anything, so I drained
the cistern and hot water tank to below the bath level. It was very
cramped under the bath to fit the taps so I tried not to disturb the
copper and made the mistake of not replacing the olive. Result was
when I tightened the nut onto the tap the old olive failed to seal and
the taps both weep slightly and I'll have to go through the whole
rigmarole of draining, resealing and refilling in the cistern.

Anyway would it be alright to use a bit of gasket sealant to the 20mm
tap inlet rather than have to renew the tails and olives?

An opportunity to change to a pressurised system?

Others may know better but I think a bit of PTFE tape will fix the olive
issue.

--
Tim Lamb

On Sat, 29 Dec 2018 21:37:38 -0000, Tim Lamb
wrote:


An opportunity to change to a pressurised system?

You are probably right Tim but that's a summer job if ever. I currently
have a non condesing suprima in the downstairs toilet and I wonder if a
modern boiler will fitt an allw sufficient headroom.

Others may know better but I think a bit of PTFE tape will fix the olive
issue.


I'll try that then, how many turns? Currently the floor board is only
mildly wet from the leak so it can wait till vistors leave in the new year.

AJH

In message op.zuuwrikntwqie3@fraxinus, AJH
writes
On Sat, 29 Dec 2018 21:37:38 -0000, Tim Lamb
wrote:


An opportunity to change to a pressurised system?

You are probably right Tim but that's a summer job if ever. I currently
have a non condesing suprima in the downstairs toilet and I wonder if
a modern boiler will fitt an allw sufficient headroom.

Others may know better but I think a bit of PTFE tape will fix the
olive issue.


I'll try that then, how many turns? Currently the floor board is only
mildly wet from the leak so it can wait till vistors leave in the new
year.
I take it you have tried longer spanners:-)

Umm. 3-5? You are only trying to fill minor gaps.

--
Tim Lamb

In article op.zusrhfehtwqie3@fraxinus,
says...

The galvanised iron tank in my loft looks very rusty

We had one in our old house that started leaking.

What happened was that the side of the tank rusted through
along the water line, presumably because the mixture of water
and oxygen in the air at that point had a greater corrosion
potential than just water alone.

So, based on that experience, I would suggest that you adjust
the ballcock to lower the water level slightly. It might
result an a useful extension of the tank's life.

I second Tim's PTFE tape suggestion!

--

Terry

---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com

On 29/12/2018 15:31, Andrew Gabriel wrote:
In article ,
Brian Reay writes:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Mr Pounder Esquire wrote:
Not being crude.
The cold water stopcock is under the kitchen cupboards and is the usual
nightmare to get to. I'm not getting any younger and sometimes wonder about
turning off the cold water if something bad happened.
Has anybody had experience or opinions with this?
http://www.surestop.co.uk/owners/

It's rather unusual to actually need to cut off the entire cold water feed
to the house.

My stopcock is reasonably accessible, but I've added another after the
kitchen cold tap. So I can turn off the rest of the house but still have
water. And put that in a readily accessible place.


After seeing the damage a neighbour suffered when a toilet cistern failed
when they were on holiday *, we always turn off our water when going away.

*we could see the water pouring from the over flow. Couldn€„¢t reach the main
stop cock in the street. Water board more interested in fining for wasting
water. Eventually found someone with tool to turn off water in street.
Damage was extensive- skirting boards downstairs swelled to several inches
thick. Owners forced to live in hotel for over a month.....

I woke one morning to the sound of running water.
It was pouring out of the upstairs bathroom toilet cistern overflow
into the front garden, which had become a pond.
The fault was that the ball valve arm (plastic) had snapped, leaving
the inlet valve running at full pelt. I was very lucky the overflow
handled the rate - it was a close thing. I had not previously
considered the possibility of one of these failing without warning at
full flow.

It doubled my 6-monthly water consumption IIRC. I don't know how long
it was leaking before I found it, but a max of 8 hours.

When I was a child, a school friend lost their house for a year or
more when the loft pipework froze whilst they where away, and then
spent a week or more pouring water through the house. They lost all
the floors and ceilings, and almost everything in the house.

I remember, some years ago, when a local building was being refurbished
for conversion to a restaurant.

It was a fair sized building - 2 storeys, plus attic offices and
cellars. About 50 ft wide and somewhat deeper.

Overnight, someone stole all the copper plumbing, leaving the water
puring into the cellars. By morning, the building had collapsed!

SteveW