Stuck mains stopcock / mains pipe questions

[oldkettle]

While our boiler was replaced I had to turn the water off a couple of times. Had to do this outside of the property at the meter by laying on the ground and trying to reach. Not a very pleasant experience.

Which made me search for the stopcock again . Finally found it - hidden in the corner of the kitchen outside the sink unit with terrible access. And of course being unused for at least 9 years it's completely stuck. Tried WD-40 a few times, no luck.

 

What are the options here? Getting a plumber is not a problem (hopefully!) but I am not quite sure what he would be able to do unless we remove the whole damn sink unit which is a non-trivial exercise. The kitchen is quite old but we were not planning on any works any time soon.

 

A related question.

Looking at the meter outside I can see a plastic pipe connected on the side of the house. Is this expected that somewhere underground this plastic gets connected to a copper (?) one before entering the house? The pipe next to the water one is gas and I really don't like the difference between the two...

 

 

[Nickfromwales]

Just buy a stopcock key ( around 1000mm long iirc ) and you shall never lay on the pavement ever again.

 

https://www.screwfix.com/p/faithfull-stopcock-key-universal-1140mm/656RH?kpid=656RH&ds_rl=1244066&gclid=CjwKCAjwo7iiBhAEEiwAsIxQEdTh58QlJMtgXjKI7eQqETR6Nq7CqmY3F4KvCvpcOzG9-xfOaW0I7RoCIPIQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

Leave the inside one well alone until you're ready to get access for a swap to a new one

[Pocster]

3 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

you shall never be laid on the pavement ever again.

🙄🙄🙄

[Nickfromwales]

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[Nickfromwales]

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[Nickfromwales]

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[Nickfromwales]

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[Pocster]

Sorry @Nickfromwales your posts don’t seem to be appearing correctly. Wonder if I can do what you’ve done but with other 4 letter words ? 🤔

[oldkettle]

51 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

Leave the inside one well alone until you're ready to get access for a swap to a new one

 

Thank you Nick

 

The pipe itself - is it copper, just old, or is it something else?

[Nickfromwales]

2 hours ago, oldkettle said:

 

Thank you Nick

 

The pipe itself - is it copper, just old, or is it something else?

Looks like copper everywhere, but sometimes there can be other “interesting” pipe material rising from the ground. I’ve found all sort over the years. 
TBH if it’s not leaking, leave alone. When the time comes for you to expose it all and replace the stopcock we’ll still all be here to answer. 
We’ll all be a bit older, and a bit grumpier, so please make allowances   

[oldkettle]

4 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

Looks like copper everywhere, but sometimes there can be other “interesting” pipe material rising from the ground. I’ve found all sort over the years. 
TBH if it’s not leaking, leave alone. When the time comes for you to expose it all and replace the stopcock we’ll still all be here to answer. 
We’ll all be a bit older, and a bit grumpier, so please make allowances   

 

Fair enough. It's just if it's lead I'd rather deal with this ASAP in spite of costs.

[Nickfromwales]

29 minutes ago, oldkettle said:

 

Fair enough. It's just if it's lead I'd rather deal with this ASAP in spite of costs.

But it’ll be lead all the way to the street if so   

[oldkettle]

51 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

But it’ll be lead all the way to the street if so   

 

As I said above, I can see plastic at the meter. But yes, it may go quite far, it's a roughly a 20m run. 

[Nickfromwales]

23 minutes ago, oldkettle said:

 

As I said above, I can see plastic at the meter. But yes, it may go quite far, it's a roughly a 20m run. 

The replacement MDPE ( blue pipe ) stopcocks out at the street are supplied with about 300mm of pipe each side. These get couplers on them to whatever they existing supply pipework is, as most are designed to be retro-fit upgrades and need to be able to couple onto whatever they find is existing. 

 

[oldkettle]

2 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

The replacement MDPE ( blue pipe ) stopcocks out at the street are supplied with about 300mm of pipe each side. These get couplers on them to whatever they existing supply pipework is, as most are designed to be retro-fit upgrades and need to be able to couple onto whatever they find is existing. 

 

 

Cr.p

 

So it does look like lead? No need for another picture?

[Nickfromwales]

On 30/04/2023 at 22:18, oldkettle said:

 

Cr.p

 

So it does look like lead? No need for another picture?

I don't know unless I'm actually there scraping at it, tbh.

Like I said, I've seen all sorts over the years, and everything in between!! 

[oldkettle]

An update on this

 

Got a moling company to deal with pipe replacement. It started well, the quote was reasonable and the weather was nice. And then they discovered a massive (3m by 2m+?) concrete "something" at the bottom of the garden, they couldn't find a way around it, goes almost under the conifers on the border. They suspect it's an old obviously unused septic tank. I was surprised that there is just about 50mm of soil covering it. It's not clear to me how the existing pipe / drainage was laid, maybe they were in first (but then why have a septic tank).

 

Will have to come back with a digger to sort this out. Another grand on top of the quote - but has to be done. I did consider hiring my own but with possible utilities all around it feels too risky.

And they said the existing pipe is steel.