Clark Drain CD880 140mm x 115mm x 75mm Stop Tap Stopcock Cover/lid PVC Locking Surround Box

Product Information

It may take a few turns to stop the water. You'll usually get to a point where you can’t turn it anymore. You shouldn’t need to use excessive force to turn it further. A gravity or low-pressure system, when there is a tank in the loft that supplies the toilets and basins, will have the mains stop tap that supplies water to the kitchen sink, plus a stop tap coming out of the tank for the hot-water flow and for the cold-water flow too. To protect your home, you should always have a working inside stop valve.Use this as the main way to turn your water on and off. If you’ve got a water-meter, there’ll be a modern plastic tap next to the meter. Mark says: ‘A modern water-meter comes with a plastic stop tap, which doesn’t corrode.’ In other words, it should work and is relatively simple to turn off by hand or a universal stop tap key (available from any hardware store) if it’s too deep to reach. Your property will likely have several stop valves inside your home. You will likely be able to turn off your water for the room or area of your property where you have a leak, or you’re doing some plumbing. This means you can continue to use your water in the remaining rooms of your property.

If the T-bar handle is across the pipe, this should mean the mains are shut. If it’s in line with the pipe, the mains should be open.You have several options if you cannot find your inside stop valve or if it's faulty and needs to be repaired. These covers are designed to protect meter boxes and other surface boxes from damage, whether the damage is caused by weather conditions, general wear and tear, or vandalism. Use thes surface meter box covers over meter boxes, fire hydrants and much more. Without isolation valves or a working stop tap, your plumber may need to drain the entire system before making any repairs. This takes time and, as plumbers often charge by the hour, often means higher charges. On the plus side, once your system is drained, it’s a great opportunity to install new isolation valves or a new stop tap.

Using your inside stop valve should be easy and you should be able to operate the valve yourself. How to turn your water off using the inside stop valve The external valve controls the flow from the water main that serves your street to the supply pipe into your house. It may also take a few minutes for the water to stop running from your taps, as there will be some water left in the pipes from before you turned the water off. You'll usually get to a point where you can’t turn it anymore. You shouldn’t use force to turn it further. Mark does not recommend using lubricating oil, WD40 or similar to try to loosen a stop tap. He explained: ‘Oil and WD40 work on rust, so on ferrous metals. There’s nothing worse than arriving to find a customer has sprayed the stop tap with WD40, as it just makes it slippery to work with.’An accredited plumber can use freezing and clamping as a short-term solution. This process creates an ice plug that lasts for around 30 minutes, allowing you to extend or repair pipework without draining the whole system. We all have a list of things to do around the home that we may or may not get round to. Filing paperwork, sorting out the linen cupboard and in all likelihood, testing your stop tap is on that list too. The problem is, while not being able to find a record of your accounts or your towels being in a mess might be annoying, failing to test your stop tap can be disastrous. The diagram below shows the typical pipework for most homes and who is responsible for maintaining it.