Is it a problem at all to add a stop tap if a house doesn't have one?

[Hannay]

We have just moved in to a 1934 Semi- and I am getting round a few simple DIY tasks, including a couple of plumbing-part renewals such as modern pipe/u-bend/fittings to kitchen sink, rinse sink etc as preventative maintenance! Nothing complex or specialist, that's for you expert guys!

But in the process I have found that the house has no interior stop tap, which I was expecting to find in the under-sink cupboard, but nope. And I searched all-through, under stuff, behind stuff, removed cupboard trim panels looking for pipe-run clues, more too, but nothing!

So I want to find out whether it is a normal job, or a special/complicated job, or a not-now-possible job, to ask a plumber to engineer a stop tap in to the house presumably at the point where the supply first emerges?

Any problem?

My concerns are of course for a need to be able to quickly shut off the supply in the event of a burst/leak/failure/etc emergency, which at the moment I could only do by calling someone out to shut it off out on the pavement .

And I have to add I've now discovered that that's the access point for a shared supply to both our house and to our neighbour ... so if I shut it off because of an emergency or even just something routine like fixing a leak, they lose supply too! Manageable with co-operation of course, but not ideal.

But back to the point, and If I call a plumber asking to come and install a stop tap, will I be asking him to do something that's entirely reasonable or is it a "Sorry, too late!" request/job?

If it adds anything, I've checked with a number of neighbours (all 1934 builds) and only our two share a supply. All of the houses are virtually the same floorplans though with alterations over the years for some, and usually their stop taps are in a downstairs toilet but in our house that space was long-ago given over to expanding the kitchen. Seems rather remiss of the builder doing that work not to have relocated the stop tap from there to another location and just removed the facility altogether, but there you are!

We're also wanting to have a water meter installed, however to throw more petrol on the flames we apparently can't have that done if there isn't a stop tap internally ... so that's a second reason to try and get that done: emergency and smaller bills!

If someone more knowledgeable therefore could comment/advise on achievability from a practical viewpoint I'd be grateful, thanks, and hopefully then be able approach a couple of decent plumbers to see about making a start.

 

[Ben-gee]

You would need to turn it off in the street to install a stop tap and ideally find where the mains enters your property . So would need to liaise with neighbour.

Difficulty would depend upon how much space there is, accessibility and type of piping used for your main.

Could be very easy or a complete pig of a job, but well within the capabilities of most plumbers.

 

[Hannay]

Thanks so much Ben-gee, good to know it is not a total no-go!

Neighbour's already aware, and happy to co-operate in finding/fixing things.

First thing however is a make-sure thorough new search sometime at the weekend (not at home right now) to make certain that there's absolutely no sign of a stop tap anywhere, because it just seems so unlikely to be left without one! (despite already having been sure after my previous thorough search!)

If that still doesn't throw anything up however, then anything further is way past my abilities to deal with so I'll be getting a Pro in to start the ball rolling.

Thanks again!

 

[snowhead]

Has the neighbour got a stop tap, if so did they have it put in or does it look original?
Yours may be in a similar position.
With a shared supply from the street, it's not uncommon to have a stop tap in the yard / garden near to where the pipe enters the property, instead of hidden away under a sink or in a cupbaord.

 

[Hannay]

Hi Snowhead, thanks for adding .. its appreciated.

Yes, the neighbour sharing the supply has a stop tap, as does the other-side neighbour who, along with all other houses nearby, has their own separate supply too - must be a reason we-two alone had to share a supply back in 1934!

The share-neighbour's stop tap is in their downstairs toilet and looks like it has always been there.

The houses round-about all have the same room layout, just mirrored left-right for being Semis. Ours was modernised at some point in the past 10 years (guess) which included expanding the kitchen by doing away with the downstairs toilet. Today that end of the enlarged area is effectively the dining room and is therefore clear, not used for more kitchen and more cabinetry to conceal anything.

So if there was a stop tap in the house originally it would presumably have been there as with other houses, and I would have expected it to be discreetly boxed-in or suitably relocated when the kitchen was enlarged. Today however, no sign at that previous-toilet location.

I have checked externally too as that is an exterior wall, but there's no sign of any tap/flap/housing anywhere there, nor in the driveway between the houses.

So I'm left with either a stop-tap relocated to somewhere crazy that I haven't yet thought of, or just capped-off and buried to get it out of the way when the refurb was done!

But surely no decent builder would do that however? Do away with a stop-tap as an expedient to their work?? Blind-eye???

And that's the reason I want to double-check my earlier thorough search just to make sure that there genuinely isn't something/someplace I have overlooked ... but in reality there's only a limited amount of searching to do before you have covered all the bases anyway.

Either that or rent a time machine for a couple of hours to go back between 1934 and, say, ten years ago just to see what was where, and when!

 

[Ben-gee]

Presume you have looked under kitchen units?
Is there a corner base unit , some of these leave a void in the corner which I’ve seen stopcock in (albeit with a hole cut for access) - in this search a smart phone set to record video is your friend pointing it to where you can’t get your head!

 

[Hannay]

Yes indeed, pulled the plinth panel too to be sure, but nothing.

However, yes there are two dummy corners that are just cosmetic and not actually accessed/accessible from adjoining units, and that I didn't bother to try checking because they are entirely boxed-in spaces ... but they will now be the very first thing I check!

Thanks.

 

[Hannay]

With thanks again to Ben-gee and snowhead for their input, and in case someone with a similar puzzle comes across this in a search of their own ...

After further headscratching and repeated searches with still no sign of the stop tap that I was convinced must be somewhere, I decided that Sherlock Holmes was on to something when saying that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

For me, the "whatever remains" was eventually just one thing - a 5" x 7" section of the back panel of the kitchen's under-sink cupboard.

That very small section of fibreboard covered 7 inches of water main from its disappearance up behind the bottom of the cupboard to its re-appearance 7" higher when emerging through an opening in the back of the cupboard where the pipes were routed inside it and then onward to make the connections, though without a stop tap anywhere there to be seen.

With not enough room/light/hands to get a camera/mirror even vaguely close to a place/angle that would afford me a view in to the narrow little gap, and by this point totally convinced that this was the "improbable" that would turn out to be the "truth" - more accurately the location of the stop tap - I cut the bottom of the opening a few inches deeper and when I lifted it away there sat the stop tap behind it installed lower down the Main supply!

So, whether it was the builder, a subcontract plumber, or maybe the kitchen fitter even, SOMEone had hooked-up the plumbing via a small window cut in the back panel just sufficient for the pipes/connectors/etc to pass through.

And seemingly they then congratulated themself on a job well done, and snugged the sink/cupboard unit fully back and in to place waiting to be locked-in by the floor tiling to follow ... which promptly shut the stop tap away completely out of view, hidden and unseen, unreachable, inoperable and effectively useless! For almost ten years, apparently!! How fortunate there hasn't been a burst/emergency in that time ...

So -

If you have lost a suspected stop tap and are here looking for clues, I suggest that you don't dismiss a single square inch of possible concealment ... and if you have looked everywhere that it can be, then it is to be found somewhere you think it can't be. Sherlock said as much.

 

[snowhead]

Well done,
BUT, does it work and then does it not leak afterwards or haven't you tried it yet??