Replace stopcock with isolation valve?

[Cavester]

Hi all,

I had a water leak behind a false wall where a joint had been wiped to connect lead with copper. I had a plumber come out who replaced the lead for me.

However there was also an old lead pipe stopcock which used to be the mains entering the house and that was turned off but it connected to the new pipe. I told the plumber that he may as well take that out as I thought it was broke as the water was flowing in fine, thinking that that old supply was inline with the new which now has its stopcock in the garage feeding from the front of the street.

the work was done and water turned on and all fine except 3 hours later I'm thinking... I can't remember hearing that constant flow of water through the pipes before?... Then the penny dropped! The water wasn't coming in there as I thought it was in line with the new supply, but was actually flowing out! God knows where it has been flowing for 3 hours but I hope it's not under the floor somewhere! After searching i believe this is called a dead leg?

anyway question now is can I just get an isolation valve fitted to replace the old stopcock that was preventing the water going back out the old inlet (will it be as strong as a stopcock)? Or do I just terminate them both?

thanks in advance.

 

[kay-jay]

cut out the dead leg is best option

 

[PlumbBobBob]

i agree cut as much as possible of the dead leg away and cap it off.

 

[AWheating]

cut out the dead leg as suggested above.

 

[Cavester]

Ok, next dumb question is...

plumber is not going to get out today so is this something acompetent DIY'er can do and if so, how?

i was hoping an isolation valve would have done it and then I could have just replaced a copper join with that.

cheers.

 

[Dotty]

Is it on the lead or the copper?

 

[Cavester]

Copper is where the existing joint I am referring to is. The lead is connected to copper under the floor with a lead lock.

 

[Cavester]

This is under the floor coming from the pipe in the previous photo above....

 

[Dotty]

Right. With you now. Which pipe is your constantly running leg?

 

[Cavester]

In the first picture (rotate 90 degrees clockwise to get correct orientation) the constant cold water feed is the bottom of the two pipes you see going off to one side.

it is currently going into a T piece, except I don't want the water going down (back out via the old inlet).