Bit of a tricky one with an outside toilet.

[Elder]

Moved into a house in February which still has a functional outside loo. But the water fittings in loo were weaping somewhere.

Tried to turn off water in the loo, but the stop tap was seized for hand turning.

I left it until I had some time to deal with. Tried turning it with a stilson and the drip turned into a woosh from the joint above.

In the end I just opened up the joint and there was no olive, but plenty of old PTFE. I stuck in a spare olive I had tightened down and at least the leak is now sorted.

Plan was to turn off water, cut pipe and fit garden tap, and remove loo and turn into shed.

But I have one old broken off stop stap on the old lead pipe. One seized stop tap on the lead to copper adaptor.

Can't see any other way to turn off the water except possible the whole house supply and unfortunatly the house indoor stop tap is now behind the washing machine.

Apart from it being a wet and messy(physically and aesthetically) way, is there any reason why I can't cut off the pipe above the seized stop tap, get wet while it gushes again and fit a 15mm push on stop tap or isolator valve to the stub of pipe?

I can then turn it off and remove the rest of the system at my leisure and stick on the garden tap once I have the room.

Thoughts? Can't afford a plumber but don't fancy messing with the old soft lead piping that looks to be very short at the ground level, and a push on stop tap would do the job.

[dom]

I'd make the indoor stop tap easier to access - one day you'll be glad you did.

[Elder]

That I also plan to do, but I don't mind flooding the toilet/yard while doing the quick fix, the other will take time and planning and maybe even the help of a plumber.

[dom]

Hmmm - I'm very iffy about doing something non-reversible like slicing off the only functioning stop tap. OTOH you probably have the option of hammering the lead pipe flat if it all goes horribly wrong.

Have you considered a pipe freezing kit?

[Dave Liquorice]

behind

Agreed but what about the street stop tap? With an inaccesable indoor stop tap I'd make sure the street one was functional and accessable, might need to buy a key. If you find that it is non-functional it's the water boards responsibilty to fix, I wouldn't go forcing and breaking it though.

[Elder]

Neither of the existing stop taps function, the one on the lead has the tap snapped off, the one on the adaptor/copper is totally siezed but the upper one has a 15mm compression fitting hence I was able add an olive to stop the leak.

[Elder]

I could do with finding where that is, because I have no idea. It maybe close to or on my property though as the house hold the land tenancies for the a lot of the other properties on the row.

I just hope it isn't actually within the property boundary because both the front and back yards are shale covered and could be tricky to find it.

[NT]

If you are gonig to work live on it, you could at least squash the pipe on the feed side of your cut first, would make life a lot easier.

NT

[Dave Liquorice]

Call the water board and ask them to come and find it.

It should be at or very near the point where the incoming main crosses the boundary, normally on the "public" side". But they can be almost anywhere, ours is 20 yds down the road buried in the verge. There is small concrete post with WATER more or less marking it's position but that'll be hidden by the long summer grass soon...

[spamlet]

Ask the water board to put you on a meter. They will then find the stopcock in the road, and replace it with a nice new one that is easy to turn. And you might save some money too.

Invariably, if you find the valve yourself it will be at the bottom of a hole that the ants have filled right to the top with the sand the nearby pavement was laid on (and after you've cleared it out, they can fill it back up gain pretty quickly too!)

The 'proper' t-bar tool is pretty cheap and indispensable when your indoor stopcock snaps off after years of abuse. (One thing: do leave the bar exactly where you know it is, and not in a garage to which you can't find the key in a hurry, in the dark when your bathroom and kitchen are rapidly filling up!) You can also make a tap turner from a piece of pipe with a slot cut out of the end - and a shorter one for reaching that tap behind the washing machine. Tip: when replacing such taps, make sure you point them in a direction you can access in a straight line!)

S

[The Natural Philosopher]

Ive done this on one occasion. (workled on live full pressure flows) Before the house was in any way finished! And with live hosepipes 100 yards down the garden...

You get VERY wet, but it works

[Andrew Mawson]

behind

leisure

recover mine from eldest son!

AWEM

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Carl - I'd think twice about removing the outside loo. If you want to turn it into a storage area just box it in with a removable housing.

I've re-jigged mine so it is on a separate feed (as much as possible) from the rest of the mains water to the house, so I can cut that off for maintenance etc, but still have a working loo and hand basin. They're also handy when gardening - or having a barby. ;-)

[Elder]

=A0 London SW

If it was in anyway serviceable I would. No sink, huge but basic porcelain pan with no seat/lid that looks like a modern one wouldn't fit (seat would fall inside), and high level iron cistern that flushes rusty water and doesn't return to closed very well. This is original turn of the last century I think, as all the houses have them

Pan is so big that almost all the room is taken in the space. It basically has room to get inside and close the door. Taking it all out would double usable space.

Also, the building also contains a coal hole, by removing the cistern and putting in a lintel, I could have the coal hole and toilet combined and nearly double the size again.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Sounds like mine - original two piece bowl and Thomas T header. Now lovingly restored. Original feature - becomes worth having after everyone has got rid. If the seat really is larger than a modern one a local architectural salvage place might help.

I suppose it depends on what you want to store if the actual floor area is important. Mine takes up about half the floor area - so still room to keep garden tools in. Unless you have a motor mower. ;-)

I find the more storage I have, the more 'junk' I keep. ;-)

[Andy Dingley]

Be wary of those on old lead! Nasty habit of splitting the pipe. Useful, but be prepared.

DAMHIKT

[Frank Erskine]

I read that as:- "or having a baby".

[RobertL]

me too.

R