Water rsupply main tap - to turn it off

[dave]

I'd like to get one of those long lever things for turning the water supply tap off in the road outside our house (in case ever need to). What are these lever-things called? - so I can google/ebay to get one. Are those underground taps similar to kitchen tap - shaft on top to screw down the valve - I guess not :-)

Aside: My house insurance no longer covers the mains water supply pipe to the house - the cost of that single item cover was about 1/3 the entire buildings cover. So if that pipe fails I'd like to at least be able to turn it off. thanks

[Graham.]

[Graham.]

If I may hijack the thread and ask a related question...

My underground stopcock is under my driveway. It has a cast iron cover and an vertical earthenware pipe to keep the shaft from collapsing, however the tap is almost completely covered with compacted soil. What's the easiest way to clear it?

[brass monkey]

A long arm?

[damduck-egg]

loosen the soil by poking it with a piece of rod/broom stick or similar. Use a strong vacuum cleaner to suck loosened soil out of hole. repeat until tap is exposed. A similar method is to blast the soil with a hosepipe and suck the resultant slurry up with a vacuum cleaner that can handle liquids, most though don't hold too much liquid so emptying it may get a bit tedious although some designed for Pond cleaning can self empty when full through a separate discharge hose provided the end is lower than the tank.

G.Harman

[Bill Wright]

Threepenny bangers.

Bill

[Andy Burns]

I used a wet-n-dry vacuum cleaner (not the main house one, it'd already been relegated to garage duties) you'll get funny looks from passers-by ...

[Frank Erskine]

Angle grinder, of course.

[Dave Liquorice]

Stop tap/c*ck key and decent builders merchnat will have 'em.

In 50+ years of life I've only known one failure of the supply pipe and that was at the stop c*ck where a wiped lead joint had failed. As the street stop c*ck is the water boards responsibilty they repaired it for free.

[dave]

Thanks for the key link and related info. Seems it's a rare event to fail then, but as the key in inexpensive I may get one anyway.

[Bod]

The name of the tool is a plumbers turnkey. There's a selection in this link:

[Paul D Smith]

A small bent spoon taped to a metal rod if the pipe is very small and you can't use the other suggested methods. We have London clay where I like and this used to be a regular task until the water board replaced the tape with something effectively sealed from the surrounding earth.

Paul DS

[BartC]

I've just had a look at mine, to see what sort of tap was being used (they all seem to be different).

I found the hole was full to the top with sand! I've dug down about a foot removing sand and stones, but not near the bottom yet.

What reason could there possibly be for someone filling in the hole with sand?

[Huge]

It's likely been washed in there, possibly from a leak somewhere along the main.

[BartC]

Yes, but sand? There were even a few seashells in there!

(There is sand used for bedding down my drive, but I would have noticed if there was major leak undermining it. Besides there a few stones in there too.)

[Robin]

Someone worried about it freezing?

[mogga]

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Is it real sand, or just washings from the pavement/street? I've found the latter in several of these, but not filled to the top.

[BartC]

It's dirty, contaminated-looking sand. But mixed with a few stones, and some shells as I said.

When my neighbour goes out, I might have peek inside his.

[BartC]

Perhaps a polystyrene cap would make more sense (I'm sure I've seen something like that).

But if a pipe froze in the house causing a burst pipe, and it was necessary to turn off the water outside, how long would it take to dig it out?