Why is it no longer covered? or, why was he paying for the cover in the first place?
There's a well documented scam of water Co.s persuading people to take out cover for the supply pipe to the house.
MBQ
All possibly permutations. :)
Yes but he says house insurance...
Likely then, that some building work was being carried out and a pile of sand deposited nearby. Some lazy bastard or kids filled the hole in.
The neighbour's is the same (with what could be bits of lining stuff across; didn't spend too long because I think his wife was still in).
So maybe the people who last laid the paving slabs could be responsible, if they had to first remove the metal covers to do so.
They just have a tap valve - or they did do. Get a length of wood and cut a vee (V) into the end of it. The V will fit over the tap and you can turn the water off and back on again. I know, I've done it.
I didn't say sand was the best solution, only that it was a possible explanation for bringing the beach to a hole near you ;)
But there are undoubted benefits in having a thick layer whatever you use rather than a simple polystyrene cap. So if I were bothered about it I'd probably pack bubble wrap into the whole depth. (I'm not here bothered here as the stopcocks in the pavement seem to have survived the past 120 winters OK, though I suppose the new meters may prove a different story.)
Do you not have a stopcock in the house near where the water enters which isolates the house?
A lot of those stopcocks have square heads, you need the proper tool to turn those.
a length of passenger hand rail from your bus, drill a hole in the top for a tommy bar, then bash the other end to a square shape whilst heating it with a blow lamp... dont forget to put the still hot bar down your trousers when the gaffer comes into the workshop unexpectantly.....
sorry, was watching an old episode of on the busses last night, where they were nicking stop taps and immersion heaters from the depot, and needed to make a square stop c*ck wrench to turn the water off in the street.
BTW, when i moved into this house, i looked down the stop tap hole, and found a brick half protruding across the hole and about a foot below that what looked like tarmac.
i called severn trent water for advise, and was told someone would be out asap, next day a bod turns up in his ST landrover, and starts using a long bolster chisel and big hammer to break the brick up, then he used a sharp pointed bar to break up the tarmac, and one of those post hole digger spaded to remove the debris.
the stop c*ck was a good 5 feet down, so he had a lot to dig out, and it was tarmac at the top, from when the council re-laid the pavements in the street a year before, sand, gravel and mud below that.
My outside stopcock's about 14" down a bit of glazed clay pipe, and does accumulate a fair bit of damp soily-type stuff. The last time I went to deploy it there was a tiny white frog, perhaps
3/4" long, obviously unable to climb up to the surface, so I lashed together a sort of ramp (not quite a spiral staircase) to enable him/her (are they hermaphrodite?) to get away. Hopefully to the pond in the back garden.
Awwwwwwwwww Frank, you softie ;)
Our local water co (Cambridge Water, I'm sure Yorkshire water had a similar policy when we lived up there)) will fix a leak in the supply pipe on our land for free. (well there is some limit, like once every 5 years, but as you say, it's not that common occurrence, so that shouldn't be an issue)
Two points here.
It depends on the age of the house/pipe. Our supply pipe failed about 15 years ago - but it was about 85 years old at the time.
Our stopcock has been moved by the water company so that it is on our property. This was done when new plastic mains were installed.
Semtex
If it's an old stopcock, you may find that it turns but will not isolate the water due to the washer having disintegrated.
I've been told that Thames Water ( where I am) aren't interested in this, it's your problem and they won't help you. Its never happened to me.Mostly they've been replaced with new pavement meters and new valves.
Oh. Perhaps a stick with a socket on the end then.
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