Completing work in void house

[Matt0029]

If doing work on a vacant house. When finished do you see it as good practice to turn the water off. I usually do. I'm confident in my work but see this as good practice. Can I ask for others opinions? Thanks

 

[Aquarius]

Sounds logical. However, if you’re confident in your work, and no risk of freezing, then don’t see the harm in leaving it on. A risk of leaking gland nut as well.

 

[Chuck]

IMO, if the house is unoccupied the stopcock needs to be off. There's no upside to leaving it on. It also guarantees that the new occupants will know where the stopcock is in case of a future emergency.

A leak from a blown joint in an occupied house where the supply is turned off within minutes will probably cause a few thousand pounds in damage. Leave it running for 24 hours and it'll be a hundred times that.

The latter scenario has just happened to a block of flats where one of my family lives. A joint on the main supply failed in the roof. No-one, including the freeholder, knew where the main stopcock was and it took 20 hours to find (buried in the road). The structure remains sound but everything else (floors, ceilings, walls) in every flat is having to be stripped out. It's expected to be roughly a year before anybody can move back in.

 

[king of pipes]

Turn it off in my view .

 

[IND_Nick]

We do a lot of full house redevelopments, the houses are normally empty for 6 months ish while the work is done. As a rule the water is always turned off at the end of each day, normally with a lever valve after the stopcock, just so it is simple for the other trades.
Obviously leaks can occur and if they did while the property is vacant overnight the damage would be significant.
On many occasions the leaks have been caused but other trades, especially plasterers!!!, ha. And they haven't noticed until the water has tracked down to the floor below.