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Hi all,
Every now and again I come across the age old problem of the internal stop tap not working, like most of us out there, the easy solution is to open the external chamber, turn off water, make repairs turn back on again but BEWARE after a recent visit to an empty property (customer in hospital long term) I was faced with leaks galore caused by vandals. After many attempts to switch water off and contain the leaks I found myself outside at the ci chamber digging out allsorts of muck before turning off the water. I was then able to make my repairs, no problem !
Well there was no problem until I attempted to turn the water back on again, the tap must have sheared due to age. I know the customer was long term in hospital but her daughter visited the property regularly to clean up so the water had to be back on.
I phoned utilities who told me the external tap is their property and i should not be touching it, it could potentially lead to prosecution, so i asked how else was i to make my repairs if i could not turn the external tap off answer was pinch pipe (ok if its mdpe) but its lead, i said well you have to dig on the customers boundary and put a new external stop tap in, this still meant i needed to isolate some how. I have replaced thousands of lead mains under the governments scheme and all i used to do was dig to the salt glaze chamber and turn off tap , make adjustments and turn on again.
Now it seems you can not do this . Fortunately because the property was empty and I said it was a bad leak they had a team round the same day and replaced the tap , otherwise it could have cost £500+ that i would of had to pay .
So has anyone else had this problem , I have tried to find ways to overcome this, sometimes i have been succesful, after speaking to a company in London recently who freeze pipework, they did not recommend freezing the incoming service unless you can guarentee two machines on it like an anaesthatist in a hospital operation. Ideas and thoughts welcomed!!!
Every now and again I come across the age old problem of the internal stop tap not working, like most of us out there, the easy solution is to open the external chamber, turn off water, make repairs turn back on again but BEWARE after a recent visit to an empty property (customer in hospital long term) I was faced with leaks galore caused by vandals. After many attempts to switch water off and contain the leaks I found myself outside at the ci chamber digging out allsorts of muck before turning off the water. I was then able to make my repairs, no problem !
Well there was no problem until I attempted to turn the water back on again, the tap must have sheared due to age. I know the customer was long term in hospital but her daughter visited the property regularly to clean up so the water had to be back on.
I phoned utilities who told me the external tap is their property and i should not be touching it, it could potentially lead to prosecution, so i asked how else was i to make my repairs if i could not turn the external tap off answer was pinch pipe (ok if its mdpe) but its lead, i said well you have to dig on the customers boundary and put a new external stop tap in, this still meant i needed to isolate some how. I have replaced thousands of lead mains under the governments scheme and all i used to do was dig to the salt glaze chamber and turn off tap , make adjustments and turn on again.
Now it seems you can not do this . Fortunately because the property was empty and I said it was a bad leak they had a team round the same day and replaced the tap , otherwise it could have cost £500+ that i would of had to pay .
So has anyone else had this problem , I have tried to find ways to overcome this, sometimes i have been succesful, after speaking to a company in London recently who freeze pipework, they did not recommend freezing the incoming service unless you can guarentee two machines on it like an anaesthatist in a hospital operation. Ideas and thoughts welcomed!!!
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