isolating mains water to building stop valve

Serval · Feb 20, 2018

Ive got a installer out fitting a new kitchen and doing a few mods to the existing pipe work. one of which requires turning off the mains water supply to the building in order to move the location of the cold feed stopcock located in the kitchen.

The fitter said he wasn't able to isolate the supply to the building and he'd have to get a special key in order to do this....

I went and had a look at the meter/mains valve myself and it looks like this

unless im missing something is it not just a case of turning the handle to isolate the supply?

I noticed that there are some tabs that can be seen behind the main body/face of the meter so maybe that's something?

If anyone's familiar with this type of valve/meter pictured it would be good to know what might be needed and where i might be able to get it if need be

Scott_D · Feb 20, 2018

The brass handle to the right

Riley · Feb 20, 2018

Unless it’s seized and he’s getting something to help him turn it

snowhead · Feb 20, 2018

If the Installer can't cope with turning off the street stopcock, then should he/she be altering pipework in the house?

For special key read, piece of pipe or even timber with a slot cut in the end, test it on the internal stop tap first to get the cut correct.

ShaunCorbs · Feb 20, 2018

Do you live in a flat or house ?

And when the cold water is running do the dials turn on the meter ?

Serval · Feb 21, 2018

ShaunCorbs said:
Do you live in a flat or house ?

And when the cold water is running do the dials turn on the meter ?

House.

And yes, when the cold is running the dials on the meter turn

king of pipes · Feb 21, 2018

If the stopcock is seized contact your water company to free it off i had the same problem a few weeks ago Essex and suffolk water snapped the valve off trying to close it so had to replace it , once this is sorted you can then work on the internal stopcock and pipework . cheers kop