Plumbing advice for Dumbarton homes
How to find your stop valve and turn the water off
There is one valve in your home that controls every drop of water coming in. Most people could not point to it. Many have never touched it.
Spend five minutes on this today. If a pipe ever bursts, those five minutes will be the best you ever spent on the house.
What you are looking for
A stop valve, also called a stopcock, looks like a tap with no spout. It sits in line on a pipe, with a brass body and a handle shaped like a small propeller. Newer homes may have a lever valve instead, with a flat handle that turns a quarter of a turn.
It is fitted where the cold supply enters the building, before the pipe branches to anything else.
Where to look, in order
- Under the kitchen sink, at the back, low down
- In the cupboard next to the sink, behind the washing machine or dishwasher
- Under the stairs
- In a downstairs toilet or utility room
- By the front door, sometimes under a small hatch in the floor
- In a hall or landing cupboard, which is common in flats
- Beside the boiler or the hot water cylinder
In houses that have had a new kitchen fitted, the valve is often boxed in behind a unit. Look for a cut-out or a loose panel in the back of the sink cupboard. If you have to empty a cupboard to reach it, keep that cupboard clear enough that you could do it in the dark.
Turning it off, and testing it
Turn the handle clockwise. It may take several full turns. Do not use force beyond a firm hand.
Now open the cold tap at the kitchen sink. The flow should slow and stop within a few seconds. If it only slows, the valve is not sealing, and that is worth knowing before the day you need it.
Turn it back on anticlockwise until it stops, then close it a quarter of a turn. That quarter turn keeps the spindle from seizing in the fully open position.
Do this once in spring and once in autumn. A valve that is moved twice a year stays free. One that is left for twenty years turns into a solid lump of brass.
When the valve will not move
This is common, above all in older houses. Do not reach for a pair of grips and heave. The spindle can snap, and then you have a leak at the one valve that was meant to stop leaks.
Try a few drops of light oil where the spindle enters the body and leave it for an hour. Loosen the small nut round the spindle by half a turn, work the handle gently back and forth, then nip the nut up again. If a few drops weep from the nut afterwards, tighten it a touch more.
If it still will not shift, leave it and ask a plumber to replace it. It is a short job. The plumber turns the water off outside, cuts the old valve out and fits a new one, often a lever type that is far easier to use. Our leak repairs page has the form.
The toby outside
There is a second valve outside, under a small metal or plastic cover in the pavement, the path or the garden near your boundary. In Scotland it is widely known as the toby.
It shuts off the supply before it reaches your own pipe, so it is the fallback when the inside valve fails or the leak is on the pipe coming in. It sits well below ground. Some can be reached by hand, and others need a long key from a plumbers' merchant.
Lift the cover now and have a look. They fill with silt and can be hard to find under gravel or tarmac. If yours is buried, broken or missing, ask Scottish Water about it.
Flats and shared supplies
In a block of flats, each flat should have its own stop valve inside, often in a cupboard by the door or under the sink. There may also be a valve for the whole stair or the whole building. Find out where it is and who has access.
Be careful with the outside valve in a shared building. It may turn off your neighbours as well. Knock on doors before you close it, unless water is pouring.
Some older properties share one supply pipe between several homes. Citizens Advice Scotland notes that owners share the duty to maintain common pipes in a tenement. If you are not sure what you share, the title deeds or the factor should be able to tell you. See who fixes which pipe.
Other valves worth knowing
- Isolating valves. Small valves with a screwdriver slot on the pipes to taps, toilets and appliances. Slot across the pipe is off. They let you shut off one fitting and leave the water on elsewhere.
- Gate valves. Wheel-handled valves near a cylinder or loft tank. They shut off the stored water.
- The washing machine valves. Small levers, usually blue for cold. Turn them off before you pull the machine out.
Show everyone in the house where the main stop valve is, children included. Then if the worst happens while you are out, somebody knows what to do.
Stiff, hidden or not shutting off?
A stop valve that does not work is no use to anyone. If yours is seized or lets water past, it will fail you on the one day you need it. Replacing it is quick and far cheaper than the flood it prevents.
Say what your stop valve is doing and where in Dumbarton you live. A question costs you nothing.