We have a mains stop cock in the house that has seized open and we need to change it.

No other way of turning the water off ??

What’s the best way to do it?

Turn the water off further down the line.

Turn the water off in the road on the main inlet.

We traced it baxk to where the old stopcock would of been outside but it’s just an empty hole.

Are you on a meter? Should be a valve there. Or wait til it gets really cold

Further then. We had to turn the water off to about 4 houses to isolate ours.

Not on a meter.

We checked next door’s hole outside to and they have nothing either ?

We had to get ours turned off in the street to change ours. Scottish Water came out to do it without charge.

Are you sure the holes outside aren’t just full of dirt covering the stop tap? I’ve seen that happen.

We got given three options as ours is stuck open.

Replace the barrel if you can get a same size stopcock, swap the stopcock or leave the stuck one in open and add a new one above or below.

So far I’ve just been using the outside one as it’s a few feet from the back door.

If no way to turn off water. Have your new tap or guts ready and tools for everything. Freeze the pipe do the work wait for it to defrost to see if your plumbing skills are up to scratch.

Pipe freezing kit, (and a GoPro) if you’re brave, confident and fast.
edit – 1 minute too slow.

and this is a good time to remind people to wind all their pillar taps in and out at least twice a year to keep them functional.

Phone your water supplier.

They are obliged to maintain your outside stop tap and make sure it is working.

If you tell them that there isn’t one (or that you can’t find it) they will sort it out. (Free of charge)

And they will do it fast too, because once they have been notified of a problem, they are liable for any water damage in your property caused by the lack of a working outside stop tap.

If we’re moving into good advice with the benefit of hindsight, ( 😀 ) don’t leave them fully open against the stop either. Close it back 1/2 a turn.

Yes good practise to test your stop tap occasionally. I did last week and it didn’t shut off properly so I got it replaced. Best find out now not in an emergency.

Yup, probably full of dirt, needs digging out.

But i’d freeze the inlet and change it, often can just change the head of the stop cock to save trying to force pipework apart.

And as Stoner says like us they need exercise!

It’s sort of good advice to give all the valves in your house a turn at least once a year. But make sure you do it first thing on a working day. Not like someone i know who used to do it every new year’s day. So he would remember.
Oh, great idea. Get a leak on the day you can’t get hold of a plumber.

I this problem a few months ago. At first I thought there was no stopcock in the hole in the pavement, but actually the hole was just filled up with about 4 inches of dirt. After cleaning that out I found that the tap didn’t work anyway, but as the tap was outside of my boundary it was the waterboard’s responsibility to fix it, which they did quite promptly.

Ours were replaced years ago with plastic ones and surrounded by insulating to foam, they come around at least once a year to check them.

If you do do it OP, definitely video it. It may go well but what a waste if it doesn’t 🙂