We’re about to have a new patio built and whilst clearing the area discovered that what I thought for years was a drain cover was actually an outside tap in a hole (hole is about 60cm deep).

It’s deep enough that the digger shouldn’t touch it when leveling the area but I’m paranoid it’ll leak as soon as they’ve finished building so I’d rather disconnect it inside the house.

Problem is the stop tap under the kitchen sink does nothing to it and there’s no other visible pipe in the house. Turning it off at the meter stops it so it’s definitely our supply, but T’d off somewhere between the road and the stop tap in the kitchen (bathrooms etc are all supplied from a pipe that goes from the stop tab back into the concrete floor in the kitchen).

It’s leaked before apparently according to our neighbours but looks like that was the tap as that’s on a new plastic stub of piping so whatever is in the ground is likely 45 years old but currently sound.

WWSTWD?

Leave it for now and maybe rip up the concrete looking for it when we do the kitchen?

If ever it was going to spring a leak it’s when diggers and wacker plates are going over it and pulling shrubs out!

You get stop ends for that type of pipe so you could take tap off and close off pipe!

Then restore or bury at end of build!

Outside tap is handy though 😀

Yea. I installed one on the kitchen wall when we moved in.

Taking the tap off and putting a cap on the end would be a 5min job.

It’s more that I don’t like the idea of a length of buried pipe under the garden that goes nowhere! We would have no idea that it was leaking until the garden turned to a bog and/or the water bill went through the roof!

I suspect by the time the pipe gives up you’ll be long gone 😀

Dead legs of pipe are never good, the lack of flow and stagnation can cause legionella and other nasties to come into contact with your drinking water supply.

Hadn’t thought of that, although it’s not killed us yet and being mains water it’s sanitised, chlorinated and under pressure so even if it was leaking nothing can get in and breed. Legionaries is more of a problem in things like AC units and cooling towers where it’s warm and damp and the air brings in bacteria.

I’ll plug it and leave it. The only other option is to rip the kitchen out and dig up the concrete arround the stop tap till we find the T!

Are you sure it isn’t the system drain cock. I have 2 taps under an inspection cover on my boundary before the house stopcock. One tap turns the supply off but the other drains the cold water system. Why would anyone bury a tap that is used regularly like an outdoor tap 2 ft deep?

It’s next to the grape vine which is very thirsty which probably explains it. The tap itself is only just under the cover, it’s just in a 2ft deep brick walled hole which I did wonder of the idea was to flood it from the tap and let it soak into the roots.

It’s definitely fresh water from the mains, stops when I turn it off at the meter out in the road.

Ahh. No, misunderstood what you were saying, but that’s unlikely as it’s in the back garden which slopes down to the house, and the meter is in the road which is further down again. Probably only a meter difference but definitely not the low point.

Are there no other covers/manholes between the stop tap in the road and the house?

If turning the tap off in the road shuts the water off but the one in the house doesn’t then chances are it T’s off before the mains goes into the house.

Extend the pipe to outside the patio area and move the tap?

Plenty of sewer manholes but no supply. AFAIK the pipe comes straight in under the concrete slab of the house to the kitchen. If there was a valve it’s been buried under something else since.

Dead legs of pipe are never good, the lack of flow and stagnation can cause legionella 

Utter bollox.

I presume it’s t’ d off the incoming supply would that be right? If so, and you’ve got a digger why not just dig for it? Cap it off as close to its feed as possible and it will be fine. Many many different fittings available. The fact it’s 2ft/600 down makes me think it’s close to the service pipe.

Okay, think I understand now.

If it was me and I wanted a bit of piece of mind, while the diggers were in I would run a small bit of drain from the hole with the tap in away to the outside of the new patio, somewhere you can see the end without too much bother (and falling away, obvs)

If a leak does occur then at least you can a) spot it, and b) it should divert the water away so it doesn’t wreck the new patio.

Then look for the pipe and cap off accordingly when you do the kitchen.

Or, if feasible, just run a new stretch of pipe from your mains meter to your kitchen stop valve.

That way digging for wherever it’s t’d isn’t an issue. Depends on your situation. For our place that is the easiest to do when we get the lead piping replaced.