Cold water tap won't drain after mains turned off..???

[rhinatron]

Hi all,

Just moved into a new house with a leaky tap, and want to change the washer over. Easy, right?

Turned the mains off, but the cold (leaky) tap in downstairs loo won't stop running. All other taps (kitchen, bathroom etc. hold AND cold) went off. I left it running for maybe 15 minutes, and the pressure definitely dropped but there was still a decent stream.

It's a combi boiler and as far as i'm aware, there's no tank/cisten anyway (as there's no space for one!). We have a converted attic so no tank there, and the loo is under the stairs so no tank there?!

There must be a seperate feed from somewhere, but why then was this tap's pressure affected by the mains being turned off??? Any thoughts?

 

[sparky1508]

Try open all upstairs taps and see if it drains out. Sometimes it gets an air lock in pipes above so won't drain down. Imagine holding your finger over a length of pipe full of water and then release to let air in. Could be wrong but wouldn't hurt to give it a try.

 

[rhinatron]

Cheers Sparky, I opened all taps upstairs to check if they'd run dry and they had... !? Any other thoughts!??

 

[sparky1508]

Maybe close all but one tap upstairs open the tap that's running so only the 2 taps open and if you can try and blow a little through upstairs tap and see what happens downstair. All pipes should be joined if its on combi. Other than that it could be the main stopcock not being off fully or its knackered. Close taps and just try turning it on and off a few times maybe it's just a bit stiff and not closing fully.

 

[SimonG]

Stop tap not turning off fully. Try one in the street or tweak stop tap with a spanner, carefully.

 

[snowhead]

How old is the House?
It could have had an outside toilet with a branch off the feed into the house before the stopcock.

It may be a case of turn off in the street.