Seized stop tap. Cutting into mains to replace. Day in the life of a Plumber / Gas Engineer

REPLACING A STOP TAP, Stopcock so we can replace a combi boiler. Today we're working in Yeadon, in Leeds. We're taking out an old Vaillant boiler, we're gonna fit a new boiler in here. We've got a little bit of a problem; the main stop tap is seized up, so we need to turn the water off to do this. So I'll show you upstairs, I'll show you the stop tap. We're gonna have a look at that now.

You can see it in there, but it's all seized up and I can't turn it. And I don't want to start taking these cupboards out in the bathroom, and cut into that, so what I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna [snatch 00:00:51] the mains. So what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna open all the taps in the house and I'm gonna cut into the pipe. So I'll show you that now.

So this pipe here is the feed into this boiler. So we're gonna cut this and I'm gonna put a stop tap in, so I'm gonna just prepare this. I'm gonna leave this open so that means there's no pressure on there, then once it's cut I can push that on and there's no mains pressure pushing against it. Then I'm gonna connect that to an pipe and I'm gonna put all outside, so all the water, once I've cut it and put it on, the water can go outside and then I can tighten it up with the spanner.

So all the taps are open. We've got an outside tap here as well. That, as well, is all open, so we shouldn't get too much pressure through here, but just in case I've got, somewhere, I've got push-fit stop end that I can push on if it starts to be a bit too much. So just get that ready. I've got my nut there ready just to push on. The adjustable spanner to right size. I've got a new pair of cutters, so it's got a good blade in it. ... it's a bit tight, is that. So what I'm gonna do, just gonna do a little off a bit.

Some people might say, "Why don't you freeze it?" But I don't have a freeze kit, so this is how I'm gonna do it. ... So if you see there, water come out, there's some water here coming back. That's from hot taps.

So now all I need to do is turn the tap off. And then just go around and close all these taps back up. I'm just gonna pop into house, I'm just gonna turn ones off in house.

So that's it. Job done. Hope that was of some use. Thanks for watching.