How to find your stop tap before you need it

The internal stop tap turns off the cold water supply to the whole property. When something bursts, knowing where it is and that it still turns is the difference between a wet floor and a wet house.

Where it usually is

• Under the kitchen sink, at the back, often behind the waste pipe
• In a downstairs cloakroom or utility room
• Under the stairs, in an airing cupboard, or in a garage
• Close to where the water meter is, if you have one inside

In flats it is often in a service cupboard on the landing rather than inside the flat itself.

Check that it actually turns

A stop tap that has not moved in ten years frequently will not move at all, or will not seal once it does. Turn it fully off, check a cold tap runs dry, then turn it back on. If it is seized, or it drips afterwards, it is a small job now and a much larger one during a leak.

Label it

A luggage tag with “water off, turn this way” is not sophisticated, but it works at two in the morning for whoever is nearest, including a tenant or a house sitter.

The outside one too

There is usually an external stop tap at the boundary of the property, under a small metal or plastic cover in the path or pavement. It needs a key to turn and is worth knowing about, particularly if the leak is on the supply pipe rather than inside.