Isolating bath tap feed

[rubble2]

Apologies if this is really obvious to everyone but I would appreciate some guidance please.

Our plumbing system is gravity fed with all cold water taps being fed from the mains apart from the bath supply which is fed from the tank in the loft.
I am in the process of a bathroom makeover and have removed the old bath and capped off the hot and cold bath tap feeds, it has now occurred to me that as the bath tap is the only feed directly off the water tank I cannot use the other taps to drain down the bath feed when I uncap it ready to fit the new bath supply.

I have checked in the loft and (hopefully) correctly traced the bath feed from the CW tank - it has a gate valve in the feed pipe located in the airing cupboard.

I don't have a lot of faith in gate valves so I am wary of just shutting that off and uncapping the tap feed only to find that the valve is passing and I have the whole CW tank contents to deal with. I am therefore planning to close off the CW tank feed before I start.

I am wondering what is the best way to drain the contents of the loft tank given that there are no other taps fed of the tank?

Can I do it via the hot water system by also draining the HW cylinder via the hot taps? alternatively there is a separate feed from the CW tank to a shower pump in the airing cupboard so I could use that (via another gate valve unfortunately).

Or am I just overthinking the whole situation?

Thanks

 

[Madrab]

Just bung the cold water cistern feed from inside.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Radiator...wn-Kit-Replace-Radiators-Easily-/281221983593

 

[denso13]

Can I do it via the hot water system by also draining the HW cylinder via the hot taps?

Yes, that will also drain the storage cistern and will only leave the water in the cold feed pipe to deal with, so not much.

 

[Tigercubrider]

If the bath cold water comes from a ball cock operated tank in the loft, tie up the ball cock to stop it filling.
Shove a bung in the tank to stop water coming out of the tank.

Have a hose or an old bicycle inner tube cut where the valve is, and a bucket. With a cloth, use the hose/ tube and direct any water released into the bucket. A dry towel around the pipe would soak up a lot.

Fit stop valves before fitting the new fittings