Tap before water meter is leaking inside my house

[MrTheSpoon]

Hi, Obviously I'm new to this forum but was wondering if you could help me.

The picture shows the external water mains (blue pipe) coming into my house in my kitchen under the sink. The old cut off tap (sideways) and the water meter with new cut off tap (to the left).
The old cut off tap is leaking whether it's on or off. You can see water coming out in the picture.
When the water meter was fitted is leaked a little bit for a couple of days but then was fine.
A couple of days ago, I turned off the water using the old tap (which was dumb) due to an unrelated leak with the cold water tank in the loft.
Since then the tap has been leaking.
Any suggestions on a fix? It doesn't matter if the tap is locked open due to the second cut off tap.
Currently I've got towels and bits of plastic wrapped round it which has slowed the leak, but not stopped it.
Help please!

Leak by mains water supply

• MrTheSpoon
• 3 Oct 2010
• 1

 

[TicklyT]

It appears to be leaking between the gland nut and spindle. Have you tried tightening the gland?

The packing gland is (or should be) filled with an easily compressible material that is squeezed against the shaft by the nut to form a seal. Over time the material hardens, or bits get torn away by opening or closing the valve.

If tightening the gland nut doesn't work, try re-packing the gland. Loosen the nut, twist a length of PTFE tape into a round 'string', wind that around the shaft and push it down into the gland cavity, then tighten the nut down onto that.

 

[MrTheSpoon]

Unfortunately the tap is quite old (at least from before I bought the house in 2003) so the gland is a encrusted with sediment. I have tried tightening it but I think if I loosen it first, it'll break. As I can't shut off the water before it, I'll need a backup tap or something in case it does break. In the meantime, I've wrapped all the PTFE tape I have round the outside which has stemmed the flow a bit. As soon as the shops open I'll be getting some more supplies.

 

[Blackadder43]

Turn the water off outside your house, usualy near your gate, and replace the stoptap....

 

[MrTheSpoon]

I'm unable to turn off the water outside as, due to the age of this house and my neighbours' houses, there are 12 houses controlled by just one mains water stopcock.
I've managed to reduce the leak down to a slow drip (by wrapping a ton of PTFE tape round the tap and semi closing it, so I still have water) so it's less urgent. I think I'll phone a plumber who can hopefully come round and fix it in the next few days.

 

[studips]

as it's mdpe a squeeze off can be used to crush the pipe and a new valve can be fitted - or whatever. these are the things i';m on about http://www.advancewelding.co.uk/products/squeezeoff.aspx