I live in a Victorian converted flat. The mains stopcock for the whole building was buried under my patio staircase in 2007. Is there any possibility to unbury/install a new stopcock?

hi yes where the main comes in you can freeze it and fit a stop cock

Yes you can uncover your buried stop tap, and fit a new one. Thames Water wont be interested because its inside your property, therefore not their responsibility. Place you job on Post a Job, My Builder and get a good plumber out.

Yes there is posibility of carrying this out it would mean that we would have to freeze the pipe where the new stop cock would be fitted. This would mean that there would be a substantial period of time to carry out the fitting of the new stop cock.

Yes there is. You have two options. 1) access the buried stopcock, which is not always as complicated as it looks. 2) Relocate the stopcock. To comment on the cost or complexity of this someone would need to see the current circuit. Hope this helps. Best Wishes From Trade Man's World

Best thing to do is find where the mains comes into your flat.You can bye a freeze kit,make sure there is no water running in your flat,freeze the pipe and put in a stopcock somewhere accessible.best get a plumber i think..Hope this helps.

Best thing to do is find the mains water comes into your home. Ring a plumber and get him to freeze the pipe with either an electric freezing kit or a C02 freezing kit and not the kind you get from the plumbing merchants and they are rubbish. This way you will not get caught out with it thawing whilst you are working. Fit new stopcock at most convienient place as near too the original mains stopcock/pipe as you can.

hi. all these anwers are correct. but being a victorian house mains water may feed a tank in loft, therefore you may just be stopping tank from filling, and if connections have been added after,ie boiler/power shower,these will also be isolated,if your water comes from tank(gravity fed) water will still flow until tank is emptied or gravity feed isolated,freezing pipe will work,depending on pipe type, may be old cast,it would be best to turn off from original mains, depending on why you are doing this, may be simpler and more cost effective to isolate where you are intending to do new works/alterations, all the best,,,,,, kirk

Find a local, competent plumber, preferably one recommended by friend etc, ask them price to freeze the pipe and fit new stopcock, it is a time consuming job but cheap for materials so should'nt cost that much, if 1st price seems high, then get 3 quotes.