Replacing water shut off valve in Apartment

Bailey 33 · Post by **Bailey 33** » Sat 15 Jul 2023 9:55 am

Hello all, I have an issue with a couple of water on/ off valves in my apartment for sink / toilet hot and cold and looking to change myself
Have any of you people attempted and my question is what type of fitting is commonly on the valve compression etc ? They do not leak I just can’t shut the water off internally when I leave after our holiday.
Tried to add a picture file too large
Thanks in advance

Saddique · Post by **Saddique** » Sun 16 Jul 2023 9:29 am

You can buy the valves from any Yapi market.
Its easy to swap them over and use PTFE ( plumbers white tape ) and a good spanner / wrench.

If you are replacing them because you cannot turn the water off at the valve , then you need to empty / drain the water system before you attempt replacement otherwise you will not be able to stop the water flow.

thornaby · Post by **thornaby** » Sun 16 Jul 2023 3:10 pm

The pipework around your house will most likely be plastic. The fitting in the wall where the tap is located will also be plastic with a metal insert. The sizes will be either 1/2" or 3/8". As mentioned, drain system fit new tap with ptfe wrapped around the tap threads in a clockwise direction. A word of caution. The taps fitted to our place were absolute junk, a very soft zinc type of metal. Everyone I have replaced just crumpled when I tried to remove them. Getting the broken bits out of the wall fittings were very challenging!

laptawrinkly · Post by **laptawrinkly** » Sun 16 Jul 2023 6:05 pm

And don't forget to regularly check, for rust any metal flexi pipes to cisterns, WCs, sinks etc. If one of these burst they can make one big mess, especially if your system has a pump to boost pressure! In fact, I generally replace them routinely after a few years as it is not always evident if they are about to go!

Bailey 33 · Post by **Bailey 33** » Mon 17 Jul 2023 8:49 am

Thanks to all for your replies very helpful indeed maybe I will use a local plumber

thornaby · Post by **thornaby** » Tue 18 Jul 2023 1:12 pm

Lapawrinkly, spot ot on, the flexi plpes do not last forever, they rust and leak. The EXPERT plumbers builders who installed the drains in our main bathroom were dreadful. They installed the drain that came through the floor too far from the wall. A difficult measurement for them . The result was the the toilet was too far from the wall. To compensate they fitted a eccentric/ offset fitting that had a shelf on it that just just begged to be a point of blockage. This combined with modern plumbing fittings where the overflow is no longer a separate pipe to drain but is combined into the internal flush valve. Drain blocks, fill valve leaks, water flows into a blocked drain, water fills the toilet bowl and a disgusting mess everywhere. This cannot happen with a separate overflow pipe and a traditional British symphonic flush valve . OK for progress, rant over!