Bathroom Taps

[codswallop]

The taps in my bathroom need new washers,but the isolating valves are too tight to turn it off.So I intend turning off the mains supply.I can see this working for the cold taps but the hot is supplied from a combi-boiler.How do I go about turning off the water? Thanks.

[Hopkirk]

WD40 sprayed onto the isolating valves?

[tonyav]

Turn of the electric on the combi boiler and then turn off the stop cock.

[stuey]

You could try spraying the valves with Gunk Liquid Wrench, and letting it penetrate (A few sprays, actually.) at least overnight.

[codswallop]

Thanks for all your quick replies,that will be a job for the week-end.

[malagabob]

Combi boiler? Turning off the mains supply will automatically stop hot water from your taps. Assuming main stop tap is not passing. Just need to drain ecess hot water. You can isolate electric to boiler, but turning off mains will stop boiler lighting. Apart from CH but your not using CH now are you.

[alavahalf]

If you have a water meter as most do .. the quickest and easiest way as others have said is to turn it off at the meter as they have a non seize nylon 1/4 turn valve.
When you have turned the water off, open the taps you are working on and this will drain any water down.
The pipes wont hold much water and you are ready to start work.

Dont forget to put the plug in otherwise you will be removing the waste to find your screws !

[Hopkirk]

I have never heard of Stuey's 'Gunk Liquid Wrench', but a quick Google suggests it is WD40 in disguise.

[stuey]

Maybe it's not available in the UK, Hopkirk, and if it was it would probably be named Gunk Liquid Spanner:) Anyway, I have always found it to be much more "aggressive" than WD40.

[alavahalf]

Some years ago when I was attending many roadside breakdowns around Manchester my employers supplied me with a gallon of Gunk. You decanted it into a spray/ bottle and it was used to spray on everything electrical, as it dispersed and repelled moisture and lubricated at the same time.
It worked well with distributor caps and spark plug leads. Had actually forgotten it existed, but since it has been mentioned it has reminded me of it ... as previously stated .. WD40 is propably the modern equivalent.

[Hopkirk]

I was going to claim that WD40 was British and therefore far superior - until I discovered that it comes from California.

[Old_Geezer]

Something good that isn't British ?!? Unbelievable !

[codswallop]

Thank you all.

[woofgang]

I managed to free off my seized solid stop tap by spraying it with WD40 then warming it with a hairdryer and tapping it gently with a tack hammer. It had an actual “t” shaped top though...other stopcocks in the house have got a wheel type turner on and so you can’t “knock” them open in the same way.

[codswallop]

OK