Water Mains Inlet All aspects of plumbing questions and answers, help, tips and information

[MadManMoon]

This may be a dumb question but I'm a bit of a plumbing novice. I can do basic bending and soldering/brazing with copper pipes but this one has thrown me a bit

I'm going to be refitting my kitchen in the next couple of weeks, and before I started I wanted to re-route the mains supply.

At the moment it's protruding into the cupboard under the sink so I wanted to move it below the level of the base of the cupboard and put an opening flap in the cupboard floor so I can get to it.

When I removed the floor of the existing cupboard I was expecting to see a metal pipe but it's poly so I'm not quite sure how to proceed.

Can I buy a right angled fitting to go on the end of the poly pipe to run the stopcock parallel with the floor, which would obviously require me to shorten the incoming pipe?

Thanks in advance

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[plumbbob]

There are a couple of points to take in to account before you decide to move the existing stop cock position. Firstly, from a regulation point of view, the tap should be in a location where it can be easily found. This means it should be in view in the cupboard so householders and plumbers can find it. You would be surprised how much time we waste searching for hidden taps and how many homeowners are stumped when asked where it is.

You can easily get elbows at any plumber's merchant that will allow the pipe to be routed in any direction but remember, it can be fragile so tampering with it might lead to complications. If you shorten the existing pipe, this will restrict any future repairs on the stop tap.

[MadManMoon]

Yeah point taken. I'm always a bit wary of messing with old plumbing for trhat reason.

My main reason for wanting to get a good look at the cold water pipes under there was that there is a very powerful damp/mildewy smell coming from under the sink. I thought that the stopcock was leaking but now I can see that it's not just the tap itself, but all the pipework is dripping wet and there is a significant damp patch on the ground at the back.

Could condensation alone create this much moisture? Is the answer just to lag the pipes?

[plumbbob]

Condensation can be rife under kitchen units because the vapour is trapped and can't escape and even the smallest weep will collect over a period of time. When you remove the units, the area will dry quickly and you will be able to see exactly what is going on.