Stopcock Leaking Below Ground

My mains water isolation valve/stopcock has started leaking and is located below ground under my front patio, its a brass valve with the normal "T" handle. IT looks like the gland but before I can get the nut off, I need to remove the handle which will require drilling the rusted screw out.

Has anyone had any experience of this, otherwise I will have to start digging.

Hi rocker,

I don't really have experience of this exact valve but whenever I try to fix anything to do with water I always make sure that I turn off the supply at a point before where I'm going to work, but as this is the stop valve before water enters your house there wouldn't be a point further out.

For this reason I'd get a plumber to work at it for you as mains water has a high pressure and if someting goes wrong for you it could be a mess to fix.

It should be possible to tighten the spindle nut without removing the T handle.

Managed to do it. I have been looking for months for a wrench for the council valve in the pavement, its an odd one, I made one out of a 10 mm socket and hacksawed a bit out, put it on an extension bar so I could close the valve in an emergency. On the house valve, I could not budge the gland nut down the hole so I drilled the screw head out on the top of the handle and removed the handle, I was then able to get an extended socket on to the gland nut, I remove it, cleaned it and tightened it back in, and to my relief it sealed, otherwise I would have had to take up the patio slabs and dig down.

By the way ahm, it was the plumber that caused it, it never leaked before, but he turned it off to do some work in the attic, and when he turned it on again he opened it all the way to the stop, which I never do, in the process he caused the leak and said nothing.