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Just in case anyone finds themselves facing this problem in the future:-
When you can't find the stopcock and you've finished running around like a headless chicken! Bend the ends of the pipe over. Smash them flat with a hammer first if you have to but basically flatten and bend the pipes to reduce or stop the flow.
Clearly you should always locate the stopcock in your own home before you or anyone else cuts through any floorboards though and check that you can operate it especially if its an old one in the street. If it's the old type in the street it's worth calling the water board and having it changed before you need it to work.
Airhead-
They couldn't find the mains cock in the street either. God knows how they managed to get everything fixed up with water still in full flow.
This is great advice, by the way. I hope I never have to use it!
I spoke to the sparks outside and he said, 'Who runs water pipes right underneath the floorboards?' - blaming a previous batch of plumbers. I thought, 'Who uses a plunge saw on floorboards without checking to see if there are pipes right underneath?' I would have thought a multitool cut would have given them at least a fighting chance of not causing a mess, even if they didn't have a pipe detector.
Sharkstar
My neighbour got a sparks in last week to run a new cable from his CU to his range cooker. They took a plunge saw to his floorboards and managed to cut through two water pipes. Unfortunately he didn’t know where his stop cock was. Fortunately the sparks knew a plumber, who came round with a pump and somehow managed to effect a repair and install a new stop cock. Much flooding.