Kinda desperate for a solution to the sheer shit show I'm facing.
I work in a court in the UK as the maintenance guy/handyman, you can probably guess who I work for from that. I have a job where the isolation valve on a pipe is leaking. Fairly badly in the closed position and a steady stream in the open position, it's already causing damage to the basement and slowly flooding it.
There's no isolation that I can find and none of the hmcts gremlins in the office can give me a plan for the piping. I tried to install a aladdin isolator onto the pipe but while it installed fine something bound up and it's pretty much useless.
Now they want me to install a standard 15mm isolation valve onto a live pipe with no backup plan, I'm the only person permanently on site so all the responsibility, consequences and shouting end squarely with me.
I'm not a qualified plumber, is there anything else I can try or should I give them the offer of "hire a plumber from the contractor list or take my resignation with immediate effect"?
You can't isolate the upstream, and you are by yourself?
I would never attempt this personally. That's just begging for an eighty gallon spill of what I'm assuming is wastewater.
There's a main shutoff somewhere, but that would inconvenience everyone in the building, and we can't have that.
Well yeah. I presumed several things, first being that actually shutting off the main was off the table, and that OP didn't have access to a freeze kit. Hell I dunno if those are even legal in the UK.
Freeze kits can be dangerous because you can easily asphyxiate yourself from the CO2 gas. It's a last resort, and no plumber would use that when there's an operable main shutoff.
It seems like OP's real problem is obstructive bureaucrat dipshits, in which case he should call the plumber anyway. At least they can tell the building supervisor to fuck off.
In fairness, I've never used a freeze kit except in circumstances where I was also wearing a supplied air mask and full kit.