When the taps are turned off the water pipes sound like the water is gushing, its not coming out of the taps so I'm worried it is gushing somewhere. The noise stops only when I turn off the stop cock.

The noise stops only when I turn off the stop cock. Is this
"stop cock " the whole house shut off? To check to see if you have a hidden leak first shut down everything in the house, no flush, no drinks of water, and if you are on a meter go out and check the little pointer in the gage. It should not move or creep. If it does you have a leak. If you're on a pump then check the pressure gage after the pump builds up to pressure and shuts off. The gage should not fall and the pump come back on. If so then you have a leak. Hope this helps and thank you for rating my reply, Tom

Hi Kcale...

First thing to do is to check the water meter when you are sure no water is being used in the home. The water meter usually has a red needle (small or large)... see image... check to see if this is moving when no one is using water. Be patient may take a little time for the needle to move...

If the needle moves then there is a leak present. First thing will bw to check for the obvious leaks by looking around where you can.

After that, if no obvious leaks revealed I would have you perform a DYE TEST on the toilets in your house.

To perform a dye test, take some food coloring and drop 6-10 drops in the toilet TANK... let it sit for 12-24 hours untouched and keep checking periodiaclly to see if any dye shows up in your toilet BOWL.

If the dye showed up in the toilet bowl(s) then you have a leak at the flapper in the toilet tank. At a minimum you will need to replace the flapper and worst case you will need to replace the entire FLUSH VALVE ASSEMBLY.

For now... check the meter and if necessary do the dye test... let us know what you find...

MARK

PS: HI TOM....I was getting some coffee while you popped in and posted!