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PLUMBING ALONGSIDE DRAINAGE

Plumbing services in London

Drainage is what we do most, and a lot of drainage calls turn out to have a plumbing job attached: a trap that needs replacing once it is cleared, a leaking waste joint, a toilet that has never flushed properly. We handle that side rather than leaving you to find someone else for it.

Signs and what they mean

A tap that will not stop dripping

Usually a worn washer or a scaled-up cartridge rather than a failed tap.

Water under the sink

A trap, a compression joint or an appliance hose. Put a bowl under it and note whether it drips constantly or only in use.

A toilet that runs continuously

A failed fill or flush valve. It wastes a substantial amount of water and will show on a meter.

An overflow dripping outside

A cistern or tank valve not shutting off. Cheap to fix now, tedious once it has soaked a wall.

A waste pipe leaking after clearing

Common on old joints disturbed by a blockage. Often just needs the seal or the trap replacing.

Low pressure at one outlet

Frequently a scaled aerator or an isolating valve not fully open rather than a supply problem.

What we take on

The plumbing work that sits naturally alongside drainage: leaks and drips, waste pipework, traps and connections, toilet mechanisms, and the fittings that fail because of the same hard water that scales up the drains.

Typical plumbing jobs

What we will tell you to get someone else for

We are a drainage business that does plumbing, not a heating firm. Anything on a gas appliance requires a Gas Safe registered engineer and we will say so. Boiler repairs, boiler servicing and gas work are not ours to touch, and no responsible tradesperson would pretend otherwise. Full bathroom installations, central heating design and unvented cylinder work are also better placed with a specialist.

Being told honestly that a job is not ours is more useful than being sold it. If it is outside what we do, we will say so on the phone rather than after attending.

Hard water and London plumbing

Most of London has hard water, and it shortens the life of a lot of plumbing. Scale builds inside tap mechanisms and cartridges, coats immersion elements and shower heads, and roughens the inside of waste pipes so residue has something to grip. It is one reason taps and cartridges can wear sooner here, and one reason bathroom wastes can block more often.

It is worth knowing when something fails, because replacing a scaled-up cartridge on a tap that is otherwise sound is a much smaller job than replacing the tap.

Stopping a leak right now

If water is running and you cannot stop it at the tap, turn off the stop tap. In many houses it is under the kitchen sink; in flats it is often in a cupboard, under the bath or in a shared riser. It is worth finding out where yours is before you need it, and worth checking it actually turns. A stop tap that has not been turned for years often will not, and that is a much better thing to discover on a Sunday afternoon than during a leak.

Talk it through first

Tell us the symptoms and your postcode. We will tell you what it sounds like, what it is likely to cost and whether it is even your responsibility.

Is it even your drain?

If the blockage is on a shared drain or beyond your property boundary, it may be Thames Water’s to deal with rather than yours to pay for.

PLUMBING

Common questions

The things people ask most about plumbing services. If yours is not here, just call and ask.

No. Gas work requires a Gas Safe registered engineer, and that is not us. We will tell you straight away rather than attending and then explaining.

Full bathroom installations are not our focus. Replacing wastes, traps, taps and toilet mechanisms, particularly alongside a drainage job, is very much within what we do.

In London it is usually scale. Hard water damages the seat and the cartridge, so a new washer seals against a rough surface and fails again quickly. The cartridge or the seat needs attention, not the washer.

We can trace leaks from accessible pipework and from the fittings and wastes we work on. Full leak detection under floors and in walls is a specialism with its own equipment, and if that is what it needs we will tell you.

It is discussed the same way: we go through the job and the basis of the charge on the phone before anything is arranged, so there are no surprises when the work is done.

Blocked drain? Let’s get it sorted.

Call and speak to the engineer, 24 hours a day, including tonight.