Emergency plumber Yorkshire

A street-wide loss of water is the water company’s to fix, not a problem with your pipes, and nobody should charge you to tell you that. Most of Yorkshire is supplied by Yorkshire Water, but there are exceptions — some properties on the edges of the region, parts of Sheffield for example, are supplied by Severn Trent — so check the top of your water bill to be sure whose it is. If the water is off or leaking only in your own property, it is ours.

The town list is where our plumbers are based, not a boundary. In and around the towns it is 30 to 60 minutes, because our plumbers are spread across the four counties rather than working out of one depot. Up the valleys and out on the moors it takes longer, and we would rather tell you so. Give us the postcode when you call and we will tell you the real travel time rather than quote a standard one we cannot keep.

Work out which before you pay for anything. Turn off every tap and appliance and look at your water meter if you have one: if it is still moving, a pipe is leaking somewhere. If the water appears after heavy rain and drains away afterwards, it is usually groundwater coming through the walls or floor, which is a damp-proofing or drainage question rather than a leaking pipe. If it is steady and there when it has not rained, ring us and we will trace it. If it smells of sewage or comes up through a drain, stay out of it and ring us straight away. If your fuse board is in the cellar, do not go down to it while there is water on the floor.

Mains pressure is naturally lower on high ground, because the water has to be pushed uphill, so a house at the top of a hill can see less than one at the bottom. Before assuming that is all it is, check the easy things: the stopcock fully open, a blocked tap aerator or shower head, a partly closed isolation valve, and whether the weak flow is at one tap or all of them. If it is one tap, it is that tap. If it is everywhere and has got worse over time, the pipe coming into the house may have narrowed or be leaking, and that is worth a look. If the pressure has always been modest and you want more, a booster pump may be the answer, and we will tell you honestly whether it is. Call us and say which taps are affected and when it started.

Usually an overflow pipe, and it is doing its job by telling you something is wrong. A pipe running or dripping from a toilet cistern or a loft tank means the float valve has failed and the tank keeps filling. From a combi boiler it may be the pressure relief valve discharging, which is a fault, or the condensate pipe, which drips normally but can freeze in a cold snap and stop the boiler. A steady drip is not yet a flood, but it wastes water and should not be left. If it is running continuously, turn the stopcock off and ring us, and tell us which room it is nearest to.

Do not force it. A stopcock that has not been turned for years can seize, and forcing it can snap the spindle or crack the body, turning a small leak into a flood. Try gently, a little at a time, clockwise to close. If it will not budge, or it starts to weep round the spindle, leave it and ring us. We can isolate the supply at another valve while we deal with the leak, then replace the stopcock so it works the next time you need it. It is worth turning yours fully off and back on once a year so it never seizes.