Help Emergency!

Don't panic ! below are some of the common emergency problems we encounter and what you can do to minimize damage until we, or your local plumber, can attend.

Nail through a pipe:

LEAVE THE NAIL IN THE PIPE.

If you remove it this will open up the hole and water will gush out a lot faster than if you leave it in.

Now you need to determine if it's a radiator pipe or a water pipe. If you are anywhere other than the bathroom or kitchen its probably a radiator pipe and you need to drain the system. If you have a hot water cylinder the chances are you have a conventional open vented system with a small tank, usually in the loft, that fills the heating system with water. Locate this tank and isolate the supply by tying up the ballcock with string or turn off all the water in your house by turning off the main stop cock (usually under the kitchen sink, but not always). Now you need to find a drain-off point on your system and attach a hose.

If you have a combi boiler and it's a heating pipe you have hit turning off the stopcock will have no effect. You need to find a drain-off point on your heating system to get the pressure down on the gauge that's on the front of your boiler. Downstairs radiator valves sometimes have a drain-off incorporated into them where you can attach a hosepipe and drain or look at the pipework near to your combi boiler, any installer worth his salt should have put a drain-off somewhere on the system.

If you cannot find anywhere to connect a hose, don't panic, your plumber will have other methods to empty the system when he arrives. If it's a downstairs rad pipe you have hit the best you can do until he arrives is to turn off all rad valves upstairs on both ends of the radiator. This will keep the bulk of water in the rads upstairs rather than flowing out through the hole you made with the nail downstairs

Radiator has a rusty pinhole and is leaking:

Isolate the leaking rad from the rest of the system by turning both valves off at either end. If you have a thermostatic valve at one end, turn it to zero. At the other end will be a lockshield valve and you will probably have to pull the plastic cap off and use a pair of pliers or similar to wind in the brass stem protruding from the top of the valve.

Hot Water Cylinder Is Leaking:

This is usually the seam at the base of the cylinder.

Isolate the water supply into the cylinder. There should be a gate valve (usually a circular red handle) on the cold fill pipework leading from the big tank in the loft to the bottom of the cylinder, turn this gate valve off (clockwise). If you do not have one (older systems sometimes don't) you will need to isolate the supply into the cold water tank using the methods described in nail through a pipe. Now open all your hot taps to drain as much as you can. This will help slow the leak but you still have a cylinder full of water. Ideally you now need to empty the cylinder. If you are lucky you may find a drain-off point on the pipework near the base of the cylinder on the cold fill. If not you can siphon the water from the cylinder by undoing the big nut on the top centre of the cylinder, put a hosepipe in all the way to the bottom and siphoning.