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Plumbing
Leaks, burst and frozen pipes, hot water, showers and bathroom quotes.
6 articles, each with the date it was last updated.
How do I stop pipes freezing?
Insulate pipes in the attic, garage and on outside walls, keep the heating on low during a cold snap, and protect outside taps. Know where your stopcock is in case one bursts.
C. Kenneally · Oct 2026How do you find a hidden water leak?
Start by checking whether water is being used when nothing is running — a meter, a hissing sound or a filling cistern tells you. Then follow the stains and damp back towards the pipework. The source is often away from where the water shows.
C. Kenneally · Oct 2026What should a bathroom renovation quote include?
It should list every stage — strip-out, pipework, sanitaryware and who supplies it, tiling, electrics, waterproofing, waste removal and making good — with what is and is not included. Three quotes for the same bathroom can be thousands apart simply because they include different things.
C. Kenneally · Oct 2026What should I do when a pipe bursts?
Turn off the water at the stopcock, turn off the heating and the immersion, turn off electrics near the water if it is safe to reach the board, open the taps to drain down, then call a plumber.
C. Kenneally · Oct 2026Which type of shower suits my house?
An electric shower heats mains water and works almost anywhere. A mixer shower needs a hot supply — a combi boiler, a gravity cylinder with a pump, or a pressurised cylinder — and performs as well as that supply allows.
C. Kenneally · Oct 2026Why am I running out of hot water?
Usually the cylinder is too small for how the household uses it, the immersion element or thermostat has failed, the boiler coil is not heating it fully, or the timer is not giving it long enough.
C. Kenneally · Oct 2026
Need help identifying the problem?
Send a photo of the boiler, the system or the problem. Christy will tell you what is involved and what it will cost.
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