Independent UK home plumbing help

Plain answers for the water in your home.

Leatmere explains how UK household plumbing works, what you can sensibly check yourself, and where the job belongs to a plumber, an electrician or a Gas Safe registered engineer.

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Independent

Written by the Leatmere team. We are not a plumbing firm and we do not sell call-outs or quotes.

Sourced

Rules point to the official source. Product figures come from the maker or retailer page, with the date we checked.

Honest about limits

We have not tested the products we mention. Gas work is never DIY. Some electrical and water work needs a qualified person.

Home plumbing guides

Water supply

Showers

Shower pump sizing: positive or negative head, single or twinHow to tell whether a gravity-fed shower needs a positive head or a negative head pump, single or twin ended, and why combis and unvented cylinders are usually the wrong system for one.

Toilets

Why your toilet keeps running, and how to stop itUK cisterns use a siphon or a drop valve to flush and a fill valve to refill. Here is how to find which part is letting water run, from a high float to a worn seal.

Outdoors

Frost-free outdoor taps: what they are and how to protect a garden tapThe difference between a true frost-free tap and an ordinary garden tap with lagging, a cover and an indoor isolating valve, plus the backflow rules for hose union taps in England and Wales.

Heating

Bleeding and balancing radiatorsHow to bleed a radiator with a key, what to watch on a sealed system's pressure gauge, how lockshield balancing evens out the heat, and when cold spots mean sludge rather than air.

Safety

When to call a Gas Safe registered engineerThe signs that mean stop and call: a smell of gas, soot, yellow or orange flames, fumes, a boiler that will not light. What to do in a gas emergency, and how to check an engineer is registered.

Leatmere starts with these seven guides and will grow into more home plumbing topics: hot water, drainage, kitchens and bathrooms, and keeping pipes safe through winter.