It can cost a small fortune to repair the damage caused by a pipe leak that is left unchecked, and everyone agrees it makes good sense to address such a problem as soon as it is noticed. With a dripping tap, however, many householders are content to let the problem go on for months or even years, even though it can cause unsightly staining to the tap itself or the appliance which it supplies, and is a waste of water. Yet fixing a faulty tap is much easier than most people think and a whole lot cheaper than calling out a ………

If the need to replace a radiator should arise, the simplest thing to do is to find an exact copy. Alternatively, you could use the opportunity to install a heated towel rail. This should be fairly straightforward, although you will have to fix new hanging brackets and extend the pipework, which will involve draining down the central heating system rather than just the radiator.
Replacing a radiator witha towel rail
Most modern towel rails are attached through the wall, rather than the floor, so you’ll more than likely need to adapt the pipework. First, you’ll need to drain down the system (see below), ………

Apart from the kitchen sink, the most used and overworked piece of plumbing kit in the whole house has to be the toilet, particularly if you have kids. The last thing you want if for your toilet to stop working and then have to wait until the next day to get a plumber to repair it.

Problems with a toilet flush

Obviously, constant use of an appliance means increased wear, but regular maintenance checks should keep problems to a minimum. There are basically three types of toilet cistern: low-level (easy to maintain), high-level (accessible by stepladder) or concealed, which may present maintenance access problems if the toilet installation wasn’t well planned. The working components in a toilet’s cistern are readily available for ………

I’ve noticed that early versions of the modern bathroom – that is, those built during the 1920s – are much more interesting than their successors. If they are fortunate enough to have escaped remodeling, these bathrooms tend to be larger and have better tile and finish work and better quality fixtures than those built later.

During the Depression and the later post-World War II housing boom, construction shifted its orientation away from traditional laborintensive methods and toward more efficient assembly-line type production. This resulted in a lot more houses being built a lot more quickly and economically, but it also required a standardization of components, room sizes, and even house styles to keep pace with demand – just think ………

The next time you reach over to pull the lever (or push the button) to flush a toilet, take a moment to think about a world without these marvels of human engineering. Okay, the invention of the toilet doesn’t carry the same sense of drama that the invention of lightbulbs or airplanes does, but in their own not-so-small way, toilets have transformed the world we live in.

The idea of a room in a home dedicated to personal hygiene and grooming is, strictly speaking, a recent one. For the most part, houses built much before the turn of the century didn’t have bathrooms. So, in the span of about 100 years, the modern bathroom has evolved from a novelty into ………

A versatile material, plastic is especially useful for carrying water Plastic pipes are easy to use, lightweight and maintenance-free. Some types designed to withstand high temperatures are now available for hot water and heating systems, but most domestic plastic pipe work is used for taking away waste water, especially in bathrooms.

TYPES OF PLASTIC PIPEWORK

Three types of plastic pipes are used for the water supply and heating installation in your house. chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CP\/Q, polybutylene (PB), and cross- linked polyethylene (PEX), pipes are tough and versatile enough for use as hot- and cold-water carriers, and also for central-heating systems.

The majority of bathroom waste pipes are made from polypropylene ………

In order to understand plumbing and how it works, it’s essential to know where and how the water enters and exits your property, and what happens to it while it’s in there. The mains water is supplied by the local water supplier to a stopcock either just inside or just outside your property boundary, via a mains stopcock. Any problems on the supplier’s side of the stopcock are their responsibility, while any problems on your side of the stopcock are your responsibility.
Domestic Water Systems

There are basically two types of domestic water systems – indirect water systems and direct water systems. Indirect is a mains-fed, stored-water system that supplies the drinking water then ………