Leaks & burst pipes
Isolation and make-safe, then repair of copper, plastic and old lead-tail joints. We carry push-fit and compression stock in 15mm and 22mm, plus slip couplers for pipework you cannot rotate.
Flintside wards Leaks, heating & drains
Water where it shouldn’t be, stopped today.
We run a two-van round covering burst pipes, dead boilers, blocked waste and the slow drips that quietly ruin a floor. Make-safe comes first, the written price comes second, and nothing is replaced before you have seen the fault yourself.
How we work
A trade visit
without the guesswork.
Most plumbing calls go wrong in the first ten minutes. A van turns up without the right stock, the stop tap cannot be found, and a forty-minute job becomes a return visit. We ask for two things when you book — a photo of the problem and a note of where your stop tap sits — so the van arrives loaded for the actual fault rather than the described one.
On site the order never changes: isolate, make safe, then diagnose. Only once you have seen what has failed do we talk about price.
Nothing is cut, chased or replaced until you have agreed the number for it.
Our rates are published below because the most common reason people live with a leak is not knowing what the call will cost. Weekday, out-of-hours and emergency make-safe are priced separately, materials are itemised, and quoted works are fixed in writing for thirty days.
What we get called for
Six call-outs, with the actual scope
Find the symptom closest to yours. Each lane lists what the visit covers and the window we normally hold it in, so you can tell a today job from a diary job.
No heat, no hot water
Fault tracing on combi and system boilers: pressure loss, locked-out ignition, failed diverter valves, seized pumps and cold-at-the-top radiators. Gas appliance work is booked into our registered engineer’s diary.
Blockages & waste runs
Sinks, baths, showers and WCs cleared by rod or 50mm machine. We camera the line before anyone talks about lifting slabs, and we re-fall badly pitched waste rather than just clearing it again.
Taps, valves & cylinders
Washer and ceramic cartridge swaps, isolation valves fitted where there were none, thermostatic mixing valve servicing, immersion elements and cylinder thermostats.
Hidden leak tracing
Acoustic and thermal tracing for pipework under screed, behind tiles or inside a stud wall, so the opening we make is the size of a repair rather than a search.
Bathroom & kitchen fits
First and second fix for suites, showers, basins and sink runs, including waste re-routing, tile-safe drilling and tidy pipe boxing where the run has to stay visible.
On the van
Stocked to finish, not to quote
Roughly four call-outs in five are finished on the first visit, and that is a stock decision rather than a skill one. This is what travels with us every day.
- Pipe & fittings15mm and 22mm copper, barrier plastic, push-fit, compression and slip couplers, plus flexible tap connectors.
- ValvesIsolation and service valves, radiator and lockshield sets, TMV cartridges, ball valves and float arms.
- SealsTap washers, ceramic cartridges, pan connectors, waste seals, PTFE, hemp and jointing compound.
- ClearingRod set, 50mm drain machine, hand auger and an inspection camera for anything past the trap.
- Make-safeEnd-feed caps, freeze kit, bungs, hose and a wet vacuum for the water already on the floor.
Indicative rates
What a visit normally costs
Published so you can decide before you call. Labour is billed from arrival, in quarter hours after the first hour, and we tell you on the phone which band your job falls into.
| Visit type | What it covers | Indicative rate |
|---|---|---|
| Weekday call-out | 8am to 5pm. First hour on site, diagnosis, make-safe and minor parts from van stock. | £86 first hour, then £22 per quarter hour |
| Evening & Saturday | 5pm to 9pm weekdays and 8am to 6pm Saturdays, same scope as a weekday call-out. | £124 first hour, then £31 per quarter hour |
| Emergency make-safe | Water off, line isolated and capped, standing water lifted. Repair priced separately once the fault is visible. | £148 flat |
| Drain machine visit | Up to 90 minutes with the 50mm machine, including a camera run of the cleared line. | £165 |
| Quoted works | Installs, replacements, re-pipes and anything needing ordered parts or more than one day. | Fixed written price, held 30 days |
| Materials beyond van stock are charged at cost plus twelve per cent and itemised before we order. If a job turns out to be smaller than the band you booked, we bill the smaller one. | ||
How it runs
Four steps, start to handover
-
Tell us what you can see
A photo of the leak and a note of where the stop tap sits is usually enough for us to know which stock to load and how long to hold.
-
We confirm a window
You get a two-hour window with a name attached to it. If the van is running late you hear it from us before the window closes.
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Make safe, then price
Water off and the area stabilised first. Then the fault is shown to you and the repair is priced before any tool goes near it.
-
Written handover
A short summary of what changed, which parts went in, and anything we would keep an eye on over the next season.
Book a window
Tell us the job
Send the detail once and we will come back with a window, the rate band it falls into, and anything you should turn off before we arrive.
- HoursWeekdays 7am–9pm · Saturdays 8am–6pm · Sundays emergency make-safe only
- Reply timeEnquiries sent before 4pm are answered the same working day
- Areas coveredFlintside, Harrow Bank, Kelsey Vale, Old Tannery, Marsh End and Bevin Park
Questions
Asked on nearly every call
Worth reading before you book — two or three of these save a visit entirely.
Where is my stop tap likely to be?
In most homes it is under the kitchen sink at the back, in a downstairs cloakroom, or inside a boxed-in run near where the main enters the building. Older properties often have it only at the boundary box near the pavement, under a small metal lid. Find it now, turn it a quarter turn to check it is not seized, and leave it accessible.
Should I turn the water off before you arrive?
If water is actively running where it should not be, yes — stop tap off, then open the lowest cold tap in the house to drain the pipework down. For a slow drip, leave it on and put a container under it. If the leak is on the heating side rather than the mains, the stop tap will not stop it; closing the valves either side of the radiator will.
Why does my boiler pressure keep dropping?
A system that needs topping up more than once or twice a year is losing water somewhere. The usual suspects are a weeping radiator valve, a pinhole under floorboards, or a failed pressure relief valve discharging quietly outside through a copper pipe near the boiler. Checking whether that outside pipe is wet tells us a lot before we arrive.
My tap only drips after someone showers. Why?
That pattern usually points at expansion rather than a worn washer. When the cylinder reheats, the water expands and finds the weakest seal in the system. Replacing the washer alone tends to move the problem along to the next tap; the fix is usually at the expansion vessel or the valve controlling it.
Do you charge for coming out to quote?
For quoted works — installs, replacements and re-pipes — the measure-up visit is free and the written price is held for thirty days. If the visit involves diagnosing a fault, lifting access or making something safe, it is a call-out and the rate band applies, because that is repair work rather than estimating.
Can you work behind tiles without re-tiling the wall?
Often, yes. Where there is a cupboard, a bath panel or a ceiling below, we come at the pipework from that side instead. When tiles genuinely have to come off, we lift whole tiles rather than breaking them, keep them for refitting, and tell you before anything is cut whether we expect them to survive.
What counts as an emergency rather than same-day?
Emergency means water is escaping and cannot be isolated, a leak is reaching electrics or a neighbouring property, or there is no water at all. Those get a make-safe visit at the flat emergency rate. A dripping tap, a single cold radiator or a slow-draining bath is same-day or booked work, and is cheaper for it.
Which jobs usually need parts ordered in?
Boiler-specific components, obsolete or designer tap cartridges, unvented cylinder kits and anything in a discontinued bathroom range. We will make the situation safe and usable on the first visit, give you the part cost in writing, and book the return once it lands — usually within two to four working days.