URGENT Help - No hot or cold upstairs, only cold downstairs

TBeckett100

Wonder if you can help.

We have a combi boiler. There doesnt appear to be a cold water tank in the loft.

We only have cold water downstairs. The heating is working, but the hot water downstairs and both hot and cold upstairs are bereft of water.

Any ideas... i suspect a frozen pipe

so far

1) There are two pipes coming in from outside into the combi boiler. I have tried to defrost the non gas one

2) There is a plastic pipe running out of the wall from the boiler, out to the soil pipe. This was submerged in snow and ice and I have removed the snow and tried to defrost that, however nothing is working

Any ideas?

TBeckett100

As far as I can tell there are three pipes from outside going to the boiler

1) appears to be the condensing pipe which i dont think is frozen
2) appears to be a copper pipe which goes to the ground outside but is uncapped at the end (gasses?)
3) The gas pipe going in

I have found the mains feed into the combi boiler. This doesnt feel overly cold and gos into the floor

What I dont understand is

a) How I can get mains cold water in the kitchen sink, yet no cold water upstairs. We dont have a tank in the loft

b) how the heating can work, but there is no water coming into the system,

Does anyone have a theory of where the frozen pipe may be as I can rip out the kitchen and floor to find it.

Eek , help

thanks

muckybutt

TBeckett100 wrote: »

What I dont understand is

a) How I can get mains cold water in the kitchen sink, yet no cold water upstairs. We dont have a tank in the loft. Cold water normally comes in under the sink, that is probably the first outlet on your system.

b) how the heating can work, but there is no water coming into the system, Heating I think on combi's are normally sealed thats why that is working.

Does anyone have a theory of where the frozen pipe may be as I can rip out the kitchen and floor to find it. Sounds like its frozen between the cold tap in the kitchen and the boiler

Eek , help

thanks

As above in red

TBeckett100

thanks, i will have a look. i assume that the sink outlet is after the water meter under the sink

stevemcol

Is your whole house warm? If not, leave the heating on full for up to 12 hours or so.
If it's already warm or if that doesn't work, the frozen pipe is likely to be under the floor. Can you get access to investigate?
Make sure you know where the main stopcock is in case a pipe burst is evident when things warm up.

Party_Animal

There won't be a tank in the loft. It does sound like there's no cold water getting to the combi and that's why there's no hot coming out.
Its unusual for it to freeze with the heating on. Do as recommended above but be careful. Where actually is the boiler located?

Yorkie1

I had exactly the same thing this morning. Discovered the problem after the washing machine didn't work, I couldn't use upstairs taps and the toilet didn't refill ... but the heating was working fine.

I found the stoptap under the sink but then looked at the back of a corner kitchen cupboard next to it, and found what I think is called the 'rising main' - an upright metal pipe painted blue, with a stoptap on it. This is where the water comes into the house from underground, I believe; it then turned horizontally to the stoptap under the sink.

Also at the back of that cupboard were two other horizontal pipes. And a gap in the inner cavity wall through which a howling draught was coming.

I used the fan heater on all those pipes and they thankfully thawed enough for the taps upstairs to run much better and the toilet to fill slowly. I suspect there is still a minor blockage somewhere so have left the cupboard open and will leave the heating on overnight. I really hope that that sorts it out or it will be a plumber I think.

Good luck and hope you get yours sorted.

finance-boy

I think this happened to me, too. Last night I had a shower and everything was working fine. This morning, nothing. No running water anywhere in the house

Could somebody please advise me what to do?

- It's a big, old, draughty (and cold) flat above a shop
- The shop and the flat are owned by the same landlord
- I've never met the landlord (been here for over 12 months)
- I have no insurance (the tenancy agreement says that I must insure the home's contents, but I don't see why they would care seeing as the contents are all mine) (it doesn't seem to mention anything about buildings insurance - am I liable?????)
- I can't find the stopcock anywhere (nobody ever showed me where it was - it's not underneath the sink)
- It appears that my water supply is shared with the shop below. When I'm in the shower and I hear a toilet flush downstairs, I lose water pressure. Also, when I first moved-in and called the utility companies to get everything transferred over to me (as per the tenancy agreement), they told me that there was no record of a dwelling at my address.

Thanks for any replies

henpecked1

Thanks all. Whether it was the tax light on the pipe or the heating being full on for 24hrs, the toilet cistern started refilling at 1.30am so I know we are back in business

Yorkie1

finance-boy wrote: »

I think this happened to me, too. Last night I had a shower and everything was working fine. This morning, nothing. No running water anywhere in the house

Could somebody please advise me what to do?

- It's a big, old, draughty (and cold) flat above a shop
- The shop and the flat are owned by the same landlord
- I've never met the landlord (been here for over 12 months)
- I have no insurance (the tenancy agreement says that I must insure the home's contents, but I don't see why they would care seeing as the contents are all mine) (it doesn't seem to mention anything about buildings insurance - am I liable?????)
- I can't find the stopcock anywhere (nobody ever showed me where it was - it's not underneath the sink)
- It appears that my water supply is shared with the shop below. When I'm in the shower and I hear a toilet flush downstairs, I lose water pressure. Also, when I first moved-in and called the utility companies to get everything transferred over to me (as per the tenancy agreement), they told me that there was no record of a dwelling at my address.

Thanks for any replies

I suspect you may not have a stoptap in the flat if it is a shared supply with the downstairs.

Did you liaise with the shop to find out if their water was also off? If they had no problems, the blockage sounds as though it will be between the shop and your flat.

Do any of the water pipes run outside? Can you see any pipes under the sink or anywhere else in the flat? Can you put a fan heater or hairdryer on any of them?

If it is not sorted out yet, I would contact the LL asap and advise that you have no running water and cannot locate the stoptap in the event of a burst pipe.

As for insurance, you can't insure the building as you have no interest in it. I'm not sure about the position regarding contents insurance if the worst comes to the worst - if you have a burst pipe which damages LL's fittings and carpets etc, and you are not to blame for that, whether the LL can come after you for the cost. If that happens post again and others will be able to assist.

finance-boy

Thanks for that, it was very helpful.

Phew! It's nice to know that I'm not liable for the buildings insurance. The contents are nothing to worry about either since it's just lino on the floor in the kitchen and bathroom (particularly grotty lino at that)

The problem was with the shop downstairs. They showed me their taps - they were frozen solid. I called the landlord and it's all flowing again now. Thanks again!