New Boiler Causing Water Damage?

Gaz83

My wife and I had a new boiler installed on Friday.

As soon as it was installed, I noticed that our water pressure had increased - whereas before pulling the tap all the way open resulted in a steady flow of water, now doing the same means the water gushes out, splashing me all over in the process!

This morning at 4am my wife woke me up to tell me that a tap was leaking - it was the mixer tap in our bathroom basin. After trying and failing to stop the flow to the tap (the inline valve is rather helpfully behind a shelf, so I couldn't just shut off the flow to that tap) I switched the house's water supply off and switched it back on this morning.

Tonight as we were watching TV we heard a drip noise and came through to our kitchen to find water leaking through our kitchen ceiling. In the bathroom above there is no sign of any leak (apart from the tap) so I can only assume the leak is under the floorboards.

Do any MSEers have experience with this? I can only assume that the increased water pressure has triggered a weak point in our piping (a join or seal, perhaps).

ritesh

Hi Gaz83

I am going to stick my neck out on this. When we refurbished our whole house this included a new boiler. When we were researching all taps, showers etc we learned that certain products were better suited for high pressure. We did indeed have high pressure (system condensing boiler and megaflo) and so ensured the products we bought were suitable for the job.

Perhaps you might be experiencing this issue?

Gaz83

ritesh wrote: »

Hi Gaz83

I am going to stick my neck out on this. When we refurbished our whole house this included a new boiler. When we were researching all taps, showers etc we learned that certain products were better suited for high pressure. We did indeed have high pressure (system condensing boiler and megaflo) and so ensured the products we bought were suitable for the job.

Perhaps you might be experiencing this issue?

Thanks. Our insurance company agree that this is a possibility. They want me to contact the company who installed our boiler to get them to have a look. I'm not sure what this is going to achieve, to be honest, given that we paid them to fit a boiler, not check all the pipes / taps / valves in the house to make sure they could handle the pressure.

Plumber90

Did you go from an open vented system to a combi by any chance. If so it can happen, not very often but unfortunately it has for you. It's one of those things that the plumber can't help.

Gaz83

Plumber90 wrote: »

Did you go from an open vented system to a combi by any chance. If so it can happen, not very often but unfortunately it has for you. It's one of those things that the plumber can't help.

Yes, we went from an older system boiler to a combi boiler.

Our insurance company seem to think that the engineers who installed may be liable for repairs under their own insurance. I'm not convinced - surely we paid for them to install a boiler (which they have done, well) and not to install a boiler and check all the pipes in the house.

adandem

I would say it's either a leaking pipe which isn't coping with the increase in pressure or the water from the leaking tap finding an outlet.
Pressure on the hot taps will be the same as on the cold and are all mains fed. I have a feeling that when taps are installed they recommend a minimum pressure to work effectively, not sure about a maximum?
When our combi was installed we were warned that leaks can occur esp in older houses, if you're losing water through the system the pressure on the boiler will drop.

ariba10

Have you tried turning the main "Stop Valve" down a turn or two?

(The one that brings the supply into your home)

Plumber90

ariba10 wrote: »

Have you tried turning the main "Stop Valve" down a turn or two?

(The one that brings the supply into your home)

You will still have the same pressure just less flow.