Bathroom taps - no water 25 January at 1:25PM in In my home (includes DIY) MoneySaving 14 replies 426 views

juliebunny

Hello, moved into a new house and the sink taps don't work - i.e. no water coming out of either hot or cold taps. Toilet and bath both have water. Any ideas if there would be an isolation for just the sink? There is nothing obvious in the bathroom that I can see? 
TIA

Will_Riker

It's quite possible that there is an isolation valve on each tap (often called a "service valve").  Have a look at the pipe leading to each tap, a service valve looks kind of like a small cylinder an inch or two long.  There's a little inset "tap" as it were that you turn with a flat-head screwdriver.

Hopefully this will be the cause of the problem, and it's nothing more complex than that!  Service valves are a great idea, it means you can shut off the supply to an individual tap if you need to change a washer or something, without having to shut off the water to the whole house.

Gavin83

There should be isolation valves for the sink. I'd expect to find them in the vanity unit or whatever is directly under the sink. I'd say they're more likely to be the type where you require a screwdriver but could also be lever valves instead. Are you able to trace the pipes at all back to where they join the pipes supplying the toilet and bath?

diystarter7

Hi
Look in any cupboard in the bathroom or a bedroom where the boiler/immersion heater may have been before, take a torch look down the sides. The taps may have a separate valve but I doubt the bath would so look in cupboards etc

(be prepared to turn off just in case leaks present)

Thanks

juliebunny

Thanks a million for the suggestions, I'm at work today but will have another look tonight. There isn't any cupboard around the sink, just the basin. I suppose I was looking for a lever, more like the main one. I'll see if there's anything less obvious! There is an airing cupboard aswell, so if that fails, will pull everything out and check that.

Section62

juliebunny said:

Thanks a million for the suggestions, I'm at work today but will have another look tonight. There isn't any cupboard around the sink, just the basin. I suppose I was looking for a lever, more like the main one. I'll see if there's anything less obvious! There is an airing cupboard aswell, so if that fails, will pull everything out and check that.

Bear in mind if someone has isolated the water to the basin there may have been a good reason why - for example something is going to start leaking as soon as you turn the water back on.

Also, although service valves are a good idea in theory, in practice there are a lot of poor quality ones which start leaking as soon as you try operating them with a screwdriver. Those ones are best left untouched and the isolation done at a more reliable point instead.

It would probably not be a good idea to do anything (e.g. adjusting service valves) when you have limited time to deal with a leak if one happens, nor if the DIY stores are all shut for the day.  If you have to do it tonight, make sure you have old towels and suitable containers to hand to deal with any leakage.

It would be really odd behaviour for someone to isolate both supplies to the sink for no apparent reason.  Do you think frozen pipes could be a possibility?

juliebunny

@Section62 Very good point, I'll wait until a friend comes round tomorrow who is a bit more 'handy' in case of any disasters. The old owners told me they'd had a plumber round recently, and he must have isolated it, so guessing yes there has been an issue. I didn't ask what he did...in hindsight, should have done...the house is generally 'under-maintained' in quite a few areas but otherwise solid, and beautiful and, most importantly, away from my old and awful neighbours so to be honest, I felt like I could deal with this sort of thing in due course. 

diystarter7

juliebunny said:

Thanks a million for the suggestions, I'm at work today but will have another look tonight. There isn't any cupboard around the sink, just the basin. I suppose I was looking for a lever, more like the main one. I'll see if there's anything less obvious! There is an airing cupboard aswell, so if that fails, will pull everything out and check that.

Good luck annd let us know how you got on in a few days/week as you are busy. My guess is it is turned off but be prepared to turn off etc as i said and have bucket bowls ready but I feel it was turned off as a precaution.
Btw, when you try to sort it out, start early as if any probs you got the day to sort out but hopefully its straightforward.
Good luck in your new home

Will_Riker

Given the above (very valid!) replies, there is one other precaution you could take.  Locate the main stopcock (often located under the kitchen sink), check that you can close and open it easily.  Also, check that, when closed, it does actually stop the water supply to the whole house (try to run a tap in the bath, flush the toilet and it shouldn't refill, etc).

You can do this ahead of time.  That way, if it does turn out to be a service valve, and if there are any issues when you turn it on, you can at least turn off the whole water supply, giving you some breathing-space to sort it out.

The reason I say check it before-hand - a stopcock often gets left for years in the "open" position, meaning that the one time you need to turn it off, it's jammed solid.  It's a good idea (for future ease of use) just to close it and open it once a year or so, just to keep it free.

juliebunny

Success, thankyou! A small valve, which I didn't give a second look, on the back of the sink for each pipe, and a flat head screwdriver. Pretty slow water flow, but I'll take it!

Thanks to all for the advice. Will def take the advice to test out the main stopcock aswell but I think it should be ok as I'm told the washing machine was replaced not too long ago. 

baser999

If the water flows a bit slow, just check you’ve turned those valves fully open