Cold water downstairs but none upstairs!

GreeboTheCat

Upstairs toilets and cold water taps are not working but downstairs is fine - full pressure! What's occurring here?

scattycat_3

Moved from Utilites, for you canny lot to get your teeth into.

I can only suggest an airlock, hidden stoptap, or.......

grumbler

GreeboTheCat wrote:

Upstairs toilets and cold water taps are not working but downstairs is fine - full pressure! What's occurring here?

I guess your downstairs tap is supplied from mains and everything upstairs - from a water tank (usually in a loft). Something wrong is with the tank I guess ...

dc

If Grumbler is right then you will have run out of hot water too by now.

Stuck float valve in the loft tank?

Martini

There may be an isolator which is closed that feeds the tank in the loft.
Go up and have a look. If the tank is full of water then check that no isolators are closed on the pipes from the tank. Maybe some polythene has fallen in and covered the pipework outlet.

djohn2002uk

The toilets wouldn't be off the cold water tank. Straight off the mains.
So I suspect the taps are too for them all to fail at the same time.
This could be worth a try: Turn the kitchen tap on and turn the stopcock off where it enters the house. When the kitchen tap stops running, turn it off and turn the bath tap on full then turn the stopcock back on.

grumbler

djohn2002uk wrote:

The toilets wouldn't be off the cold water tank. Straight off the mains...

Mine is off the tank. I thought the toilet is the main device that the tank must supply with water when the mains is cut off.

djohn2002uk

grumbler wrote:

Mine is off the tank. I thought the toilet is the main device that the tank must supply with water when the mains is cut off.

My tank only suplies the hot water cylinder. All cold taps and the toilet are straight off the mains. I believe you but I have never seen a toilet off the tank. That is why the "silent" systems were banned because of syphoning back into the mains when the supply went off.

grumbler

My house was built about 10 years ago and only kitchen cold tap (+washing machine+dishwasher) and electric shower are stright from the mains.

grumbler

http://www.diyfixit.co.uk/nflash/plumbing/Supply/supply.htm

Direct system

In this set up, mains water is supplied directly to all taps and WCs. This tends to be the system used in older houses.

Indirect System

The indirect system is the commonest form of water supply into modern houses. The mains water is supplied directly to the kitchen sink (and sometimes to an outside tap). All other water supply is via a storage cistern. The mains water comes into the house, branches off to supply the kitchen, and rises to the storage cistern. From here, the other appliances are fed under gravity pressure caused by the height of this cistern above them.

s.c.

Hi grumbler, I live in a newish house and the cold water mains goes to all cold taps.

I think it depends where you live, as the old water boards/companies each had their individual fears about backflow contaminating the mains. Each had local Bye-laws on what they considered best practice, so each area is?/was different.