In my son's bathroom, both the sink taps and the shower thing that's over the bath taps (looks like a telephone!) allow very little water through. The shower not at all - the other taps are pretty well unusable. The kids use the bidet for washing and teeth brushing, fortunately no one uses the bidet for its intended use!!
What would cause this and what can be done to remedy it?
thanks
Should be *plonk* *plonk* since I have little doubt that "BigWallop" and "Liz" are the same person or at the very least that "Liz" is a shil.
Whoops, have I done something wrong here?
I don't want an expensive descaling machine, just some advice about unblocking taps. I'll try replacing the taps, and if it looks as though its a problem with the pipes I'll get a plumber in.
Not to worry, I'll try elsewhere.
Thanks anyway to those who have given useful advice
....and what's a shil?
Liz
Serious answer:
You may well find that the pipes supplying the taps are blocked, usually this happens near the taps. Go to the last place that has good flow and look at the pipework from then on. I came across this recently in a 1930's house, luckily I could unscrew the pipework and could just clean it out.
MrCheerful
Not if you're a genuine person with a genuine problem. The followup from someone giving a link to an electronic "descaler" which does absolutely nothign except to separate the gullible from their money made it appear that your question had been 'planted' as part of a strategy to post advertising.
That's probably the only solution. Be aware that it's *very* rare for the pipes themselves to fur up, even on the hot water circuit. I live in one of the hardest water areas in Britain and the pipes simply don't fur up. However ball valves, showerheads, immersion heaters, taps and kettles constantly fur up. We don't have a water softener and whereever hard water encounters air or heat + air it turns rapidly into limescale. The only way to stop this is to use a water softener with an ion-exchange column - the type that needs to be topped up with salt from time to time.
Err no need.
It's difficult to descale things like taps if the scale is so severe that water is just dribbling through. Even prolonged soaking in limescale remover won't help much. When you have a tap off you can investigate the pipe to see if it is filled with lime scale or not.
Assistant to someone pulling a scam. They pretend to me members of the public asking innocent questions to give the advertiser a chance to talk about their product.
Apologies for mistaking you for one.
Nah, it's just that some people have a very low opinion of electronic 'descalers'.
Do you have an old-fashioned hardware store near you? They're a likely source of Kilrock K, which is a superb liquid descaler. It puts the 'supermarket' stuff into the shade when it comes to descaling. It's also possible to get it in a gel form which is useful for getting rid of limescale actually on the body of taps, etc.
You can't get it everywhere, so you may have to search around for it. They do mail order as well. If you try Yell, you should be able to track them down.
bother with this bit of trickery!
I'm taking a wild guess here that this is a loft conversion? That theres a pump that's no longer working?
There is just enough water pressure to get to the lowest outlets (the bidet)
Failing that I need more info.
Thanks Ed, and others. No it isn't a loft conversion, just a normal 1st floor bathroom. I suspect the problem is limescale, though it must be a really big problem to completely block the taps. Hull.
I'll follow the advice with the descaling product (no, not the electronic one!) and lots of scraping and see if that does the trick. I want to try and do it during an evening spent there babysitting so hopefully won't cause more problems than I solve. Thanks again
Liz
When you say the 'other taps' do you mean sink or bath taps, or both? If it's a combined bath tap and shower fitting, I suspect if the shower only let's a dribble through but the bath taps both run happily then it's the washer on the shower selector that's all stuck up. I had this at my last house, and took the shower selector to pieces and fitted a new washer.
At the risk of asking one or obvious questions, do the taps turn on fully? Is it that they are all furred up on the stuffing gland and won't open fully? Are there isolating or service valves on the pipes that feed the taps? Are these fully on?
I think in your - or your son's - situation, I'd be looking to turn off the water and take the top off the taps to have a look and see what's going wrong.
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