Cold water feed to sink, bath and toilet cistern blocked

[MidfieldGeneral]

Hello,

I'm having problems with the cold water feed from the storage tank in the loft to the bathroom on the first floor.

The hot water feed to both bath and sink is fine and the hot water tank seems to fill fine.

Fortunately the electric shower has a separate feed which comes direct of the rising main and that seems to be unaffected (presumably it uses the pressure from the main to help power the flow as we have pretty good pressure where we are.)

I have peered into the cold water sotrage tank (a circular big black plastic type) and it looks fairly clear, mercifully no spiders or dead rodents in it. It was protected by a sheet of plywood over a piece of plastic secured with string and insulated with a rather nasty old rug which I've now replaced with an insulating blanket from Wickes which hopefully won't drop any stray fibres into the tank (though there was no evidence of this particularly when I looked before it just seems a bit more hygienic). I can see what I believe to be the feed out to the bathroom and it looks clear and unobstructed.

There is a bit of scale in the bottom of the cold water storage tank and we live in a hard water area (north east London). You only have to look at the kettle to see that scale could be a problem!

When we first moved into this house about a year ago the flow was slower than the hot water but still quite usable but over the last 6 months it has gradually slowed to a trickle and now stopped altogether.

I'm wondering if the pipe has just gradually scaled up and a loose piece of scale has now lodged in the pipe causing a blockage which has got worse.

Any suggestions to unblock?

Many thanks,

rob

 

[MidfieldGeneral]

I should add that the slowness/blockage is affecting the sink cold water tap, bath cold water tap and the toilet cistern. All of which are slow and all seem to be coming from the same feed.

 

[PlumbBobBob]

yes it's possible that the pipes are blocked first thing to try would be to isolate the three outlets and open them up one at a time to see if there is anything obvious in the valves like scale etc. then work back from there.

 

[MidfieldGeneral]

Thanks Steve!

Given that it seems to be affecting all three outlets on the first floor (bath, sink and toilet cistern) I am working on the assumption that the blockage is upstream of the bath which I think is the first in line after the tank.

I am going to open the bath panels tonight or tomorrow and if necessary get some floorboards up so I can see what is going on with the piping.

Unfortunately it looks like the pipework from the sink goes back into the wall but there is a flexible hose from the pipe coming out of the wall onto the tap.

I was wondering if that might be a good point at which to attach a hose from the kitchen sink and try and blow the obstruction back into the CWS tank (having first drained the CWS tank of course)!

Alternatively have you any tips on removing limescale?

I have used things like Killrock to remove cosmetic scale from taps but am a bit hesitant about passing that through the pipes (would need to give them a lot of flushing through afterwards as its nasty stuff).

Many thanks,

Rob

 

[GreenArmy]

Connect hose pipe to cold water main (possibly off kitchen sink cold tap) connect other end to bath or basin tap spout. Open bath or basin tap fully, then get the wife to turn on the kitchen sink tap to blast cold main back through pipework and hopefully clear airlock or blockage.
Edited........sorry didnt read your second post.... doh

 

[welly2510]

is it a gate valve or leaver valve that shuts of the cold feed to bathroom? Went to a property that had similar problem and found the lever valve had been partially closed, they had been cleaning out airing cupboard and possibly caught it. just a thought.

 

[turnpin]

similar thought to welly 2510 I would suspect a faulty gate valve proberbly the gate inside the valve has come adrift from the drive section so its not been open fully and has allowed scale/debris to build up would suggest you drain tank and change valveregards turnpin

 

[mkflow]

i would do what ' green army 'has said

 

[kirkgas]

leave the floorboards alone until you check the valve from the tank, there could be one at the tank and one in the cupboard or somewhere, gently turn the valve(s) clockwise to close, count the turns then fully open and see if that helps, if it doesnt turn easily it may be jammed,

 

[MidfieldGeneral]

Good news! It seems everyone was right!

We used a hose from the outside tap to blast some pressure back up the line by removing the valve on the toilet cistern (This was a better move than the sink as it meant that any overflow from the hose just went down the loo)!

After a few seconds of that we got some flow back again (about the same as it was when we moved into the house a year ago, ie fairly slow but usable).

For bonus points we had a look at the tap valve in the loft which isolates the cold water feed to the bathroom from the tank.

It was stiff as a board but we got it moving eventually and after opening and closing a couple of times a feww bits of black debris came down the line and out of the tap.

Hey presto we now have PROPER pressure and can fill a bath and flush the toilet without it taking 20 minutes!

Thanks everyone. A great advert for the forum!

 

[seanjh]

Connect hose pipe to cold water main (possibly off kitchen sink cold tap) connect other end to bath or basin tap spout. Open bath or basin tap fully, then get the wife to turn on the kitchen sink tap to blast cold main back through pipework and hopefully clear airlock or blockage.
Edited........sorry didnt read your second post.... doh

Thanks so much for this advice, registered specifically just to thank you. Worked like a dream, and didn't break anything! Was a nightmare few days without a washing machine or being able to flush the toilet. Cheers GreenArmy