overflowing overflow

[chris555]

Hello
Would really appreciate your help.

**Apologies for all my questions at once but my internet is also down and I can only get to the cyber cafe once a day so I have to make the best of my visit whilst I am there.

I went away for 4 days, came back, had a bath and then realised water was gushing out of the overflow that comes from my water tank in the loft.

I turned off my water at the mains and the water stopped.

I then realised that the water in my hot water tank was probably fed from the tank (not really sure still) so I turned the mains stopcock on again and when it started once more to overflow I turned it off and now assume that the hot tank is full.

Q1: When the stopcock is turned off there is no water coming out of the kitchen cold and there seems to be no water coming out of the bathroom cold either so am I right in assuming that both must be mains fed??

Q2: However shortly after turning off the mains the overflow once again started to drip a bit and then when I turned the cold water taps on in the kitchen and bathroom a little bit of water came out of them before it dried up again. Is this normal?

Q3: Am I right in assuming it is most likely the stopcock in the cold water tank in loft that needs looking at/replacing?

Q4:If so how much roughly would a plumber charge?

Q5: Is it normal for a small amount of water to come in through those cold taps even though stopcock is off?

Q6: Is it safe to operate with the main stopcock turned off most of the time till this problem is sorted? I am just using the water from the hot taps and keep only turning the mains back on to fill up the system again to make sure that the hot water tank actually does have water in it before I switch it on....does that make sense?

Q7: Do I need to turn the main stopcock back on for my washing machine to work?

many thanks
Chris

 

[REDSAW]

generally, no water, no workie.

you need a new ball-cock in your feed tank in the loft as the diaphragm washer is knaked and new tap washers in bath.
it depends on where you live for price, but £35-60 for ball cock and £35-60 for washers cheaper if combined?.

 

[chris555]

thankyou.

I just want to make sure that what I am doing at the moment as listed above is safe and ok. I cannot get hold of my landlord till next week and it is his responsibility to pay the plumber not mine so if I can hold on until till next week that's ok

I mainly want to know I have got a basic understanding to keep me going until I can contact him to sort the problem out and am not making anything worse.

 

[traineedrip]

Q7. Yes the Washing machine is usually mains fed.

 

[WaterTight]

I'm only a trainee so I'll have a pop but some of my advice may be dubious, so take with pinch of salt.

q1. Yep.

q2. Yep, water makes it's way down and round empty pipes and this can take a while. And the ball-valve in the tank could still be letting by some of the remaining water in it's supplying pipe after the mains is turned off.

q3. Almost certainly but to take everything in to account ..
a) is this definetly the first time this has happened? if it might have been happening before the arm might have been set at the wrong hight.
b) do you have another smaller tank in the loft as well? it has an overflow too with it's own set of possible causes. these tanks are small and often missed.

q4. Bloke I work for would charge 40-50 quid. But as said above, depends where you live too.

q5. If we're talking dribbles, yeah, as in q1. If every time you turn it on you get a fair amount built up your mains stopcock might not either be shut off 100% or it might not be able to be shut off 100%. Don't force it if stiff though, you're better dealing with dribbles from an overflow for a week then a leaking stopcock.

q6. You'll probably get away with it if you're careful but I doubt it's advisable for reasons others more knowledgable than myself will no doubt explain. Pretty sure a ready supply of mains fed cold is a safety feature.

q7. Yep. Some may also need a hot feed I believe?


For reasons I alluded to earlier (my inexperience) I don't know why redsaw suggested you need new tap washers. It's prob obvious but I don't get it at the mo.

 

[REDSAW]

Q5: Is it normal for a small amount of water to come in through those cold taps even though stopcock is off?

assuming the taps are off?.

 

[WHPES]

The stopcock may be passing some water if its washer is worn or marked.

 

[chris555]

thanks to everyone...est Watertight for detailed answer

the water coming in in dribbles is just when I turn my kitchen or bathroom cold tap on..it's not dribbling out of the taps when the tap is off.

I have decided to just have 'strip washes' with boiled kettles until the problem is sorted rather than risk turning on the water heater just in case, as you say, the main supply of cold plays some part. For the moment that will have to do....

Thanks to all and Have A Great New Year!