Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some common questions that might help you if you’re unsure on what to do. If you have any more questions or need anything else, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.

• How do I top up my water pressure?

  Modern day systems are pressurised systems, meaning we let cold water into the radiators and pipework via a filling loop to hold a certain pressure for the boiler to operate, and can be monitored by a pressure gauge either on the boiler or elsewhere. To top up your pressure, find your filling loop and open the taps until you see the needle reach around 1-1.5 BAR when the boiler has not been operating (cold). Typically, boilers won’t operate less than 0.5 BAR to protect itself. If your pressure is regularly rising to near or over 3 BAR, or dropping to below 0.5 BAR, this will need to be seen to.

• Where is my stop tap?

  Your stop tap/cock stops mains water from coming into your house should there be a leak or burst pipe, for example. It will usually be located under your kitchen sink, garage or utility room. Knowing where your mains water line is on your street, this might give you an idea where abouts it enters the building. It is crucial you know where your stop tap is where you live, should the time ever come you need to turn it off in an emergency.

• What do I do if I smell gas?

  If you smell gas in your home, open all windows and doors immediately to ventilate the property. You should isolate the gas supply to your house via the lever (called an Emergency Control Valve, ECV) and this is usually located next to your meter. Do not operate any switches on OR off. Then, call the Gas Emergency Service number on 0800 111 999 and/or a competent gas engineer to investigate.

• My Carbon Monoxide (CO) alarm is going off, what should I do?

  CO is a deadly, odourless and tasteless silent killer. Every household should have one which is in date. If yours goes off, you should open all doors and windows and leave the property immediately. CO alarms maybe triggered by it’s batteries dying or a sensor blip, however, don’t operate any gas appliances until a Gas Safe registered engineer has been and confirmed they’re safe.

• Do I have to have a gas safety check yearly?

  By law landlords must have an annual gas safety inspection completed. Homeowners do not have to legally, although it is highly recommended to have them checked over periodically.

• Why is the top of my radiator cold?

  Radiators are typically cold at the top because of trapped air. This problem will usually be sorted by bleeding the air out with a bleed key at a small, you guessed it, bleed valve at the top of the radiator. Don’t forget to top the pressure up via the filling loop!

• Why is the bottom of my radiator cold?

  This is a separate problem and one which bleeding won’t help with, unfortunately. When they’re cold at the bottom it usually means there’s a build up of sludge called haematite and magnetite which has reacted with the water in your system over time, causing this build up. The first port of call for this would be a chemical clean (boiler service level 2) to help alleviate this problem. If it’s in your radiators, it’s in your boiler.

• Why won’t my heating/hot water come on?

  Hopefully we save you a call out fee here, because for us it’s customer first. Firstly, check the boiler pressure is ok. Next, is it just the heating not working or the hot water too? If it’s just the heating only, check your thermostat batteries, they may have died. If the hot water isn’t working too, or fluctuating in temperature, this is likely a boiler problem, so please call us to investigate.

• What are the numbered valves on my radiators?

  They are called Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRVs) and they respond to the temperature in the air, rather than the water temperature. They are a user functioning valve and can be used to turn the radiators up or down, depending what the customer wants the heat to be like in that particular room. Usually, number 3 is around room temperature (21°C).

• My toilet is constantly running, why?

  This is usually either 1 of 2 things. Your fill valve has given up, and is slowly letting the cistern fill up above overflow level and that water is seen either flowing from your overflow pipe or into the toilet pan. Or it could be that the flush valve or syphon has had enough and one of the washers or the whole unit is letting water pass through it.

• Why is my tap/shower constantly dripping?

  We refer to this as ‘passing’ water, where the internals of the tap or shower valve unit have deteriorated over time and is now letting water through when fully closed (similar to the toilet flush valve scenario above). You can replace the cartridges in some of these, however finding the exact like for like replacement can be tricky. Often, people choose to just replace them as a more cost effective and guaranteed fix, plus the added bonus of a shiny new tap!

• I have a gas fire, do I keep it or get rid?

  Honestly, this is more of a user decision, unless it is unsafe and this is the decision of the gas engineer on site. Open flued gas fires, when not maintained properly, can be very dangerous. We would always recommend a CO alarm near a gas fire. Efficiency wise, gas fires are usually around 6-7Kw, by contrast a radiator uses approx. 1-1.5Kw of energy to heat up, meaning you can heat 5-7 radiators for the same energy cost of using your gas fire. But who doesn’t like sitting round a cosy fireplace on a winter evening? As long as it’s safe, of course.

• I’m going away, should I turn my boiler off?

  This isn’t something we’d generally recommend, and especially in the colder times. If you keep your boiler switched on and turn the thermostat down to the bottom (usually 5°C), this will tell the boiler to kick in under a frost protection mode, which will circulate warm water momentarily to prevent the pipes and boiler from freezing up.