A Baxi combi boiler at the property I'm renting makes a strange noise roughly once an hour. It's quite hard to describe, but it sounds a bit like it's sucking in or pumping water, followed by a sort of whooshing noise. It only lasts briefly.

I've recently received a much higher water bill than usual. I did have a faulty toilet that kept refilling itself, but that's now been repaired. I'm wondering whether the noise from the boiler could indicate a leak somewhere, or whether it's likely to be unrelated to my water usage.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? Any advice would be appreciated!

Really weird one. It started in the summer when the outside cold tap was being run simultaneously with the hot water tap, a really loud noise followed by vibration of the pipes started.

It’s now progressed to where if the kitchen tap is, on the bathroom sink will now vibrate, make a noise when drop a little when it’s off. Now I’ve noticed when I push down the top of the tap, it helps to stop the noise a little.

The problem also happens when the bathtub hot water tap is turned on, but the sink is off.

Any ideas what is causing this, loose washer on the tap maybe or?

I’d asked a plumber to come round but he didn’t seem so sure so I’d like to try and fix it myself if I can.

Hi, I have a Worcester Greenstar 27i compact boiler which has 0 bar showing for pressure. I’ve tried to figure out where/how I can let more water in but am at a loss.

The boiler doesn’t seem to have a key/anywhere to insert it like in YouTube videos, and there is a black cap seemingly preventing me from turning the valve.

There are also no blue levers/anything to twist. There is a cylinder in the loft but can’t see anything up there to let more water in either.

Any help/ideas welcome.

Edit: link to additional photos of cylinder, what looks like filling loop (but opening valves doesn’t do anything) and other random exposed pipe work in attic: https://postimg.cc/gallery/tWP1gRF

We've got a Megaflo, cold fed from 25mm blue, and then distributed around the house in 15mm barrier pipe.

It's unvented, made of stainless steel, and I believe it's at 65C. Why wouldn't it be safe to use the hot water for cooking/drinking?

I am having trouble since moving in with black mold on the toilet seat and lid in the cloakroom. It's like a dry dust and black. Nothing on walls. I clean it and it just comes back in 24hrs. I cannot see any leaks, the room is warm and dry. We had the issue in the bathroom but since ripping it out and having new installed the issue has gone. But I am still nowhere in finding the cause. Any ideas what to look for?

Hi I am quite desperate to find a plumber that works with saniflo systems, I haven't been able to use my bathroom at all for a week now because the only one I found wants to charge 950£ for the job. If any of you know someone reliable that charges less than that please let me know. Edinburgh.

My bath hot tap is leaking from the base of the handle when it is on, with a fairly steady drip, but doesn’t leak when it’s off.

Any suggestions for what might be causing it - do I need to call a plumber or can an idiot with no experience fix the issue?

The problem seems to be getting worse day by day.

For the past two days, what I believe is a Vaillant boiler in the basement of my student accommodation has been making an extremely loud rattling and humming noise.

It happens in cycles of roughly 10 minutes, stops for about 30 seconds, and then starts again. It’s so loud that it’s been keeping me awake at night.

Does anyone know what could be causing this? Is it something to worry about?

My boiler is slowing losing pressure when the heating is on.

It was recently serviced and the engineer said there was no leaks within the boiler itself, the pressure relief valve doesn’t seem to operating i.e. no dripping from the external copper pipe.

I’ve checked all the radiators and there’s no visible leaks around the valves or air bleed valves.

Any ideas on how to find the leak short of lifting the floor boards and checking all the pipework?

We've just had a plumber come out (£60 call out fee). We could see water damage soaking into our subfloor (no flooring down yet) but couldn't see the pipe, so when they arrived they charged a £180 investigation fee on top of that to cut an inspection hole in our subfloor to find the pipes. After locating a piccadilly circus of bad pipework with 1 leaky pipe, they quoted an additional £450 to fix the leak coming to £690 total. Is this reasonable? Agreed on the spot to proceed because the leak clearly needed dealt with and didn't want to add any additional water damage. To clarify, at the end they had replaced 2 pipes total, one that was leaky and one that was pressing into another which they've replaced with a flexible pipe.

I asked for invoice and bank details but they demanded payment on the spot and would invoice afterwards (not my understanding of how invoicing works...) and they said they would wait outside my house until they received payment which was odd and offputting. Looked at some other reviews for leaky pipes and seems average cost for others has been around 200-300. What might have driven the cost up so much here - have I paid for the urgency of it or have I been overcharged?

Hopefully its up to your standards 😬

I’m in Scotland and looking at becoming a properly qualified plumber, but I already run another small business and ideally need to keep that going part-time.

I’ve already got some DIY plumbing experience radiators, taps, sinks and similar basic work although I’m not claiming to be professionally trained.

What I’m wondering is whether there is any legitimate route where I could:

work in plumbing around 2–3 days per week;

start with straightforward jobs like taps, toilets, leaks, sinks, wastes, radiators and pipework;

gradually gain experience with more advanced plumbing/heating work

build a proper portfolio/evidence of the work

study for the SVQ Level 3 Plumbing & Heating part-time

and eventually become recognised as a qualified plumber.

I’ve seen that the normal Scottish Plumbing & Heating Modern Apprenticeship is around four years and full-time, which would mean giving up my existing business.

West College Scotland also appears to offer the SVQ Level 3 part-time, so I’m trying to understand whether someone could complete that while working part-time/self-employed in plumbing, or whether you absolutely have to be employed as a full-time apprentice.

I’m not looking for a quick course or shortcut and I don’t expect a few DIY jobs to make me a plumber. I’m happy to train for several years. I just want to know whether there is a recognised route that allows the practical work to be done part-time rather than 37.5 hours a week.

Has anyone in Scotland actually qualified through a route like this?

If you did the SVQ Level 3 outside a Modern Apprenticeship, did employers/SNIJIB recognise you as a plumber afterwards?

Any advice from Scottish plumbers, employers, assessors or people who came into the trade later in life would be really appreciated.

Hi all, moved in to a new build house 2 years ago and the house is 8 years old.

Recently in the en-suite bathroom my electric shower is low pressure, cleaned all filters, and cleaned all the parts which we get a lot of copper build up in clogging up the shower hose.

Is there anything else I should do or time for a new shower unit?

Thanks for any help

Water heater finally gave out. theres a puddle on the floor and no hot water. its a 15yr old gas tank so i figure it's time for a replacement. i'm in east Boston and wondering if same day replacement is actually realistic for a pretty straightforward swap or if thats mostly an excuse to charge emergency rates. anyone dealt with this recently?

We have a downstairs bathroom and the kitchen sink waste goes into this outlet (under the bath) - this only serves the kitchen sink; bath and basin waste have their own outlets.

Leaking foamy water onto the bathroom floor after emptying kitchen sink, so removed bath panel and found the waste and this weird tee - which is uncapped but has a screw thread. The “leak” is from this uncapped tee (15mm copper). I guess the cap/bung has gone/perished as this leak has only just happened.

What is this fitting? - and where can I find a cap? (or can I just bung it up?).

Or, is that tee ok to be open and we have a blockage further down (under the floor 😬)?

Only need a short-term fix as the bathroom will be ripped out in the next few weeks with plumbing/wastes being reorganised!

Hi

Looking for some advice on whether we get a baxi 630 vs 830 combi boiler as a replacement for our 10 year old baxi duotec combi 24.

It’s a small 2 bedroom terraced property with 1 shower, no bath, 2 basins (kitchen and shower room). 5 radiators in total.

We are anticipating on living here for the next 5 years but looking to sell or rent it out at the end of that, so want to upgrade boiler whilst changing kitchen as it makes sense!

Any thoughts on the above?

As a DIYer I finally got to use my Monument 15mm pipe benders at the weekend to create some small sets for radiator pipes. It might be sad but I really enjoyed it and got a great deal of satisfaction when it worked out ok.

Is there an alternative to copper I can use to practise on as copper is expensive?

Hi all just wanted to share an update, thanking everyone for their responses on the last thread

I ended up getting a plumber from Taskrabbit at £96 an hour

He spent 3 hours on the bathroom task (he also found the toilet was overflowing which is fixed)

And then 2 hours on the en-suite silicone as well as changing a kitchen tap. The kitchen tap was not even in the original quote from the first plumber

So in total I paid £500 which I’m very happy about compared to the £3200 quote, thanks everyone

It’s surprising as the first quote came from a plumbing company who has 100 reviews on google at around 4.6 stars. When I called to ask why the quote is so high they said it’s because they issue a 12 month warranty. They also wanted to replace the shower door which my Taskrabbit plumber said wasn’t needed

I moved into a flat in April and have been trouble with the shower randomly going cold. I've seen a few different things about what it could be but was hoping I could narrow it down or ask how to troubleshoot it better?

The taps all run as they should, the hot taps go hot and do not run cold at all.

Attached to ask if all looks ok on the boiler too, or what the symbols that turn on and off are showing?

Even when repressurizing the boiler had the same issue - even had an expansion vessel fitted as advised by a gas company!