Plumber in Coffee Hall

Week one: find things

• The internal stopcock. Most often under the kitchen sink, sometimes in a cloakroom, under the stairs or in a garage. Turn it fully off, confirm a cold tap stops running, turn it back on, then back it off a quarter turn so it does not seize open. If it will not turn, get it replaced now rather than during a flood. See our stopcock guide.
• The external stop tap. At the boundary, under a small cover, usually marked with a W. Check the cover lifts and buy a stop tap key. They cost very little and cannot be bought at midnight.
• The isolating valves under every sink and behind every toilet. Turn each fully closed and open again. Replace any that will not close, because in this water they seize and you find out at the worst moment.
• The condensate pipe from the boiler, usually white or grey plastic around 22mm. Note where it runs and whether the external section is lagged. It is the commonest winter shutdown in the city.
• The consumer unit, and how to isolate the power.

Week two: record things

Then ask two questions

• Did the previous owner leave the boiler paperwork? You want the Building Regulations Compliance Certificate from the installation and any servicing history. If neither exists, that is worth knowing now rather than when you sell.
• When was it last serviced? If nobody can tell you, book one. It gives you a baseline set of readings to compare against next year, and on a house of this age it frequently finds something worth knowing about. See boiler servicing.