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Fishermead went up in the early 1970s, laid out as terraces around landscaped squares, and a good deal of the housing runs to three storeys.
That last point sounds like architecture rather than plumbing. It is not. Height changes water pressure, it changes where a boiler can sensibly go, and it changes what the shower on the top floor will actually do.
Based in Two Mile Ash, around fifteen minutes away. Gas Safe registered, registration number 981362.
- Gas Safe registered 981362
- Around fifteen minutes from Two Mile Ash
- Access routes checked at survey, not on delivery day
- Booked work Monday to Saturday, 8am to 8pm
Last updated
What a third storey does to your water
On a gravity fed system, meaning a cylinder in the airing cupboard and a cold tank in the loft, pressure comes from the height difference between the tank and the outlet. On a top floor, that difference is small. Sometimes very small.
The result is a shower that has never worked properly and never will, because low pressure is inherent to the arrangement rather than a fault developing. No amount of replacing the shower fixes it. The options are a pump, or converting the hot water system to an unvented cylinder so that every outlet runs at mains pressure regardless of which floor it is on.
On a combi, height matters less, but distance still does. A long run from the boiler to a top floor bathroom means a longer wait for hot water and more heat lost on the way.
- Boiler position becomes a real decision. A boiler at the bottom of a tall narrow house has further to push heat and hot water. One higher up may have flue and condensate constraints. Neither is wrong, but it is worth deciding deliberately rather than putting the new one where the old one was because that is easiest.
- Condensate routing is more awkward the higher you go, because the pipe has to reach somewhere it can discharge, and the run gets longer and more exposed. A long external condensate run is the classic cause of a boiler locking out on the first frost.
Getting things up three flights
Worth raising early because it occasionally changes what is practical rather than just what it costs.
An unvented cylinder is bulky and heavy, and a three storey terrace with a turned staircase is not always a straightforward route for one. The same goes for a steel bath, and for anything that has to come out as well as go in.
None of that rules anything out. It does mean the access route is worth checking at survey rather than on delivery day, and it occasionally makes a cylinder position on a lower floor the sensible answer even where the airing cupboard is higher up.
The rest of it: an early 1970s estate
- Third generation boilers, with originals long gone and first replacements now past their life.
- Fifty years of magnetite in systems that have frequently never been cleaned. Cold at the bottom of a radiator means sludge, not air. See power flushing.
- Microbore in places, which silts more readily than larger pipe and limits what a bigger radiator can deliver.
Hard water
Same Anglian Water supply as the rest of Milton Keynes, around 300 mg/l of calcium carbonate against a UK average of 207. In a house with a shower on the top floor, a scaled combi heat exchanger is felt more sharply, because you are already at the limit of what the system delivers up there. See our hard water guide.
Getting to Fishermead
Around fifteen minutes from Two Mile Ash. Straightforward for booked work and for out of hours.
Frequently asked questions
My top floor shower is terrible. Can it be fixed?
Yes, but usually not by changing the shower. If you have a cylinder and a loft tank, the pressure is limited by the height difference, which on a top floor is minimal. A pump or a conversion to unvented is the real fix.
Should the boiler stay where it is?
Not necessarily. In a tall house, boiler position affects how far heat and hot water have to travel. Worth deciding rather than defaulting to the existing spot.
My boiler locks out on cold mornings.
Frequently a frozen condensate pipe, and the runs are longer in a taller house. Warm, not boiling, water along the external section usually clears it. If it refreezes, the pipe needs re-routing or lagging properly.
Cold at the bottom of the radiator. Air?
No. Air collects at the top. Cold at the bottom is sludge, and bleeding will not help.
Do you cover Oldbrook and Springfield?
Yes, along with Campbell Park, Woolstone, Netherfield and Central Milton Keynes.
What we do in Fishermead
Where we cover in Fishermead
- Fishermead
- Oldbrook
- Springfield
- Campbell Park
- Woolstone
- Netherfield
- Central Milton Keynes
Get in touch
Call 07514 312117 or send a WhatsApp. Gas Safe registered 981362, CIPHE member, fully insured.