Eek - my copper pipes have melted away!

I don't have a water tank so I guess yes it is mains pressure. If you do a quick search for my previous posts (one thread from a couple of years ago) there are some photos there of the boiler which I think is a combi.

OK then I definitely won't get the scourer out in case that's the straw that breaks the camel's back. Also scared now that the stopcock will come off in my hand!

I suppose now we get to the interesting question: if I have no local recommendations, what's the best way to find a plumber? Still, at least I am armed with some helpful information so he can't suck his teeth and tell me that I need a whole new central heating system and I'll believe him :D.
 
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you could signup to your local nextdoor.com and see what recommendations they have - from people who have used them , i often see that locally and contribute.
But you will see the same names keep coming up frequently , and i know of 3 good plumbers down my way , and they all often get mentioned

you can also then maybe look at checkatrade , BUT be careful of that , i have had some cowboys turn-up here for jobs from checkatrade useless sometimes,
the plumbers i mentioned are not even on checkatrade , they have to much work locally
BUt the guy who has replaced all our doors and windows over several years , gets a lot of work via checkatrade

I would not use the mybuilder and other sites personally
 
Do your flats have a management company for communal issues ,if so they may have a plumber they use. Failing recommendations from friends ,neighbours ,family etc ,go for a long established company.
 
if you go to the top of this page and click on "Local" you put your postcode in and can search for members from here that cover your area , if they have signed up, I would avoid checkatrade and the likes, they are bottom feeders
 
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Central London. I might see if my old landlord knows someone, he has a lot of properties in this area.
 
It's odd how there's no water marks or staining around where they've let go?.
 
Well the engineer was equally mystified as to what could have caused it, so I guess we're going with "probably something to do with whatever you spilled on it" but he was able to fix it in about an hour (and he's going to bring some lagging round when he comes back at the weekend to do the magnaclean etc, in case of future spillages although I've totally learned my lesson there...).

He said the hot water pipe was fine when he cleaned the stuff off it - so if my next thread is titled "Aargh - I've just got out of the shower to find the flat ankle-deep in hot water!" then at least I'll have someone to phone about it!

In the meantime, thank you everyone for the reassurance, suggestions etc, I really appreciate it.
 
Am I being superdense here?

The two pipes with holes in them, what were they supplying and why was no water visible elsewhere.

I did once make the mistake of using the black Harpic in a basin. It wore away the chrome finish on the waste. It didn't damage the brass though. The instructions said do not use on stainless steel urinals. My basin is isn't stainless steel, and I have never pee'd in it. I contacted Harpic, they didn't care. I tried to suggest that it might have been more helpful to warn customers that their product might corrode metals, again they didn't care. I now use different products...
 
opps said:
Am I being superdense here?

The two pipes with holes in them, what were they supplying and why was no water visible elsewhere.
Click to expand...
One is likely the safety discharge pipe (aka blow off), other could be a dead feed or isolated.
 
Central heating pipes - or at least, that's what I told the guy they were and he didn't laugh and say "no they're not!" - and no idea why the downstairs neighbours didn't run up to me back whenever it happened, screaming that their flat was flooding. Engineer says in buildings like this the water could have gone anywhere before going downwards and it's possible that it ended up coming through down the void space behind the boiler or something rather than through the ceiling directly above their kitchen sink.

The boiler happily fired up as soon as the pipes were fixed and the system was refilled so there wasn't anything wrong with it apart from there being no water in the system. Last night was a quick fix and he's coming back round at the weekend to put chemicals in and do the magnaclean, so I might ask him to tell me more about it then. (The disproportionate level of terror I feel when anything goes wrong involving gas, electricity or water sort of embarrasses me, so it would be handy to learn more about this stuff generally.)
 
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