Tyneside flat - terrible water pressure

[sebt27]

Hi all

Found some good questions and answers here, so signed up!

I live in an upper Tyneside flat (common in Newcastle: a terraced house with 2 front doors next to each other. One goes upstairs, the other to the ground floor flat).

The water pressure in our upper flat is often terrible. As soon as the GFF neighbour does anything with water, our pressure goes to nothing.

I don't remember this ever being a problem in other upper Tyneside flats I've lived in. However, this flat (and the GFF, both owned by the same landlord) show many signs of botched, roughly-done interior jobs (e.g. kitchen, bathroom). And a very competent engineer who came to replace the central heating boiler found that he had to get into the downstairs neighbours' flat to turn off the water supply. If I remember right, he found that there was just one water supply for both flats, with one stopcock.

Is this arrangement - a single water supply - usual with Tyneside flats, or is this just a weird one? Like I said, I never noticed it as a problem in other flats. But since I'm thinking of buying an upper Tyneside flat, I'm wondering whether this is a possible problem to look out for.

thanks!

 

[CBW]

It’s supposed to have x2 individual stopcocks, your landlord has done a botch job (as you mentioned), and quite possibly illegal as you’re supposed to have access to a stopcock.

 

[sebt27]

Thanks, CBW! I thought that was usual: 2 water supplies, 2 stopcocks. So in this flat, what's likely happened is that our upstairs water supply has been capped off (for some reason...), goes nowhere, and both flats are using the GFF's supply with the single stopcock. That would account for the terrible water pressure. Does that sound right?

 

[CBW]

Yes, sounds about right, although the pressure sounds poor to begin with. On mains if someone else uses the tap there’s not that much of a noticeable difference unless poor pressure/flow.

 

[gazplumber]

As I also live in an upper Tyneside flat, and have the same problem as you, I thought I would share a local opinion.
You should have your own stop cock in your flat, but not having one will make no difference to your water flow rate or pressure.

When the downstairs flat use water at any point, your supply will be affected as both flats share the same supply pipe from the mains supply. Your flat is second in line on this supply pipe, so the only time your not affected is when downstairs flat are not using any water at all.

 

[Munroast]

Hi all

Found some good questions and answers here, so signed up!

I live in an upper Tyneside flat (common in Newcastle: a terraced house with 2 front doors next to each other. One goes upstairs, the other to the ground floor flat).

The water pressure in our upper flat is often terrible. As soon as the GFF neighbour does anything with water, our pressure goes to nothing.

I don't remember this ever being a problem in other upper Tyneside flats I've lived in. However, this flat (and the GFF, both owned by the same landlord) show many signs of botched, roughly-done interior jobs (e.g. kitchen, bathroom). And a very competent engineer who came to replace the central heating boiler found that he had to get into the downstairs neighbours' flat to turn off the water supply. If I remember right, he found that there was just one water supply for both flats, with one stopcock.

Is this arrangement - a single water supply - usual with Tyneside flats, or is this just a weird one? Like I said, I never noticed it as a problem in other flats. But since I'm thinking of buying an upper Tyneside flat, I'm wondering whether this is a possible problem to look out for.

thanks!

In light of the recent football results, there is that much ale been supped in the Toon, all local water resources is being taken up by the brewery.