Emergency plumber in Fulham and Hammersmith

The classic SW6 conversion has two front doors: one for the ground floor flat and one leading upstairs to the first and second floors. They often share a single supply pipe from the pavement and a single outside stop tap, with the upper flat's pipe running through or under the lower flat. When the upper flat's loft bathroom leaks, the water comes down through two ceilings.

Thames Water says shared supply pipes are the joint responsibility of the households served. If the shared pipe under the front garden bursts, both flats need to agree on the repair. Inside, the pipes serving only one flat are usually that flat's owner's responsibility.

The outside stop tap for many SW6 terraces is under a small metal cover in the front path or pavement. If the supply is shared, turning it off cuts water to both flats, so warn your neighbour first. Thames Water says a stopcock key may be needed and that the outside valve should only be used in an emergency, for example a leak on the supply pipe.

Fulham and Hammersmith have a lot of extended houses. A loft bathroom often runs on a pump or relies on pipe runs added years after the house was built. A new basement bathroom may drain through a pump to reach the sewer. Both are common sources of emergency calls: a shower pump that fails and leaks, a loft bathroom waste that was never properly supported, or a basement pump that stops and lets waste back up.

If you have a pumped basement drain and the power trips, check the pump's fused spur or circuit before calling. If it trips again, leave it off and get it looked at.

Any new bathroom in a loft or basement also needs to drain properly, so if a shower or toilet in one of these rooms keeps gurgling or draining slowly, it is worth having the waste and its fall checked before it turns into an overflow on the floor below.

Hammersmith and Fulham run along the Thames, and the low lying streets near the river sit on the same Victorian combined sewers as the rest of central London. Heavy rain can overload them and show up in basements and ground floor gullies first. If that happens, report it to Thames Water's sewer flooding service.