Hi,
I'm not a plumber as will be easily evident but have to do the best job I can in resolving my issue so please answer based on that. I am not earning due to pandemic and stuck for cash to bring someone in.
Situation I have is that we have a mains stopcock outside front door. A stopcock in kitchen, a large cold water tank and small black plastic expansion overflow water tank in loft.
I had always believed each cold tap was fed directly but apparently not based on reading this morning. Due to our cold water storage tank in loft not having a lid, not one fitted properly anyway, I have now become a little concerned. We had a rat in loft some time ago and found it dead in the loft but obviously lofts can house all sorts. The tank itself is not particularly easy to get to being someway down under rafters toward the eaves.
I'm looking into changing cold water tank to get one with a lid.
I need to check one thing first though and if there is a danger to drinking water supply I will change tank. If not, I will wait until 2021 when I plan on changing from back boiler to combi and getting shot of tank in loft altogether.
Issue:
I was most concerned to find out if the kitchen sink cold tap is the only one on the mains. I turned main stopcock off outside front door. Ran taps at upstairs sink, downstairs kitchen and bathroom sink taps. I forgot to try the bath taps themselves but can do so again if needed based on answer. We have a bathroom(sink, toilet, bath, electric shower), Shower room (sink, toilet, electric shower), kitchen sink and outside tap. Sorry for long post but want to give as much info as possible rather than to place obstacles in your way to answer me.
I never tried our showers as they are electric showers and I presume that if I tried turning those on without water supply; if it happened to be on mains; that it would either not work at all or worse potentially destroy the shower as no water going over elements; though I suppose I could try the showers on cold only which would likely be safe?
So, I only turned off mains stopcock outside, not the one on pipework under sink in kitchen (difficult access). Ran cold taps in upstairs toilet, downstairs bathroom sink and kitchen cold tap. All these cold taps stopped completely though downstairs bathroom sink tap did so after a bit of spluttering and increasing decreasing flow. But they did all stop. So no cold water left running anywhere. The only mixer tap is in kitchen.
I never flushed either of our toilets and the only tap beyond the bathroom is an outside tap.
Hot water was still available in all locations. So at this point there were no running cold taps and I turned the hots off. But the kitchen being a mixer I simply moved back to cold position and it kept on running. I gave it the benefit of the doubt but it kept running. At no point on moving from hot to cold position did it run as fast as hot position but I'm concerned that it simply didn't stop.
Does anyone know what could cause the kitchen tap to do this. My main, though it may seem to you a daft worry, is that through some reason, even siphoning from hot somehow, is could the mixer tap at kitchen sink be getting water, even minimal but still potentially contaminated water from cold water storage tank.
I have no idea and can't find the answer elsewhere. I want to feel assured that I am not wrongly assuming the water at kitchen cold tap is solely from mains and therefore safe. Can our plumbing account for the cold water tank pushing water to that tap somehow?
I really don't want us drinking anything from our uncovered cold water storage tank in loft. But due to finances and likelihood of changing to combi next year and getting shot of tanks altogether don't want to waste money when I simply haven't got it. This is solely a 'safe drinking water' issue and all else I'm happy enough with until next year.
Lastly, the reason the lid doesn't fit is whoever put this in ran overflow pipe over lip of tank and the copper pipe is preventing the lid going down onto tank. I assume he should have put a hole in lid to allow for this. I'm not looking forward to this job but I can do it. I've changed taps and installed toilets before so I think I'd be okay but it's the knowledge on this issue I need to know which tack I need to take. If I can get away with not changing the tank at this point and to minimise work but to also give the tank a cover could I double up a high gauge double layer of DPC to simply stop contamination for the time being.
Any advice welcomed. Sorry to add this.
I'm sorry and do understand you are all plumbers and I appreciate the job you do is skilled. But please, there's no need to answer if you just want to add a 'get a plumber in' remark. You can use the remark if you also want to add something to the question but please not just the 'get a plumber' remark. Its all over the internet and outside of 'dangerous things' is unnecessary. I will weigh everything up and determine the potential for me to mess up before doing it anyway. This isn't gas work so I just need advice please on whether my drinking water is safe.
I've been drinking the stuff for years and knowing the kitchen cold tap water is safe is enough for me for now. If all cold taps sound safe to you then that is a bonus.
Thank you all.
