DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hi,
i have been building an extension on my house over my garage, typical 4 bed estate house, the extension has a new ensuit plumbed in via 22mm copper to the HW cylinder and the 22mm cold water supply form the CW tank in the roof. the difference in level between the roof tank and the sink taps is 1200mmish. the water just trickles out the sink tap and the shower hardly works at all. the toliet works fine? i have put in air bleed vaives and it is no better. HW cylinder is vented. has any body got any ideas how i can get this working correctly?

many thanks Andy

some questions you need to ask
is the tank adequate for the whole house?
all gate valves opened?
is the pipe work connected directly to the cold tank and threfore is a seperate supply from the other distribution pipes?if not is water being drawn away
did you cut into the existing hot pipe work or come from the hw tank
is the rest of the house suffering or is all ok
can you unscrew the top of the bleed valve any water at all coming out?

the hieght of the tank shouldnt be too much of a problem unless the run is now too long from the tank to the new outlets
how is the toilet being fed?

Bob,
thanks for coming back to me, the answers are as follows;
the house is 3-4years old, the cold tank is the normal black plastic 1mx1mx1m. the hot is a insulated indirect copper cylinder, there is only me and the wife and our 3yrold son so the tank is ok at the mom.

all valves are fully open, the hot and cold taps in the bathroom runs full bore! the new pipe work connects; new cold T into the cold supply to the HW cylinder, the new hot T off the top out let, there is only one outlet from the tank. when i run the new sink mono tap from hot to cold there is no difference in the very poor flow, and is much less than any one hot tap in the house. the rest of the house is fine, there is no difference. i can open the bathroom top sink tap to a good flow then open both new shower and new sink on full hot at the trickle and it makes no difference to the bathroom flow, then switch of the bathroom tap and again no difference to the new ensuit flows? when i fitted the bleed valves i could bleed of air then the water would start squirting out.

the new toilet is T off the new cold run down to 15mm copper from the sink, you can flush the loo and it fills normally.

i get the feeling the sink tap is choking the sink flow due to the low head, looking at similar taps they require .2bar, 2m head, i have 1.2m? the pipes going into the mono block are braded pipes crimped onto brass threaded bits, with a hole in then of 5mm, this i feel is the problem.

as for the thermo shower mixer bar, i feel this is also has a higher pressure requirement than is available, it was purchaesed off ebay so i have no pressure spec on it? i have purchased a new shower mixer which is should run on a gravity sytem but it need 0.5bar, 5m head, where can i get that from. i will take it back and get my money back.

what a mess! should never have got involved, no plumber will come near now i have started it, not that they seamed to want to price the work in the first place, sob sob.

i am a structural engineer, if anybody can come and fix my system i will be more than happy to design a loft conversion for etc for them, im in kent!!

have you got high pressure taps ?
if so you may have trouble trying to get the water thru
double check with the suppliers

try changing the braided connextions with more standard types ( half inch x 15 mm)
try a pump for the shower £100 from screwfix
dont suppose you live in cheshire?

Bob, thank for your help, i got the taps off ebay, new, but with no information, i did not realise you could get different presure taps etc. i htinlk i need to get normal taps and shower and that will correct it i bet.
cheers
andy

ps i am in kent cheshire is a little to far for me :)

will you let us know the out come
bob

fitted new simple taps and a 1m head shower and it all works!

well there you go learn somthing new each day, accept the plumber price of £1450 and leave it all to them.

Bob, thanks for you help mate.
regards
Andy