Low pressure in taps

[Penniness]

Hi

I have had low pressure in my kitchen taps for a few weeks now. But upstairs was fine, it has been making a few grumbling noises when the hot water tap was turned on

Last night I had a washing machine removed and turned the water stopcock off temporarily. Once it was turned back on and the taps splutter into action the water pressure downstairs was even worse, and also the shower is really low also. The upstairs tap is fine. The boiler was making a deep groaning noise during the shower

It is a Halstead HE 30 . Any ideas?

If it makes any difference the lever to supply the old washing machine is still turned off as the new one hasn't been fitted yet.

Thank you

 

[Chuck]

Do you have a cold water storage tank in the roof? If so, that explains why the upstairs tanks are working okay.

Don't use any water for 15 minutes and then check your water meter is stationary. This should rule out a leak in your supply pipe.

Is the property connected to 'standard' mains water? Are your neighbours experiencing similar problems? Has the water company been doing any work in the area recently?

 

[Penniness]

Hi, no I don't have a water tank it is mains fed. I am in the UK
I don't have a water meter.
There has been works in the area. I saw someone outside my drive last week for the second time in a month. The problem was elsewhere in the area but for some reason they had to open up a water grid on the path outside and watch it for an hour or so. They said it was being flushed. there was a lot of air bubble in the supply afterwards.

I also have low pressure on my boiler being sorted this evening. Would this cause all these problems? Why would it get worse upstairs after the stopcock was turned off?

 

[Stigster]

It is entirely possible that some muck/debris has entered the system whilst the works were being done on the main.

I would suspect the groaning from the boiler was air being sent through the heat exchanger and going on to be expelled from the taps.

The kitchen tap is the usually the first connection after the cold main enters the house and often the most used tap so if debris did enter the system I would expect to find it making its way to the cold tap. The simplest thing to check is the little strainer/aerator often found on the outlet of kitchen taps. Remove that by unscrewing it and check there for any debris.

The shower could be a similar issue as they have strainers on the inlet connections to the shower valve which can easily get blocked.

 

[Penniness]

Hi, you we absolutely right. I'd viewed youtube before I read this post and unscrewed the tap head and there was a hard creamy chalky substance hardened on the inside of the tap head - a quick scrap with a knife and it powered through no problem! I suspect it was limescale despite being in a soft water area we had replacement water a while ago which gave us limescale in the kettle. Hope it's not messed up my pipes elsewhere such as the boiler. Ordered a new shower head as not so easy to clean. The toilet pressure was down to the stopcock not being fully opened. Thanks for the replies

 

[Stu-B]

As stigster says, it’s not uncommon fo bits of soil/dirt/muck to get into your pipework when the mains water in the road is being worked on, check the filters/strainers on the problematic taps.