Plumbing repairs and installations in Edgware

How was Edgware built?

Edgware stayed a small place on Watling Street, the old Roman road, until the Underground arrived. The Northern line reached Edgware in 1924, and within fifteen years the fields on both sides of the line were covered with semi-detached houses, parades of shops with flats above them, and the London County Council's Watling estate at Burnt Oak, begun in 1926. Almost everything in HA8 dates from those years or later, which makes it one of the most consistent housing areas in the borough.

HA8 belongs to the Harrow postcode area and stretches across the borough boundary into Harrow at Canons Park, so check your council tax bill before contacting a council about building control or a listed building.

What do 1930s semis bring?

Houses built quickly in the interwar boom were plumbed with a cold tank in the loft, a hot cylinder in an airing cupboard, galvanised or lead supply pipes and a bathroom above the kitchen. Ninety years on, most have been changed more than once. The patterns a plumber meets most often are:

• a loft conversion that removed the tank, with the hot water now from a combination boiler or an unvented cylinder, which is notifiable work under Part G of the Building Regulations
• a kitchen extension across the back, with the sink, dishwasher and washing machine moved away from the original waste
• old copper under the floors joined to modern plastic above them, with weeping joints where the two meet
• an original lead supply pipe still in place under the front garden

What is different about the Watling estate?

The estate at Burnt Oak was one of the London County Council's large cottage estates, with houses and maisonettes built to a small number of standard designs. Many are now privately owned through right to buy, while others remain council or housing association homes. If you rent one, report repairs to the landlord first, since in most tenancies the landlord is responsible for the water pipes, basins, baths and toilets. If you own one, the same standard design means a neighbour who has already had the pipework opened up can often tell you exactly where it runs.

What about flats above the shops?

Station Road and the parades along the Edgware Road have flats above the shops, usually reached by a side door and often with their stopcock somewhere in the shop below. A leak from the flat can appear in the shop's ceiling first, and a blocked waste from the shop's kitchen can back up into the flat. The lease says who repairs what, and plumbing in flats and conversions explains what to look for.

And the newer blocks?

Edgware has a growing number of purpose-built blocks, some on former car parks and commercial sites around the station. These generally have mains pressure systems, boosted supplies and shared risers, so a problem with pressure or hot water may belong to the building's management company rather than to a plumber you book yourself. Say which it is likely to be.

Is the water hard here?

Yes, as across the rest of north west London. Scale builds in cistern valves and on tap seats, so a toilet that trickles or a cistern that will not stop filling is a familiar request.

Who receives an enquiry from HA8?

A single local plumber whose patch includes your postcode, once you have agreed, and nobody else. If no plumber covers your part of HA8, we tell you and keep your details to ourselves.