How did Golders Green grow?

Golders Green was open country until the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway, now the Northern line, opened its station here in 1907. Building followed at once: broad roads of large Edwardian houses, parades of shops along Golders Green Road and Finchley Road, and from the same year Henrietta Barnett's Hampstead Garden Suburb on the land to the east. Later came mansion blocks along the main roads in the 1930s and infill of every kind since.

The result is a district where most houses are big, old and have been altered more than most.

What do large Edwardian houses need?

Houses here often have four or five bathrooms where there was once one, a loft room, a side return kitchen and sometimes a basement. All of that hangs on a supply pipe and a soil stack designed for a family in 1910. The questions that follow are:

showers that weaken when a second bathroom is in use, which the rise towards the Suburb makes worse
hot water that takes an age to arrive at the far end of the house
leaks where new bathrooms were plumbed into old pipework
lead supply pipes under long front gardens, where they were never renewed

Boosting the supply with a pump is restricted: a pump that takes over 12 litres a minute out of the supply pipe has to be notified to your water company in advance under the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999.

What applies in Hampstead Garden Suburb?

The western half of the Suburb, including Central Square, falls in NW11. The whole Suburb is a conservation area, and the Hampstead Garden Suburb Trust must approve most external changes to its houses, over and above planning rules. That includes anything a plumbing job adds to the outside: a new waste pipe, an overflow, a vent, a flue or a boiler casing on a visible wall. Repairs inside the house do not need the Trust, but say in the enquiry that the house is in the Suburb so the plumber plans around it.

What about flats and mansion blocks?

A great many Golders Green houses are now flats, and the parades along Golders Green Road and Finchley Road have flats above the shops. The 1930s mansion blocks usually keep a tank in the roof feeding every flat by gravity. In all of these, stacks and often the cold supply are shared, the lease decides whose pipe is whose, and the stopcock may not be in your flat at all. Repairing the pipe that failed is down to whoever owns it; who pays for the damage below depends on the lease and the building's insurance.

Are basements a plumbing matter?

Partly. A basement bathroom or kitchen sits below the level of the drain outside, so its waste has to be pumped up to the sewer, and a utility room down there needs a pumped waste for the washing machine too. Those pumps need power, a non-return valve and regular care. If your basement has one, say so, because a failed pump looks like a blocked drain.

Is the water hard?

Yes, as across north London. Scale is the usual reason a cistern runs on or an overflow drips.

Who sees an enquiry from NW11?

One local plumber whose area takes in your postcode, with your consent, and no one else. If nobody covers NW11, we tell you and your details go no further.

Who you will hear from

We pass your enquiry to one local plumber, if one covers your postcode. It is never sent to a list of companies. If nobody covers your postcode, we will tell you and will not pass your details on.