E5 E8 E9 N16 N1
Emergency plumber in Hackney
For a plumbing emergency in Hackney, shut off your stop tap, switch off electrics near any water and warn the neighbours. Hackney mixes large estates and new blocks with Victorian terraces split into flats in Stoke Newington, Clapton and De Beauvoir, so whether the fault is yours, your landlord's or the building's matters from the start.
Hackney: tap what is happening
You see what to do right now, then send it through.
- 01Right now
- 02Your home
- 03Call back
Right now
What is happening right now?
Right now
Is the water off at the stop tap?
Your home
Where is it?
Your home
What is the postcode?
So the right engineer for your area picks it up.
Call back
Send it through now
Keep the water off at the stop tap while you wait. Your details go straight through so someone can ring you back.
Homes in Hackney
In the 2021 Census, 60.4% of Hackney households lived in purpose built flats, from the big post war estates to new blocks around Dalston Junction and Hackney Wick. Another 15.5% lived in converted houses, mostly the Victorian terraces of Stoke Newington, Clapton, Homerton and De Beauvoir. Hackney Wick also has warehouse and factory buildings turned into flats and studios. Each type fails in its own way: shared pipes in conversions, communal risers and pumps in blocks, and long, oddly routed pipe runs in converted industrial buildings.
Send the details now
Terraces split into flats
A typical Stoke Newington or Clapton conversion has a ground floor flat with the garden and a first and second floor flat above, sharing one water supply and one soil stack. Kitchens were often added at the back, with the washing machine plumbed into a pipe that was never meant for it. The common emergencies here are washing machine hoses splitting and flooding the flat below, toilet connectors leaking through ceilings, and blocked gullies in the back yard backing up into the ground floor kitchen.
If water from your washing machine has reached the flat below, tell them and your insurer. The Leasehold Advisory Service says each leaseholder is usually responsible for their own appliances.
Estates, new blocks and warehouse flats
In Hackney's estates and newer blocks, cold water often comes up a rising main, sometimes with a booster pump to reach the higher floors. When that pump fails, the top floors lose water first. That is the building's system, so call the housing provider or managing agent as well as checking your own valves. Leaks from pipes in communal risers, or from a flat where nobody is home, also go through the managing agent.
In converted warehouse flats around Hackney Wick and Mare Street, pipes can run a long way through ceilings and boxing before reaching a bathroom. Leaks show up far from their source, so a plumber may need to open boxing to find them.
Drains and heavy rain
Hackney sits on old Victorian sewers and many terraces share a drain run under the back gardens. If your drains are slow and your neighbours' are too, it may be a shared drain that Thames Water became responsible for on 1 October 2011. Ask next door before you pay to have it cleared. If it is just you, the blockage is likely on your section.
In heavy rain, yard gullies and basement drains in the lower streets towards the River Lea and Hackney Marshes can back up even when nothing is blocked, because the combined sewer is full. If sewage comes up only when it pours, tell Thames Water's sewer flooding service. If it happens in dry weather, it is more likely a blockage on your side or a shared section, and a plumber can lift the chamber cover and tell you which.
If you rent from a housing association or the council in Hackney, use their repairs line for leaks, blocked stacks and loss of water. Report it in writing too and keep a copy.
Most asked for in Hackney
Leaking appliance or flooded kitchen
Leaking washing machines, dishwashers, sink wastes and kitchen pipes stopped and repaired, with checks on the flat below.
Blocked drains
Blocked drains, gullies and soil stacks cleared, with help working out whether it is yours, the building's or Thames Water's.
No water or no hot water
No water at all, low pressure or no hot water: we find out whether it is Thames Water, the building or your own pipework.
Water through the ceiling
Leaks from the bathroom or flat above traced to the source and stopped, with a written cause for insurers and freeholders.
Local questions
The top floors of my Hackney block have no water. Is it Thames Water?
Check first whether the street has water. If lower floors do and upper floors do not, the building's booster pump or tank is the likely cause, so call the managing agent or housing provider.
My back yard gully keeps overflowing. Whose problem is it?
If only your drains are affected, it is usually your section. If neighbours on the same run are affected too, it may be a shared drain looked after by Thames Water.
Do you cover Stoke Newington and Clapton?
Yes. N16 and E5 are full of Victorian conversions, which is exactly the kind of building this service is set up for.
Plumbing trouble in Hackney?
Turn the water off if you can, then send the details and get a reply to arrange a visit.