Emergency plumber in Southwark

In Southwark's estates and blocks, the plumbing that serves your flat joins communal pipes in risers and ducts. A leak from a flat above often comes down through a bathroom or kitchen ceiling, because bathrooms and kitchens stack. If you are a council tenant or leaseholder, the council's repairs service handles communal pipes and many leaks. If you are in a private block, the managing agent does.

When water is coming in and you cannot reach anyone, isolate your own supply at your stop tap, switch off electrics near the water and contain it. If a ceiling is bulging or water is pouring into electrics, call 999.

Converted warehouses along the river were not built for dozens of bathrooms. Pipes often run long distances in ceilings and boxing, and wastes may rely on small pumps or long horizontal runs. Leaks here can travel and show up a long way from the source, so tracing can take longer. The building's management usually controls access to plant rooms and main valves.

Access is often the hardest part. Plant rooms, riser cupboards and the main valves for the building are usually locked, and the concierge or estate office holds the keys. If you live in one of these buildings, find out where the valve for your own flat is and who to call out of hours before anything goes wrong. Keep that number somewhere you can find it in the dark.

Around Lordship Lane, Peckham Rye and Nunhead, Victorian terraces are a mix of whole houses and upper and lower flats. Here the familiar problems apply: burst pipes in lofts and under timber floors after frost, blocked gullies in back yards, and leaks from the upper flat's bathroom into the lower flat. If you own the house, the supply pipe from your boundary to the house is yours. If neighbours' drains are blocked too, it may be a shared drain that Thames Water looks after.

Around Peckham Rye and East Dulwich, many of these houses were built before 1970, and Thames Water says homes of that age may still have lead supply pipes. If you have low pressure or a supply pipe that keeps leaking, ask whether it is lead and whether you qualify for Thames Water's lead pipe replacement scheme.