Emergency plumber in Westminster

Mansion blocks built around 1900 were plumbed with cast iron soil stacks, lead or iron supply pipes and big tanks in the roof. Most have been replumbed in parts, but old and new often meet in the risers, the vertical ducts that carry pipes past each floor. A leak in a riser can show up on several floors at once, or in a flat far below. Bathrooms in these blocks are stacked, so a failed shower tray or waste on the fourth floor will usually land in the third floor bathroom.

The Leasehold Advisory Service says the freeholder is usually responsible for communal pipes and tanks that serve more than one flat, while each leaseholder looks after the pipes serving their own flat. In a mansion block, that line usually falls where your branch leaves the riser. Your porter or managing agent should know who to call for the riser itself.

Many Westminster blocks run hot water and heating from a central plant room in the basement. If you have no hot water and your neighbours have none either, it is the building's system and the managing agent's job. If only your flat is affected, a plumber can check the valves, the heat exchanger or cylinder in your flat and any mixing valves on your bathroom. Work on any gas boiler, communal or private, must be done by a Gas Safe registered engineer.

In the stucco terraces of Pimlico and Bayswater, houses were split into flats with a basement flat below the pavement. These share a supply and a soil stack, and the basement flat is first to flood when either fails. In Soho and around Marylebone High Street, flats over shops may share a supply with the commercial unit below, so a leak can involve the business too. If the shop is closed at night, the managing agent or landlord may be the only way in. Westminster's porters and concierge desks are a real help in an emergency. They often hold keys, know where the communal valves are and can contact the out of hours contractor for the block. If your building has one, call them first, then call a plumber for anything inside your flat.