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General advice
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Blocked basins and sinks are usually caused by waste in the trap: fat, tea leaves, hair, cooking oil etc.
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If water is slow draining away, we advise you to clear wastepipes and traps with a cleaning product. Always follow the instructions carefully. Don’t use caustic soda because it breaks down the plastic of the pipes.
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The trap always holds water which stops smells coming up the drain but waste can build up in the trap and become stuck.
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If more than one fitting (bath, basin, sink or shower) is blocked, the blockage may be in the soil stack or main drain. This will need to be cleared by us.
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Blocked toilets are usually caused by unusual objects: nappies, toys or toilet fresheners. You must not use toilets to get rid of rubbish.
What to do
You need:
To unblock a bath, basin or sink:
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scoop out most of the water
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hold the cloth tightly over the overflow opening
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put the plunger over the plug hole and pump it up and down quickly
To unblock a toilet:
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if the pan is already full, take out some water using a scoop, for example a jug or cup and put it into a bucket
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push the brush or plunger to the bottom of the pan
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pump it up and down quickly about 10 times. This should shift the blockage
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flush the toilet to see whether the blockage has gone
You may need to do this more than once before the toilet flushes normally. If you still have problems, you should contact us.
After you’ve finished, wash your hands and everything you’ve used.
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If your lights or power go off, it means your trip switches are working properly. You can find out what caused the problem and sort it out quite easily.
General advice
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Modern electric circuits are fitted with circuit breakers called trip switches. If there’s a problem with your electrics, a switch is tripped and the circuit is broken.
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All of the fuses or trip switches are located in the consumer unit or fuse box. Some consumer units have buttons rather than switches.
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A trip switch or button usually operates because:
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there are too many appliances on a circuit and it’s overloaded
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an appliance is faulty or hasn’t been used properly, for example, a kettle has been over-filled or toaster not cleaned
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water has leaked into a circuit or spilt onto a plug
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a light bulb has blown
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there’s a problem with your immersion heater
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Always have a torch handy if you have a power cut.
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If there’s a problem with one of your electrical appliances, leave it unplugged and get a qualified electrician or service engineer to check it.
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If there’s a problem with your wall or ceiling light, keep it switched off (put some tape over the switch) and let us know straight away.
Make sure your hands are dry when you touch electrical fittings.
To reset a trip:
(This advice is only for modern consumer units. If you have an older ‘fuse box’ type with rewireable cartridges, don’t touch it and contact us immediately.)
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open the cover on the consumer unit so that you can get to the trip switches/buttons
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check which switches/buttons have tripped to the OFF position and which rooms (circuits) have problems
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put these switches/buttons to the ON position
If the trip goes again, it’s probably being caused by a problem with one of your appliances or lights. You need to find out which circuit it is and which appliance on that circuit is causing the problem:
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check all the rooms and check which set of lights or sockets is not working
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unplug all appliances on that problem circuit, and switch off the immersion heater
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switch the ‘tripped’ switch to the ON position (press in if it’s a button)
plug in the appliances or switch on each light, one at a time, until the trip goes again. Don’t use adaptors or multi-plug extensions when testing appliances.
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The smoke detector in your home is connected to the main electricity wiring. We will come and do a safety check once a year.
If the alarm goes off
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Take your family to where it’s easy to escape in case there’s a fire.
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Check all rooms for signs of smoke.
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Feel around each door before opening it. If there’s any sign of heat, smoke or noise, don’t open the door.
If a fire has broken out
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don’t try to put it out yourself. Smoke and fumes can kill in minutes
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get everyone out of the house and call the fire service (999 or 112) unless you live in a scheme where there is a ‘stay put’ procedure
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don’t go back in for any reason
If there’s no sign of smoke or fire
Something may have made the alarm go off by mistake and you may need to reset it. This can happen if:
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a heater or clothes drier is too near it
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someone smokes a cigarette or pipe near it or a spray is used near it
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there’s too much steam or fumes from cooking: roasting meat or burnt toast
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there are strong draughts from nearby doors or windows
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some insects have flown close to it
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the back-up battery (if any) is low
If you can’t find out why it’s gone off, contact the repairs hotline.
Never disconnect the alarm. This will put you and your family at risk.
To reset the alarm
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If it has a HUSH button, press the button. The alarm will stop for 10 seconds, but it then beeps every 40 seconds. If the problem doesn’t clear after 10 minutes, the alarm will keep going.
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If there’s no HUSH button, turn off the electricity supply at the consumer unit for at least 15 minutes. Then switch the electricity back on.
To test your alarm
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press and hold the test button for a few seconds. The alarm should sound.
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if the alarm doesn’t sound, try cleaning it and test again
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if the alarm still doesn’t sound, contact the repairs hotline
To clean your alarm
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General advice
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Find out where the mains stoptap is and write it down on page 53 of this book.
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Know where the gate valves for the hot and cold water tanks are. They are usually by the hot water and cold water tanks.
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Make sure that you can easily turn all the stoptaps and valves. If they are stiff, try applying some WD40 or oil to loosen them. If you’re unsuccessful, don’t force the tap but contact us.
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In very cold weather, you should take action to prevent a freeze up. If you can it’s a good idea to leave the heating on all the time on a very low heat.
What to do
If you’re going away for several weeks
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You should turn off your water supply at the stoptap, turn off your heating or hot water system and turn off your gas supply at the mains. You should also let us know who to contact if there’s a problem while you’re away.
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But, if you go away during cold weather, it’s best to leave everything on and set the heating for an hour each evening on a low temperature. Note – we can drain down the whole system for you but there will be a charge.
Frozen pipes
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Contact us immediately and turn off the water at the main stoptap.
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It’s probably best to leave the pipes frozen, but you may try to thaw them using a hot water bottle. Don’t use a blow lamp.
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If the hot water system is frozen, don’t light the boiler (or if it’s already on, turn it off) and turn off any water heaters.
Burst pipes
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Contact us immediately and turn off the water at the main stoptap.
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Turn off any water heaters and put out any coal fire that heats a back boiler.
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Turn on all taps to drain water from the system. This may take about 15 minutes.
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When the water stops running, turn all taps off.
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If electrics are getting wet, don’t touch. Turn off electricity at the consumer unit/fuse box.
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If water leaks and makes the ceiling bulge, place a bucket under the bulge in case water leaks through.
