Water Emergencies
Emergencies

Water Leaks

For help and information on leaks, bursts, burst mains, water pressure and other water or sewerage related problems your water supplier should have a dedicated emergency line. If the leak is inside your house, then you should call a plumber. It will be your or your landlord's responsibility to fix this. You should turn the water supply off at the mains to prevent further damage.

If the leak is from your water meter or between your house and the boundary of your property (your service pipe) you are usually responsible for repairing it. You will need to hire a contractor to find out where the link is then carry out the repair. Your water supplier should be able to provide you with a list of contractors.

After the pipe has been repaired most water companies should reimburse you with a one off payment towards the repair on receipt of the invoice. There will usually be maximum amount payable and certain conditions, for example, that the repairs were carried out within 30 days of finding out about the leak.

If the leak is outside the property boundary then you should contact your water supplier to arrange repairs.


Checking for Leaks

If you have a water meter in your property here is how you can easily check for leaks:
• Turn off the water supply at the internal stop-tap.
• Make sure your cold water supply is off, check the kitchen cold water    tap.
• Open the meter chamber and remove the polystyrene protection.
• If either of the dials are spinning then this may mean you have a leak.

Flood help

• Q: What causes flooding?
   A: What are the things that causes flooding and why can't we prevent         it? Why in some place it floods more and in some place it floods         less?

• Q: What is to be done when it floods?
   A: Affective advice on how to protect your family from injury and         your properties from damage during a flood.

• Q: Insurance Advice
   A: Cautions on how to secure insurance if you happen to live in a
        flood-prone area.


Limescale and Hard Water Problems

What is limescale?
If you've ever looked inside your kettle or boiler chances are you've probably spotted a tough, stony, off-white crust at the bottom of it. This is limescale, the deposit left behind by hard water.

Hard water contains higher than average levels of dissolved minerals. Rainwater is naturally 'soft', containing few impurities. If it runs over tough rocks like granite or slate it stays this way. But if the water runs through soft, spongy rocks, like limestone or chalk, it absorbs minerals from them. These minerals, often calcium or magnesium carbonate, are what make the water become hard.

Why is it a problem?
Hard water itself isn't necessarily a problem. For years people have been enjoying the healing effects of it. In fact, the health benefits of mineral-rich springs such as those in Bath are legendary.

Unfortunately, hard water has other, less pleasant, side-effects. For example, hard water is more difficult to wash in, as soap doesn't lather as well and can leave behind a light scum on surfaces. Some common detergents are also less effective, meaning clothes can end up looking dirty even after being washed, and that plates and glasses can look dull over time. Hard water can also cause sensitive skin to become dry and irritated.

The biggest problem, though, is that if hard water is heated past 55°C or left to stand, the dissolved minerals in it solidify as the moisture evaporates. These solidified minerals are what limescale is made of, and they can be a serious problem in the home. As you've probably noticed in your own home, limescale will often cover taps and hard surfaces with an unsightly layer which can be difficult to remove.

The visible effects, however, are nothing compared to those effects which can't be seen. Hard water contains an average of 300mg of dissolved minerals per litre, so a four person household can accumulate up to 70kg of limescale in a year. A significant amount of this stays inside central heating pipes, clogging them up.

Limescale also coats the heating elements of your boiler, washing machine, and dishwasher in the same way that it covers your kettle, thus making them less energy-efficient. In fact, British Water say that even a 1.6mm coating of limescale on a heating element can make it up to 12% less effective. This could cause you to waste up to [http://sound-ideas.info/5.html £200] worth of energy every year. It could also cause your appliances to burn themselves out much more quickly than normal.

How can I treat it?
There are a number of ways to deal with it. The simplest and most common way is to treat it with malt vinegar or lemon juice, which dissolve the mineral deposits. This is fine for cleaning out your kettle or polishing your taps and silverware but it is only a temporary, small-scale solution. (It would be quite tricky to clean a large appliance with lemon juice!)

Most houses in hard water areas therefore treat water as it enters the house. This can be done in two ways - water softening and, more recently, water conditioning.

Water Softening
Water softening is the most common method of treating hard water. It works by a fairly simple chemical process - swapping the calcium (which forms limescale) for sodium, (which is more likely to stay dissolved).
• As water enters the domestic system, it passes through an ion   exchange column filled with thousands of tiny beads of resin.
• This resin has charged sodium attached to its surface and it swaps   this for the more reactive calcium and magnesium as water flows   over it.
• The resin can continue to do this indefinitely as long as it is washed   through with salt water every so often to wash off the calcium and   magnesium and replace the sodium. Most modern columns will   automatically rinse themselves if regularly provided with salt.

 

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