Plumbing repairs and installations in Hoddesdon and Broxbourne

What are the homes like in Hoddesdon and Broxbourne?

Hoddesdon grew up as a market town on the old road beside the Lea, and its centre still has Georgian and Victorian buildings, some with shops or flats on the upper floors. Around that core, most of the housing was built from the middle of the twentieth century onwards: large estates of semis, short terraces and maisonettes, with later infill in the gaps.

Broxbourne and Wormley are more village in character, with older cottages close to the river and the station, and a good deal of 1960s and 1970s housing on the roads behind.

What plumbing questions come up on the estates?

Many homes built soon after the war were planned around a loft tank for cold water and a cylinder in the airing cupboard. Those systems are now well past their first life. Common enquiries are a cylinder that has started to weep, a loft tank with a failing float valve, and taps that run weakly because the original pipework has furred up inside.

Pipes in these houses are often boxed in behind cupboards and panels from later refits, so a leak can be hard to trace.

Does the hard water make a difference?

Yes. The chalk that underlies this part of the county makes the water hard, and scale builds up inside kettles, shower heads, taps and the element of an immersion heater. A tap that drips or a shower that has lost its spray is often just scaled up. A cylinder that is decades old can have a thick layer of it on the coil.

What if my home is a flat or a converted building?

Some of the older town centre buildings have been split into flats. If you are a leaseholder, your lease will say who looks after the pipes that serve more than one flat, and a leak from above can mean speaking to a neighbour or the managing agent as well as arranging a repair. Tell the plumber which floor you live on and where the stain has appeared.

What happens when I send an enquiry?

You tell us the postcode and what is wrong. With your consent, your enquiry is passed to a local plumber who covers EN10 or EN11, and to nobody else. If nobody covers your postcode, we say so and your details are not passed on.