Emergency Plumber Havering

If you’ve ever driven through the centre of Romford on a Wednesday, Friday or Saturday, you’ll know how market day alters the world of driving around the town centre. Romford Market has operated for centuries and the road closures around South Street and the Liberty shopping centre do have an impact on how fast a plumber can get to the streets during that time. It’s a minor, useful thing, but it’s the kind of local knowledge that distinguishes an engineer who knows Havering from one who has merely been given the postcode. Our dispatch team take this into account when responding to calls from central Romford, Marks Gate and the surrounding streets on market days to ensure that you are not promised any time that you might not arrive in – we don’t want to disappoint you!

Gidea Park is a very special part of Havering, a planned garden suburb developed in the early 20th century which differs from the more standardised semis in the borough, in terms of the size and shape of the plots, the older trees and the range of architectural styles. That character is very attractive to live in but creates a particular type of plumbing problem: the leafy appearance of Gidea Park is the result of generous, older tree-planting, and is one of the most frequently occurring forms of drain root ingress we encounter throughout the borough. Over the years roots penetrate through the minute fissures at pipe joints in old clay drain pipes and can eventually partially or even completely cut off a drain run or in the extreme cases, crack the pipe itself. We have undertaken root cutting on drains and roads at Balgores Lane and its extensions many times over and will always advise a CCTV drain survey prior to any excavation to avoid homeowners being charged for guess work.

Post-WW2 Harold Hill was constructed very quickly and much of the original housing stock along with the subsequent maisonette and low rise blocks remain to this day, many decades into their service life. Apart from the presence of shared heating and hot water systems in some of the blocks, and communal drainage runs serving several households, what sets apart Harold Hill from the other interwar semis in Havering is the lack of them. The experience our engineers have developed working throughout these estates over the years is often crucial to determining if the problem is a single household leak or blockage, or a building-wide issue. We liaise directly with residents and, if a housing association or managing agent is involved, we work with them to resolve these issues without causing unnecessary disruption to neighbouring households.

Most of Rainham is above the level of flood risk on a day to day basis, however the wetland landscape of Rainham Marshes and the generally lower-lying flatter ground in this area of the Borough puts surface water and drainage systems to the test compared with the higher ground of Havering around Emerson Park and Gidea Park. It’s where older drain runs are more likely to succumb to a heavy downpour, after which we’ve been to a lot of emergency call-outs after some heavy rain in Rainham and South Hornchurch where a marginal slow drenching system finally gave way. When rain water accumulates around an outside drain line, it’s smart to have it checked prior to the next heavy rain because a slow drain can become a flooded utility room.

All engineers we send out are fully qualified, DBS checked and Gas Safe registered (for all gas work) and regularly trained to ensure that they are working to current Water Regulations and Building Regulations standards. We have a comprehensive range of fittings available on all of our vans specifically because Havering’s housing stock is a mixture of every type of building from the 1930s semi-detached houses to post war concrete built houses to the newer developments near Rainham, so it is important to be prepared rather than taking a chance. We give a flat fee before we begin work, explain the work in simple terms and provide a workmanship guarantee for every repair, with a Havering resident calling us at the time of the emergency, knowing exactly where they stand with us from start to finish.

For those of Havering who live in one of the vintage 30s semis, a few simple checks in the fall do make the difference in the number of emergency calls you will receive during the cold winter months. If you have had loft insulation installed recently, then ensure there is insulating material above all visible pipework to protect the pipes, as it can be cooler, not warmer if you improve the loft insulation but don’t protect the pipes. Get your boiler serviced every year, preferably before October to identify any early warning signs of limescale deposits and/or wear on parts before the cold season starts when it will be needed. If you have large trees in your garden that are likely to be common in the areas of Gidea Park and Emerson Park, then you may want to think about having a CCTV drain survey done every couple of years to detect root ingress at an early stage when it is just a jetting job and not an excavation.