Hello again. I said on my original thread here https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/dripping-taps-and-shower-heads.608595/ that I was hoping not to have to post too often, but famous last words and all that ...
To recap: we are currently living in a first-floor flat which is part of a 2-flat conversion of a Victorian house, and we share a water supply with the downstairs flat. We shall be moving out shortly, so don't want to have to do a lot of work to the place in the meantime, but the cold tap on the bath mixer tap has stopped working (photo below). It now only turns half a turn (the flow was strongest at about a quarter turn, if that's at all relevant), and the supply has reduced and reduced until there is now no water coming out whatsoever. Hot tap is still fine, as are the washbasin taps and the toilet cistern.
A couple of months ago, the people downstairs had a radiator moved - and possibly some other work done which I'm not aware of. Since then, we've had the above problem, plus occasionally a few weird and wonderful noises mainly from the kitchen mixer tap - high-pitched foghorn-type noise, squeaking, whistling and a few others, some of which seem only to be relieved by turning another tap on somewhere. The timing doesn't seem likely to be merely a coincidence, so I suspect that probably something their plumber has done is partly responsible for what's happening upstairs. So I'm not sure that even if we get a plumber in to (hopefully) sort the bath tap there may not be underlying problems which will continue due to conditions downstairs.
Our old plumber was very good at diagnosing problems on the phone/by email and advising what we should try before doing a call-out, but unfortunately has retired, and we haven't developed that sort of relationship with another plumber yet. Thus far, all I've done is remove the shroud and check the W-shaped spring, which seems to be normal, but I think anything beyond that will require turning the water off? The flat - contrary to what I thought - doesn't actually have its own mains stopcock, although there should be one in the downstairs flat, but I'm not sure whether it's working, and we're not on great terms with the people downstairs anyway. Otherwise, the supply to both flats would need to be turned off in the road outside ... As far as I know, there should have been stop valves fitted to both bath taps when we had the bathroom done about 12 years ago, and there is a stopcock under the bath, but that would involve dismantling the bath surround, which I was hoping to avoid! I don't have major tools such as wrenches here, either, which may make DIY difficult.
Reading through other related posts on here, I'm guessing I might at the least need a tap reviver fitted? I remember that at my previous place the cold tap of the mixer tap got affected so badly by the adjacent hot tap that we needed to get the tap replaced, so that could be the case here too, I suppose.
Any thoughts about what might be causing this, and whether there's anything I can do before trying to find a new plumber, would be very welcome - thanks!
![IMG_20230613_104746[1].jpg](https://www.diynot.com/diy/attachments/img_20230613_104746-1-jpg.305845/ "IMG_20230613_104746[1].jpg")
To recap: we are currently living in a first-floor flat which is part of a 2-flat conversion of a Victorian house, and we share a water supply with the downstairs flat. We shall be moving out shortly, so don't want to have to do a lot of work to the place in the meantime, but the cold tap on the bath mixer tap has stopped working (photo below). It now only turns half a turn (the flow was strongest at about a quarter turn, if that's at all relevant), and the supply has reduced and reduced until there is now no water coming out whatsoever. Hot tap is still fine, as are the washbasin taps and the toilet cistern.
A couple of months ago, the people downstairs had a radiator moved - and possibly some other work done which I'm not aware of. Since then, we've had the above problem, plus occasionally a few weird and wonderful noises mainly from the kitchen mixer tap - high-pitched foghorn-type noise, squeaking, whistling and a few others, some of which seem only to be relieved by turning another tap on somewhere. The timing doesn't seem likely to be merely a coincidence, so I suspect that probably something their plumber has done is partly responsible for what's happening upstairs. So I'm not sure that even if we get a plumber in to (hopefully) sort the bath tap there may not be underlying problems which will continue due to conditions downstairs.
Our old plumber was very good at diagnosing problems on the phone/by email and advising what we should try before doing a call-out, but unfortunately has retired, and we haven't developed that sort of relationship with another plumber yet. Thus far, all I've done is remove the shroud and check the W-shaped spring, which seems to be normal, but I think anything beyond that will require turning the water off? The flat - contrary to what I thought - doesn't actually have its own mains stopcock, although there should be one in the downstairs flat, but I'm not sure whether it's working, and we're not on great terms with the people downstairs anyway. Otherwise, the supply to both flats would need to be turned off in the road outside ... As far as I know, there should have been stop valves fitted to both bath taps when we had the bathroom done about 12 years ago, and there is a stopcock under the bath, but that would involve dismantling the bath surround, which I was hoping to avoid! I don't have major tools such as wrenches here, either, which may make DIY difficult.
Reading through other related posts on here, I'm guessing I might at the least need a tap reviver fitted? I remember that at my previous place the cold tap of the mixer tap got affected so badly by the adjacent hot tap that we needed to get the tap replaced, so that could be the case here too, I suppose.
Any thoughts about what might be causing this, and whether there's anything I can do before trying to find a new plumber, would be very welcome - thanks!
