Replace cold water tank feed to bathroom with mains feed

[JessB]

Hi,

I’m looking for some advice. I have recently moved into a ground floor flat (leasehold), with 3 flats above me, in an old Victorian conversion. I’m planning on renovating my bathroom and have a problem pipe in the corner of the room where I want the bath to go, boxed in with a valve key sticking out. It looks very old. If I close the valve the cold water taps in my bathroom significantly slow, although the flow doesn’t stop completely (possibly the valve isn’t great), but the water in my kitchen is unaffected. I am concluding, therefore, that whilst my kitchen is mains fed, my bathroom is on an indirect system, fed by a cold water tank in the loft.

Since I don’t want the pipe there, don’t like the idea of brushing my teeth in old tank water, and have a combi boiler now, my preference would just be to cap this pipe and re-route cold water to the bathroom from the mains. I am on the ground floor so wouldn’t anticipate any impact to water pressure, but I am worried that I might impact water pressure for the other flats if I do this? Does anyone see any issues with this plan that I should be aware of? I'm also a little concerned that I may need to get Freeholder permission for this. The only other alternative that I see is to chase the pipes into the wall and remove the valve, instead having a valve on each of the sanitaryware pieces – bath, sink, toilet.

Would welcome suggestions.

 

[Gasguru]

It would be normal to have the cold taps off the mains with a combi boiler but many installers are lazy and don't bother to do this....sometimes resulting in backflow and contamination issues due to a pressure imbalance at the taps.

There may be some impact on your neighbours pressure/flowrate...the street pressure varies considerably around here.

I doubt the freeholder would care much.

You should fully de-commission the cistern in the roof...you must not allow "dead-legs" of pipework...eg. the mains fed cold to the cistern to be left in place.

 

[dominoman]

You should fully de-commission the cistern in the roof...you must not allow "dead-legs" of pipework...eg. the mains fed cold to the cistern to be left in place.

The other flats will still be using the tank so all you need to do is cap off your pipe and leave it at that.

 

[JessB]

Thanks for both your inputs - I really appreciate it.

That was going to be my next point - my assumption is that the flats above me are using the tank so it needs to stay in situ, and therefore I would just cap my pipe.

Although I am intrigued to know what the issue is with leaving 'dead legs'? Other than simply being lazy and untidy.

 

[Gasguru]

It would be more normal for each flat to have there own cistern....this is a Victorian conversion not a purpose built flat where single large cisterns are often employed.

Of course some or all of the other flats may now be on mains pressure (with a combi).

Dead legs are old redundant lengths of pipework....they are forbidden under the water regulations since they allow stagnant water. In addition, dead legs can accumulate air that can play havoc with boiler flow sensors etc.

https://www.wras.co.uk/consumers/resources/interpretations_and_advice/installation/i21/