House Purchased - Water Drained - Plumber?

[LittleSquidge]

We have bought our forst house - yay! The property has been empty since July so they fully drained it of water.

Can I just turn the water back on (assuming I can find out how/where), or do I need a plumber?

[Buenchico]

No plumber needed.

Check (and then double check) that all of the kitchen and bathroom taps (and the shower) are turned off.

Then simply look for the stop tap (possibly under the kitchen sink) and turn the water back on.

If the stop tap has been turned off really tightly you might need a wrench but you can usually do it by hand.

If nothing happens when you turn the stop tap on, the water has been turned off at the mains. Even then, you shouldn't need a plumber. To turn my water supply on and off at the mains, I simply lift the lid of the meter out in the street and use a large, thick-bladed screwdriver to turn the screw-thingy.

[bhg481]

First check that all taps are turned off, then it should be safe to turn on the main stopcock. At that point all taps fed directly from the rising main will be live; taps fed indirectly will need to wait for the system to fill. Usually the kitchen cold tap is direct feed, sometimes the bathroom cold taps and toilets too but they are often indirect feed ie, fed from a tank in the loft. Once you hear the water stop flowing the storage tanks will have filled and all taps should work.
If you have central heating bleed the radiators before turning on the boiler. If you have a combi-boiler then I am out of my depth and can offer no advice for hot water/central heating.

[Buenchico]

^^ I see that AB is getting more liberal. I deliberately refrained from using the term 'stopcock' in my post, as it used to get starred out (for containing a naughty word) here on AB.

;-)

[LittleSquidge]

Thanks, everyone!

Is it really ‘that’ easy?

[woofgang]

the only thing I would add is once the water is back on, check around to be sure that you have no leaks when the system has re pressurised.

[Buenchico]

>>> Is it really ‘that’ easy?

YES!

[woofgang]

yes it is. We used to leave our hpuse with the water turned off as we were away travelling for long periods (six ish months at a time) My inlaws used to check on it occasionally. We just used to turn the water on when we got home. Once or twice we found small leaks when the system repressurised.