Turn off the main stopcock on the rising main to cut off the supply to the kitchen tap (and to all the other cold taps on a direct system).

Open the tap until the water flow ceases.

To isolate the bathroom taps, close the valve on the appropriate cold feed pipe from the storage tank and open all taps on that section. If you can’t find a valve, rest wooden batten across the tank and tie the arm of the float valve to it. This will shut off the supply to the tank, so you can empty it by running all that the cold taps in the bathroom. If you can get into the loft, turn off the main stopcock, then run the cold taps. A South Kensington Plumber can drain a system.


Draining hot water taps and pipes.

Turn off immersion heater or boiler.
Close the valve on the cold feed pipe to the cylinder and run the hot taps. Even when the water stops flowing, the cylinder will still be full.

It there’s no valve on the cold feed pipe, tie up the float valve arm, then turn on all taps in the bathroom to empty the storage tank. (If you run the hot taps first, the water in the tank will flush all the hot water from the cylinder). When the call taps run dry, open the hot taps. In an emergency, open hot and cold taps to clear the pipes as quickly as possible.


Draining WC cistern.

To empty the WC cistern itself, tie up is float valve arm and flush the WC. South Kensington Plumbers can isolate float arms.
To empty the pipe of the supplies the system, either turn off the main stopcock on a direct system or, on indirect system, close the valve on the cold feed from the storage tank. Alternatively, shut off the supply to the storage tank and empty it through the cold taps. Flush the WC until normal water enters its cistern