Why do I have low water pressure in my home?

Are you suffering by taking showers under tedious trickily water? Well suffer no more! Below we have put together a list of reasons that this might be happening and some simple information to improve your understanding!

Water pressure is measured in bars. One bar pressure has the power to push water to a height of 10 metres. As soon as our pressure drops it could be for multiple reasons, but how do we determine this?

HERE ARE SOME OF THE CAUSES:

1) DO YOU HAVE A STORAGE TANK IN THE LOFT?

With this kind of set up in a property, your mains water has to go to up into your storage tank before it can go anywhere else. Depending on the height of your storage tank this will affect the pressure at which the water is then fed to any of your taps/showers.

2) IS YOUR MAINS FROM A SHARED SUPPLY?

Some people will have their mains supplied to them by the same supply as their neighbours. If this is a case you might have low water pressure because the supply pipe is too small or in poor condition. Alternatively, whenever you and your neighbour want to use your water at the same time this may affect your water pressure. Therefore, if your pressure issues are intermittent then this may be why.

3) PIPES WITHIN YOUR PROPERTY

Some pressure problems can be caused by faulty, damaged or leaking pipes. If the pipes in your property are old it’s possible they may have become corroded. If so, this will restrict the amount of water flowing through the pipes. However this could also be down to a partially shut stop tap. If you open the tap carefully this should increase your water pressure. Please be aware if you do this gently open and close the stop tap several time before leaving this open. This will help prevent your stop tap seizing up. Alternatively, you may have a leak somewhere in the property. A way to check this if you have a water meter is to take reading before bed and when you get up in the morning. If there’s a difference then you may have a leak. In addition to this you can look around the property for any damp patches or hissing sounds for small holes in pipes.

4) LOCATION

Another factor that may affect your pressure is the location of your home and the houses around you. If your home is on a hill and there are lots of houses around at the bottom of the hill, the pressure has to be really high to travel to your property let alone to be delivered with lots of force.

5) RECENTLY HAD A PLUMBER OUT?

Sometimes when you have work done in the property such as installation of new appliances this can affect your water pressure.