Why is my water pressure low in the whole house?

Check whether neighbours are affected first; if they are, it's the supply network and the water company's problem. If it's just your house, the usual suspects are a partly closed or failing stop tap, a hidden leak on your supply pipe, or an old narrow-bore supply pipe that can't feed a modern household.

Why is pressure low at just one tap?

That tap's own problem, almost always. Unscrew the aerator at the spout tip and rinse the grit out; in hard water areas it clogs with limescale regularly. If the aerator's clear, the tap's isolation valve may be partly closed or the tap cartridge failing.

Does low pressure mean I have a leak?

Sometimes. The test: turn off every tap and appliance, then watch your water meter for 15 minutes. If it moves while nothing is using water, something's leaking, and a gradual pressure drop over weeks alongside a rising bill makes a supply pipe leak the prime suspect.

Low Water Pressure? 5 Checks to Run First

Check 1: one tap, or all of them?

Single weak tap: it's the tap. Unscrew the aerator (the little mesh cap on the spout), rinse out the grit and limescale, screw it back. In Warwickshire's hard water this fixes more "pressure problems" than everything else combined. Whole house weak: keep reading.

Check 2: ask the street

If the neighbours are weak too, it's Severn Trent's network, not your plumbing. Check their website for incidents in your postcode, report it if there's nothing listed, and save your money. Nothing a plumber does inside your house fixes a network problem outside it.

Check 3: the stop tap

Find your internal stop tap, usually under the kitchen sink. Is it fully open? It sounds daft, but half the sudden-pressure-drop calls we get trace back to a stop tap someone nudged, or one partially closed after previous work and never fully reopened. Open is anticlockwise, all the way, then a quarter turn back so it doesn't seize open.

Check 4: hot, cold, or both?

Cold fine but hot weak? Your problem's not the supply, it's the hot side: a scaling combi heat exchanger, a tired shower pump, or a cylinder system due some attention. That narrows the fault usefully, so note it down for whoever you call.

Check 5: the meter test

Turn off every tap and water-using appliance. Watch the meter for 15 minutes. Moving? Something's leaking somewhere, and if your pressure has faded gradually over weeks while the bill crept up, a leak on the underground supply pipe is the prime suspect. That pipe is yours from the boundary to the house, and finding the leak beats digging on instinct.

What the results mean

Aerator fixed it: you owe us nothing, enjoy the shower
Network problem: Severn Trent's job, free
Stop tap, hidden leak, or an old narrow supply pipe: that's our department, and now you can describe the fault precisely, the visit's faster and cheaper

Still stumped after the five checks? That's genuinely useful information too. Ring, tell us what you tried, and we'll take it from there.

Call 07565 917596

Low pressure? Run these five checks first