Does anyone know how to clean out our water system to ensure that we have a maximum flow of water. We presume that over the years that limescale builds up in the plumbing system and this lessens the flow.

Have you tried turning off the water supply and just cleaning the taps first, they can get cal around the valves and therefore slow supply, you will have to strip the taps down, you will know it when you find it ..... have you thought about a water softner... In my place they are installing a new type of water pipe that resists cal build up, apparently it cannot stick so easily...we shall see..

OH is in the process of replacing all taps with reforming the bathrooms but we wondered whether the cold water flow was down to a build up in the actual pipes as well. He is also wondering about being able to put an additional pipe from the water tank direct to the shower but does not know if this is possible or feasible.

Rosemary

Rosemary it is very possible there is cal build up in the pipes, it is very thick around my area, especially if the house is older, you will have to bounce this thread untill some of our builder chums come on line...has big john finished his cow pie yet ?.....you may need a plumber....

Thanks for that.

As you say hopefully one of the builder chappies will spot this plea and give some advice.

The reason that OH is doing the bathroom reform in the first place is that we booked a plumber to start work on both bathrooms in September 2006 and although we waited patiently for 6 months he never showed. So if this does need a plumber we have a bit of a problem. OH is not even into DIY really so it is very much a learning curve and treat each problem as it presents itself.

Rosemary

It is usually done by a plumber, I think they wash the pipes out with some sort of acid.
I was a plumber for 40 years and never did it once, lol

I'm not much of a DIYer, but when this happened to us I found that all I needed to do was unscrew the 'end' of the tap and replace the mesh inserts. They were clogged up with limescale.

If its in the mesh of the taps, think what the pipes are like. ;-)

Thanks for your replies.

OH did not want to put the shower in and then find that the flow was too low to have a decent shower.

Rosemary