No Water Coming Out of Your Taps: What to Check First

If there is no water coming out of your taps, the first job is to find out whether the problem is yours or the water company's. Ask a neighbour or check your water company's service updates for your postcode. If they are dry too, it is a network fault and the water company will fix it. If only your home is affected, check that the stopcock is fully open, look for signs of a burst or frozen pipe, and note which taps are dry. No water anywhere in the house with the stopcock open usually means a problem on your supply pipe, and that is a job for a plumber.

Is it just your home?

This one question saves the most time. Thames Water's own guidance is to check whether your neighbours have the same problem, because a shared outage points to an issue on their network rather than inside your house. You can also check their network updates by postcode, which list bursts, repairs and planned work. If you are supplied by another company, such as Affinity Water or SES in parts of outer London, they publish similar updates.

If the problem is on the network, there is nothing a plumber can do to restore the supply. Turn your taps off so nothing overflows when the water comes back, and keep an eye on the updates. When it returns the water may be cloudy or spluttery for a few minutes because of trapped air. Run the cold kitchen tap until it clears.

If your neighbours have water and you do not, the fault is on your side. The rest of this guide is for that situation.

Which taps are dry?

Before touching anything, walk round the house and try every tap, hot and cold, plus a toilet flush. The pattern tells you a lot.

If you have cold water but no hot, see our guides to no hot water when the heating works or an unvented cylinder with no hot water instead. If water is coming out but weakly, our low water pressure guide is the better starting point.

Quick checks inside the house

Check the stopcock is fully open

The internal stopcock is usually under the kitchen sink, though in flats it can be in a hallway cupboard, a bathroom or a riser. Thames Water's advice is to turn it gently anti-clockwise to make sure it is fully open. Stopcocks sometimes get turned off by a previous occupant, a trades person or someone fixing a tap, and a valve that is only a quarter open will give you a trickle at best. If yours is stiff or will not move, do not force it with grips. Our guide to a stopcock that won't turn explains why, and if you cannot find it at all, see stopcock location help.

Look and listen for a leak

A sudden loss of water can mean a pipe has burst somewhere and the water is going there instead of to your taps. Look for damp patches on ceilings and walls, water under the kitchen units, a wet patch on the front garden or driveway, or a hissing sound near the stopcock. If you find one, turn the stopcock off and follow our burst pipe steps.

Think about the weather

In a cold snap, pipes in lofts, garages, under suspended floors and on outside walls can freeze. Frozen supply pipes are a common reason for dry taps on a January morning, especially in houses where the supply runs through an unheated space. Warm the area gently with the heating or a hairdryer on a low setting and never use a blowtorch. Our frozen pipes guide covers thawing safely and what to watch for when the ice melts, because a split pipe often only starts leaking once it thaws.

Check the loft tank if only some taps are dry

Many older London houses still have a cold water storage tank in the loft feeding the bathroom taps, toilets and hot water cylinder. If the kitchen tap works but everything else is dry, lift the tank lid and look. An empty tank usually means the float valve has stuck shut or its feed pipe is blocked or frozen. See our guide to cold water tank problems for what to look for.

When the fault is on your supply pipe

If neighbours have water, your stopcock is fully open and nothing is frozen, but still no water reaches the house, the problem is most likely on the underground supply pipe. Thames Water's guidance is clear that homeowners are responsible for the supply pipe that runs from the boundary of the property into the home, usually under the garden, path or driveway. The water company looks after the public pipes up to that point.

Supply pipe failures in London are often on old lead or galvanised steel pipes, which can corrode, collapse or split. Sometimes the first sign is a wet patch outside, a sudden drop in pressure over a few weeks, or a much higher water bill. If you think the pipe is leaking rather than blocked, our guides to water leak detection and the Thames Water leak allowance explain how to find the leak and what to do about the bill afterwards.

When to call a plumber

Call a plumber when the problem is clearly on your side of the boundary and the simple checks have not fixed it. That includes:

• No water at any tap, neighbours unaffected, stopcock fully open.
• A stopcock that will not open, or opens but nothing comes through.
• A leak you have found and isolated, but which now leaves you without water.
• A loft tank that will not refill.
• A supply that keeps dropping to a trickle.

If the water comes back but a hot tap or shower only splutters and spits air, the pipes are probably airlocked. Our guide on how to clear an airlock in water pipes explains what to try.

When you call, have ready which taps are affected, whether neighbours have water, where your stopcock is and whether you have seen any damp. That lets the plumber bring the right parts, whether that is a replacement stopcock, a float valve or pipe repair fittings. Our plumbing labour is charged at £95 an hour, and we confirm the price with you before any work starts.

Frequently Asked Questions