Undersink filtered boiling water tap installation with tidy copper supply pipework by an Edinburgh plumber

Domestic plumbing · Edinburgh & the Lothians

Plumbers in Edinburghwho find the actual faultand fix it once

Leaks, burst pipes, failing taps, blocked wastes and tank work diagnosed properly, priced before we start, and backed by a 12-month workmanship guarantee; so one visit ends the problem instead of starting a series of them.

Request an Estimate 07788 373160

Owner-led by Lewis Bowman · 20+ years on the tools · Gas Safe registered

20+ yrs

Hands-on plumbing and heating experience

Gas Safe

Registered engineer on every gas job

12 months

Workmanship guarantee on completed work

£2m

Public liability insurance in place

Reactive

Urgent leaks and breakdowns taken on

The service

Everyday plumbing,handled properly

What it covers

Domestic plumbing covers everything that carries water into, around and out of your home: incoming mains and stopcocks, copper and plastic pipework, hot and cold feeds, taps and mixers, toilets and cisterns, sinks, baths, showers, waste runs, traps, outside taps, cold water storage tanks, cylinders and immersion heaters. We repair, replace and re-route all of it in occupied family homes across Edinburgh, Leith, Musselburgh, Dalkeith, Corstorphine, Currie, South Queensferry, Bonnyrigg and Loanhead.

Who it's for

This is for homeowners, landlords and tenants who want the fault found rather than the symptom hidden. A dripping tap in a Morningside flat, a weeping compression joint under a Leith kitchen, a toilet that refills every twenty minutes in a Bonnyrigg new build, a mains leak behind a Corstorphine bungalow wall, same approach each time. We work on domestic property only, which keeps the whole business pointed at houses and flats rather than split across commercial contracts.

When you need it

Call as soon as water is going somewhere it shouldn't, or as soon as something that used to work stops working properly. Pressure that has dropped away, a meter that ticks with every tap closed, a damp patch that grows after each shower, a stopcock that will not turn, a toilet that rocks, a waste that gurgles back; those are all faults with a cause, and the cause rarely resolves itself. Older Edinburgh tenement pipework in particular tends to warn you before it fails outright.

Why it needs doing properly

Water finds the cheapest route through a building, and by the time it shows on a ceiling it has usually been travelling for a while through joists, plaster and insulation. A professional repair means isolating correctly, cutting into the right section, using fittings suited to the pipe material and pressure, testing under load, and reinstating so the next person can still get at the valve. Guesswork with a compression fitting and PTFE tape is what turns a small repair into a plastering, flooring and decorating job.

Leave it and it grows

What a small leakactually costs you

Plumbing faults are cumulative. Nothing about a slow drip is stable: the pipe keeps corroding, the timber keeps soaking, and the bill keeps growing quietly in the background while the visible symptom stays exactly the same size.

What it costs if ignored

Escape of water is one of the most common domestic insurance claims in the UK, and drying, replastering and redecorating routinely cost multiples of the original repair.
A continuous drip runs through your water meter or your combi's demand cycle, so you pay for the loss every single day it is left.
Damp trapped under floors and behind boxing rots joists and chipboard, and rewets insulation so it stops insulating.
Weeping joints corrode the pipe around them, so a five-minute repair becomes a section replacement.
A stopcock that has seized because it was never turned means that when a pipe does burst, nobody in the house can stop the water.
Persistent low pressure and airlocks put strain on pumps, valves and boiler components that were never designed to run dry.

Common mistakes we're called out to

Tightening a compression nut harder instead of remaking the joint, this deforms the olive and guarantees a return leak.
Wrapping tape or sealant around a live leak, which hides it long enough for the surrounding timber to soak.
Fitting a like-for-like tap into old, worn-out isolation valves that then refuse to close during the next repair.
Chemical drain unblockers poured repeatedly into a run that is actually broken or wrongly fallen.
Boxing in valves, tanks and cylinders with no access panel, so every future job starts with joinery.
Leaving one immersion or gate valve untested for years, then discovering it has fused open on the day it matters.

Our process

How the job runs,step by step

Step 1

Inspection

We look at the actual installation, not just the room you called about. That means tracing the run, checking the stopcock and isolation points, testing pressure at more than one outlet and looking at the pipework material and age so the repair suits what is already there.

Step 2

Diagnosis

You get told plainly what has failed and why. If a fitting has gone because the pipe behind it is on its way out, you hear that now rather than on a second visit; and you get the choice between a repair and a replacement with the cost of each.

Step 3

Agreed price

The price is agreed before any tool comes out of the van. If something genuinely unforeseeable appears once a panel is off, work stops and we talk before spending your money.

Step 4

Service execution

Floors covered, water isolated properly, and the repair carried out with fittings matched to the pipe material and working pressure. We keep the area workable so you are not locked out of your own kitchen for a day.

Step 5

Testing and verification

Everything is brought back up to pressure and tested under real conditions: taps run, cisterns cycled, joints checked dry, wastes filled and released; before we call it finished.

Step 6

Completion and guarantee

The area is cleaned, we walk you through what changed and where your isolation points now are, and the workmanship is covered by our 12-month guarantee.

What you get out of it

Specific outcomes,not vague promises

Fault found, not masked

Tracing the cause means the repair holds. You are not calling us back out for the same damp patch six weeks later.

Damage stopped early

Getting to a leak while it is still a plumbing job keeps it from becoming a plastering, flooring and decorating job.

Lower running cost

Sound joints, working isolation valves and a properly balanced system stop you paying for water and heat that never reaches you.

Safe, compliant work

Gas Safe registration for anything gas-side, £2m public liability cover, and materials specified to suit the existing installation.

One point of contact

Owner-led work means the person who quoted the job is the person doing it, and the person you speak to afterwards.

Twelve months of cover

Our workmanship guarantee runs for a full year, so the job is genuinely finished when we leave.

In detail

Materials, methodsand where they apply

Edinburgh housing stock ranges from Victorian and Georgian tenements to 1930s bungalows and current-decade estates, and each brings its own pipework, pressure and access constraints. The method has to match the building.

Pipework materials we work with

Copper in 15mm, 22mm and 28mm remains the backbone of most Edinburgh homes and is what we use for exposed runs and anywhere heat or mechanical protection matters. Push-fit and barrier plastic suits long buried runs, floor voids and awkward retrofits where a soldered joint would be a fire risk. We still meet lead and old galvanised steel in unmodernised tenement properties, along with imperial-sized copper that will not take modern fittings without an adaptor; all of which changes what a repair should look like. Waste runs are typically 32mm, 40mm and 50mm solvent-weld or push-fit, with 110mm soil.

Jointing methods

Soldered capillary joints for permanent concealed copper work where access will be limited afterwards. Compression for serviceable connections at valves, cylinders and appliances. Press-fit and push-fit where speed and a no-flame requirement matter, such as in an occupied flat with timber floors. The choice is not aesthetic: a joint that will be buried under a screed needs to be a different joint from one behind a removable panel.

Leak detection and tracing

Before anything is cut open we isolate zones section by section to narrow the run, watch the meter with outlets closed, and check the obvious suspects, cylinder connections, cistern inlets, appliance hoses, shower trays and boiler condensate; because most leaks are at a joint or a component, not mid-pipe. That means we can usually open one board rather than four.

Variations of the service

Reactive repairs and emergency isolation. Tap, mixer and valve replacement. Toilet, cistern and macerator work. Cold water storage tank and cylinder replacement. Outside tap installation with a proper isolator and check valve. Waste and trap re-runs where a previous fitter left no fall. Full or partial re-pipes in renovation properties. Stopcock and isolation valve upgrades so the house can actually be turned off when it needs to be.

Flats, tenements and shared systems

Tenement work carries its own realities: shared risers, neighbours below your floor void, communal stopcocks in stairwells, and cast iron soil stacks. We plan isolation and access with that in mind, because on a top-floor flat the cost of a leak is never confined to the flat it started in.

Residential focus

Pentaburgh is a domestic business. We work in houses and flats, not factories or retail units, and everything above is written for people who have to live in the property while the work is happening.

Questions

Plumbingquestions, answered

Anything we haven't covered, ask us directly on 07788 373160.

How much does a plumber cost in Edinburgh?

It depends on the job, which is why we look first and price before starting rather than quoting a number down the phone that has to change later. What we can commit to is that the price is agreed with you before any work begins, and that if something genuinely unexpected turns up behind a panel we stop and discuss it rather than adding it to the bill.

How quickly can you get to a leak?

We take reactive call-outs for urgent leaks and breakdowns. Calling is always the fastest route, 07788 373160, because we can talk you through isolating the water immediately while we work out timings. Our working hours are Monday to Thursday 8am to 4:30pm and Friday 8am to 1:30pm.

What should I do before you arrive?

Turn off the internal stopcock if you can find and move it, usually under the kitchen sink or near the front door in a flat. Open the lowest cold tap in the house to drain down the pipework, catch what you can, and switch off electrics near any water. If the leak is on the heating side, turn the boiler off.

Do you repair or replace old pipework?

Both, and you get the honest version of which one your installation needs. If the surrounding pipe is sound we repair the failed section. If the pipe itself has thinned, corroded or been repeatedly patched, we will tell you that a repair is buying weeks rather than years and give you the cost of doing it once.

How long does a typical plumbing repair take?

Most tap, valve, toilet and single-joint repairs are done inside a visit. Traced leaks under floors, cylinder or tank replacements and waste re-runs usually run to most of a day. Partial re-pipes during a renovation are planned across several days so you are not without water overnight.

Is your work guaranteed?

Yes. Workmanship is covered by our 12-month guarantee. Parts and appliances additionally carry their own manufacturer warranties, which we register where applicable.

How long should new plumbing last?

Correctly installed copper pipework routinely outlives the fittings connected to it, while taps, valves, flexible hoses and cistern internals are wearing parts measured in years rather than decades. That is why we prefer serviceable joints and accessible isolation valves, it keeps future maintenance cheap.

Are you insured?

Yes, £2m public liability cover, and Gas Safe registration for any gas work. Both matter if a job goes near your neighbour's property, which in a tenement it very often does.

Do you cover my area?

We cover Edinburgh and the Lothians, including Leith, Musselburgh, Dalkeith, Corstorphine, Currie, South Queensferry, Bonnyrigg and Loanhead. If you are just outside those, call and we will tell you straight away rather than leaving you waiting.

Do you work on commercial premises?

No. We are a domestic plumbing and heating business, and we keep it that way so household jobs are never queued behind a contract.

Stop the leakbefore it costs you a ceiling

Send the details and we will come back to you with the next step. Gas Safe registered, £2m insured, 12-month workmanship guarantee. If water is moving right now, calling is fastest.