My Lavington water bill has doubled with no change in use. Where do I start?

With the meter, not with digging. We isolate the house from the buried supply run and watch the meter. If it moves with the house isolated, the leak is in the buried rising main under the garden, and we trace it acoustically before opening any ground.

Is it worth repiping a 1970s Lavington house?

Usually yes, once you are getting a third or fourth leak. Galvanised corrodes from the inside along its whole length, so repairs chase the failure around the house. A staged repipe costs more once and less overall.

Plumber in Lavington, Nairobi

We cover Lavington including Valley Arcade, Hatheru Road, Kingara Road, Jamhuri, Amboseli, Muthangari, James Gichuru Road. Off James Gichuru Road and Gitanga Road. Lavington plots are mature and gated; most have a service gate at the rear that takes a van more easily than the main entrance.

What is different about plumbing in Lavington

Lavington's mature gardens along Hatheru Road hide rising mains under lawns that have been re-landscaped several times, so tracing a buried leak starts with the meter rather than a spade.
Houses around Valley Arcade built in the 1970s were plumbed throughout in galvanised steel and are now almost all due a full repipe rather than another patch.
The James Gichuru Road corridor sits on heavy black cotton soil where conventional soakaways percolate poorly, so a biodigester is usually the better long-term answer.

Plumbing in Lavington

Lavington’s housing stock is mature, and that single fact shapes almost every job here. These are substantial houses on established plots, most plumbed in galvanised steel, most with supply runs buried under gardens that have been landscaped and re-landscaped since.

The galvanised problem

Galvanised steel corrodes from the inside. The bore narrows for years while the pipe still looks sound, so pressure at the tank stays fine while pressure at the shower quietly collapses. Then it weeps through a wall, gets patched, and weeps somewhere else six months later.

By the third repair the arithmetic favours a repipe. We stage it so the house stays usable (typically wet areas first, then the runs) and we pressure-test and photograph each section before it is covered.

Buried rising mains

The supply run from the meter or the tank to the house is the most-forgotten pipe on a Lavington plot. It is usually deep, usually under lawn, and usually not where anyone remembers. We find it with the meter and acoustic tracing rather than by digging exploratory trenches across a mature garden.

Black cotton and drainage

Much of the James Gichuru corridor is heavy black cotton soil, which swells when wet and barely percolates. Conventional soakaways installed here struggle within a few years and the owner concludes the septic tank is failing when the problem is the ground. A biodigester avoids the percolation dependency entirely, and on these plots it is usually the honest recommendation.

What we are usually called out for in Lavington

PPR and PVC pipework PPR pressure pipework and PVC waste lines: repiping, new-build first fix and joint failure repairs. Leak detection and repair Tracing hidden leaks behind walls and under slabs, and repairing them with minimum damage. Septic tanks and biodigesters Biodigester and conventional septic systems, sized to occupancy and sited to the soil that has to take the effluent. Emergency plumber A licensed plumber at your gate 24 hours a day for burst pipes, sudden leaks and total loss of water.

Landmarks we work around here: Valley Arcade shopping centre, Lavington Green, James Gichuru Road, Kingara Road. See our rates.