The Dreaded Crawlspace! How do you tackle your park home plumbing? 🔧

Hi everyone,

Following on from the new plumbing guide we've just added to the Library, it got me thinking about how we all actually handle the practical side of maintaining our pipes. Let's be honest, shimmying under the chassis on a cold day with a torch isn't exactly the most glamorous part of park home living!

We all know that our plumbing needs a bit more TLC than a standard brick-and-mortar house, especially when it comes to checking the lagging and trace heating before winter sets in. I’d love to get a discussion going to pool our community knowledge.

How do you manage your plumbing maintenance?

Do you DIY or call a pro? Are you happy donning a pair of overalls and getting on a creeper board, or do you leave the under-chassis work strictly to the professionals?

Finding the right tradesperson: We've all heard the stories of standard domestic plumbers running for the hills when they realise they have to crawl under a park home! Have you found it difficult to get someone willing to do the job?

Pre-winter checks: What is your routine for checking your trace heating and pipe insulation before the first frost hits?

Helping each other out: For our members who might not be quite as mobile these days and can't check under the home themselves, how do you ensure everything is winter-ready? Do your site managers offer a check-up service, or do you rely on friendly neighbours and family?

Drop your top tips, trusted routines, and any plumbing horror stories (we've all had them!) in the replies below. A bit of shared advice now might just save a neighbour from a burst pipe this winter!

We were dealing with a string of plumbing problems. A national maintenance company came out three times to replace the same part on our boiler, which had stopped heating water. They charged a fortune and constantly tried to pressure us into buying a brand-new system. To make matters worse, our en-suite bathroom had developed a rather unpleasant smell.

Fed up, I called a local plumber. He turned up ten minutes later, tweaked the boiler pressure, and made a few quick adjustments. He also removed a key that the national repairman had left stuck in the boiler, which had been letting air into the system.

While chatting, we mentioned the bathroom smell. He asked how often we used the bath. Because it was summer, we had only been using the shower in the other bathroom for a month or two. He simply ran some water into the bath to refill the U-bend underneath—the trapped water had evaporated—and the smell vanished immediately. While he was at it, he checked underneath a dripping shower and reseated the waste pipe.

For all of that work, he charged us just £20 and promised to pop back before winter to give the boiler a proper service.

The takeaway: seek out and support your local tradesmen. They will repay you in more ways than one.