Plumbing notes from Burton-on-Trent

Most plumbing problems make more sense once someone explains what's actually happening behind the wall. That's what we do here — we take the jobs that crop up in Burton homes and set out how they work and what to expect.

Some of it is town-specific. A Georgian house on a Lichfield conservation street throws up different questions to a newer estate in Tamworth, and a period place in Ashby-de-la-Zouch asks for yet another approach. We've written separately about those, and about the Trentside villages around Barton-under-Needwood.

The rest is the bread and butter: replacing a gas boiler, balancing central heating so the whole house warms evenly, clearing a blocked drain, tracing a leak before it spoils the plaster, fitting a bathroom from first fix to last seal.