Trying to undertake plumbing work in your home can seem pretty daunting if you're new to it, but you can save yourself a lot of money if you do some of the work yourself and leave more of the complicated work to a plumber.
If in any doubt, however, get a plumber in because doing it yourself would be a false economy, especially if you end up flooding the house or your neighbours.
If you are going to attempt some of the basics, start by familiarising yourself with the layout of the plumbing in your property. Knowing the location of the stopcock - the mains supply water pipe valve in your home - is essential.
The location can vary from home to home but try looking under the sink in the kitchen, under the stairs or even in the cellar or ajoining garage.
Towns mains water supply normally sits at around 4bar - 60psi - and enters the house via a rising main pipe connecting to a storage tank in the loft or attic. Modern day central heating systems may have a different arrangement as tey don't require a storage tank for combination boilers.
The kitchen sink is connected directly to the rising main so this makes this safe for drinking, unlike the rest of the taps and connections are supplied by the low pressure, gravity fed system from the header tank.
Find out if the low pressure side has isolating valves on the low pressure pipes to the taps, toilet and appliances. If ever there is a problem it alows you to shut this part of the systemdown without turning the water off at the mains. These valves may be on the pipes leaving the storage tank in the loft.
If ever you have to make repairs to your system, you will need to know how to drain those parts of the system down.