By the time a leak shows itself in a Katesgrove terrace, it has usually been travelling for a while. A compression joint lets go under the bath, water tracks quietly along the joists, and the first anyone knows is a brown ring spreading across the ceiling below. Every minute the main stays open, more water soaks into plaster that was never meant to get wet. What you need is someone who answers the phone now, tells you how to stop the flow, and gets a competent plumber to the door fast.
TrueFlow is a plumbing and drainage firm based in Bracknell, and Reading sits firmly inside our 24/7 patch. We answer calls day and night, 365 days a year, and we aim to reach genuine emergencies within 60 minutes. Our emergency plumbing service covers the lot, from a burst pipe or an overflowing toilet to a house with no water at all, anywhere from Caversham to Whitley and out to Tilehurst.
Old pipes, hard water and rented rooms
Much of central Reading was built in a hurry. The terraced streets of Katesgrove, Newtown and the Oxford Road area went up through the 1800s as the town’s factories expanded after the railway arrived in 1840, and plenty of those houses still drink through their original supply pipework. Lead and iron pipes that have corroded quietly for a century tend not to weep politely; they let go all at once, often under a front path or solid floor. Internal stopcocks sit wherever a Victorian builder left them — under floorboards by the front door, in a cellar, behind a kitchen cupboard added long after.
Thames Water, whose own head office is in Reading, supplies the town with water drawn from a chalk catchment, typically in the 250 to 350mg/l calcium carbonate range. Decades of that scale seize ball valves, fur up cylinders and leave gate valves so stiff they shear the first time anyone tries them in anger.
Then there is who lives in these houses. Reading has more than 1,400 licensed HMOs, and borough-wide additional licensing extends to smaller shared houses from March 2026. In a shared house at midnight, the tenants often have no idea where the stopcock is and the landlord is somewhere else entirely. We are set up to work with both.
What happens when you ring us
The first job is always the same: stop the water. Whoever answers will talk you through the internal stopcock, or the outside stop valve at the boundary if the internal one has failed. On arrival we isolate the leak properly, diagnose the fault and give you an exact price for the repair. Nothing starts until you approve that figure. We can take authorisation and payment from a landlord or letting agent over the phone while a tenant provides access, which suits Reading’s rented stock well. Every repair carries our 6-month guarantee, and we are fully insured.
Emergency pricing starts at £120 including VAT. The exact figure is agreed before any work begins, so the number you approve is the number you pay.
Reading emergency call-out questions
My terrace still has a lead supply pipe and it’s leaking. Whose job is it?
Thames Water owns the communication pipe from the main to the outside stop valve at your boundary. Everything from that valve into the house is the owner’s responsibility. We can isolate and repair the private section, and if you replace your lead pipework Thames Water may replace their side too, leaving the whole run lead-free.
I rent a room in a Reading HMO and a pipe has burst. Who calls, who pays?
Anyone can call; stopping the damage comes first. Repairs to water installations are normally the landlord’s responsibility, so we can agree the exact price with the landlord or agent by phone before work starts while you let us in.
I can’t find the stopcock in my Victorian terrace. What do I do?
Check under the kitchen sink, beneath floorboards near the front door and in any cellar. If nothing works, the outside stop valve near the pavement shuts off the whole supply; it needs a stopcock key, and we can guide you through it when you call.
From a Katesgrove terrace to a ten-bed HMO off the Oxford Road, call TrueFlow on 0808 175 7440 and we will answer, whatever the hour. Away from emergencies, our plumber in Reading page covers the rest of what we do across the RG postcodes.