Plumber, electrician and gas engineer in Croydon

Local service

Plumbing, heating and electrical work in Croydon

Croydon is one of the biggest boroughs in London, and its homes are more varied than its reputation. Around East Croydon and West Croydon stations there are new towers and dozens of former office blocks turned into flats. Thornton Heath, Selhurst, South Norwood and Norbury are mostly Victorian and Edwardian terraces, and Addiscombe has larger Victorian villas, many now split into flats.

South of the town centre the borough climbs into the North Downs. Shirley, Selsdon, Sanderstead, Purley, Kenley and Coulsdon are largely 1920s and 1930s semis and detached houses on sloping roads, with bigger plots and often a garage or utility room where the boiler and cylinder live. New Addington, out on its own to the east, is a large estate of houses and low-rise flats.

That spread means two very different kinds of call. In the town-centre flats the jobs are electric: water heaters, storage and panel heaters, extractor fans and consumer units. In the southern suburbs they are mostly about heating and hot water in family houses that have been extended over the years.

Croydon's town centre is still changing, with more towers planned and older office blocks being converted. Buildings converted under permitted development were not always finished to the standard of purpose-built flats: small cupboards for cylinders, long extract duct runs to the outside and consumer units squeezed into hallways are all common, and each one shapes how a repair can be done.

We cover the whole of Croydon, including central Croydon, Addiscombe, Shirley, South Croydon, Sanderstead, Selsdon, Purley, Kenley, Coulsdon, Waddon, Thornton Heath, Norbury, South Norwood, Upper Norwood and New Addington. Postcodes: CR0, CR2, CR5, CR7, CR8, SE19, SE25.

Popular in Croydon

Most booked services in Croydon

• Water heater installation
• Fuse box replacement
• Boiler servicing and replacement
• Power flushing
• Leak repairs
• Gas safety certificates

Local knowledge

Good to know before you book

Many Croydon flats created from office buildings have no gas supply at all. Hot water comes from an electric cylinder or water heater and the rooms are heated by electric panels. When the hot water stops, the cause is usually a failed element, thermostat or timer, and replacing the right part is far cheaper than replacing the whole unit. We check which it is before quoting.

In the hillside houses of Purley, Kenley and Coulsdon the boiler is often in a garage or utility room and the radiators are spread over three floors after a loft conversion. Long pipe runs and air trapped at the high points are common causes of cold rooms, and a properly balanced system can make more difference than a bigger boiler.

Parts of Purley and Kenley sit over chalk, and in very wet winters the water table rises. If you have had damp or water in a cellar or under the floor, mention it when you book, so we can check that electrics and pipework in that space are protected.

Thornton Heath, Selhurst and South Norwood terraces were mostly built with the bathroom downstairs at the back, and many were later moved upstairs. Where the old waste pipes were left in place, or a new soil pipe was boxed in without access, blockages and slow leaks are common. We look for an access point before cutting into a boxed-in pipe, and we fit one if there is none.

In the southern suburbs many houses still have the original 1930s gas pipework running under the floors. Gas pipes buried in a solid floor should be in a sleeve or protected channel, and older ones sometimes are not. When we replace a boiler we check the pipe route and the pressure at the appliance, and we tell you if anything needs changing.

Upper Norwood and the Crystal Palace side of the borough have larger Victorian houses on steep roads, many now flats, with the same issues we see in Brockley and Sydenham: shared supply pipes, ageing soil stacks and small radiators in tall rooms. Norbury, on the Streatham border, has rows of 1920s and 1930s terraces where the original back boiler or wall heater has often been replaced only once.