No water in house. Puzzled

[Justanotherdramalama]

We live in a rural cottage with a private water supply. Since this afternoon we have no water at all. Puzzled what could be causing this problem. No issues with the private water supply as no one else in the village is affected. Stop valves open and all electrics are fine.

Can any kind mumsneter solve this puzzle? Plumber can't get out until tomorrow morning.

Main infeed pipe completely failed and is causing a sinkhole somewhere on your property?

That’s all I can think off if neighbours are fine and no issues with supply. Hopefully you figure it out soon. Do you have plenty of bottled water for cooking/cleaning or alternative accommodation until it is resolved?

@InMyHealthyEra our kind friends are letting us use their house as they are on holiday. Oh dear that sounds expensive and a lot of work to fix 😪 thanks for your kind advice will ask the plumbers to check this when I meet them at the house tomorrow.

Sounds like a failed pipe issue, hope it’s not too grim. Don’t forget that often ‘underground services’ (sounds like Transport for London) are often covered in buildings insurance policies - drains, pipes, tanks, etc.

Honestly it’s probably not, there’s obviously an issue somewhere but it’s likely minor, could be as simple as a blocked pipe. I probably should have mentioned that as a possibility above.

Glad you have an alternative until it’s resolved, hopefully it’s a minor issue, quick and cheap fix.

I agree, sounds like a failure in the pump - probably not that expensive if it's just a blockage in the pump or a small part that's needed.

However depending on where your water supply comes from, I feel I need to warn you, if they have to start digging around it could work out expensive.

As a child we had a private water supply & septic tank for waste water. My father used to crow about his non-existent water bills - until a pipe sprang a leak & we only had a dribble of brown water if any at all. It turned out that there was a leak somewhere. They had to dig up a good deal of the garden & through a concrete path leading to the house to expose the pipes to identify the one that was leaking & replace it. From then on my father would put some money into a savings account every month to pay for any repairs & never crowed about not having to pay for water & sewerage ever again.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's something simple with your pump and not a leak. However, no water at all suggests a pump problem as, if a leak, in my limited experience I think that you would be getting some water - even if only a dribble.

You have all helped calm my nerves a little. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it is just a quick fix and can get sorted soon. Will update tomorrow when I have more information.

Is it gravity fed or a pump?

It's been v dry then lots of wind to bring twigs etc down and heavy rain. So could be a blockage at your filter?
An airlock? Different systems have different ways to clear these.
Your pump has failed?
Do you use a UV unit? They can get gunked up and are easy to clean.

It could be a blocked pipe, ours was once blocked by a young frog, or as others have said above potentially pump has failed so nothing to pump water to the house. Where in the line is your house if the water level is low it could be that your near the end so not getting any of the little that is left as the other houses are using it.

My money would be on a small animal blocking it! Ours is usually frogs but sometimes something a bit bigger. If you know where the tank is I would go and have a look hopefully something very simple.

I also imagine it will be a blockage caused by an animal such as a frog. Hopefully nothing more hard to sort/costly!

We once purchased a rural house with water supplied by a well on a neighbouring farmer's land. This had supplied four detached properties including the farmhouse and the local manor house for decades.

By the time we bought the property the nearest house to ours had had a major falling out with the farmer, causing him to literally pull the plug on the water supply. All the properties' owners, including us, eventually had to have their own independent boreholes drilled (at a cost of around £10k per house).

What was most amusing was that our house was originally built as a water mill 😆

Anyway @Justanotherdramalama fingers crossed it's something straightforward!

If it's a private well, could it have run dry?