Never drink water from the upstairs tap

When I was a kid I was always told “never drink water from the upstairs tap!” but I never really understood why.

Although less common nowadays, many houses still have water header tanks in the loft to increase pressure to the taps in the bathroom and they hide a dark, nasty secret.

Whilst on a job today removing an old asbestos water tank, we had to scoop out the last few gallons of water before we could wrap it and move it through the house. As you can see, the bottom few inches contained a nasty, dirty brown sludge. This sludge had built up in the tank over 40+ years since the house was built.

A header tank can host all kinds of nasty germs

Header tanks can contain nasty germs and diseases including legionella. The Health & Safety Executive warns against this.

Now you can see why you should never drink water from the upstairs tap

Watch the video. Who needs any more reason not to drink from the cold tap in the bathroom unless they’re sure it’s fresh mains supply of water? Certainly not me…