Water services in a commercial building fail differently from heating. A cold water booster set that short cycles, a dead leg feeding a rarely used washroom, a thermostatic mixing valve that has drifted out of range, a soil stack that gurgles every time the top floor flushes: none of these stop the building, but every one of them creates a problem for the duty holder. WTS Plumbing and Heating look after the water side of commercial property across Epsom, from the industrial units on Longmead and Kiln Lane to the offices around Ashley Avenue and the school estates across the borough.
We are a family run mechanical contractor, established in 2008 and working from Unit 2, Jayes Park Courtyard at Ockley near Dorking. Epsom sits inside our core Surrey patch, so KT17, KT18 and KT19 get planned visits rather than a long run from a depot in another county. We are Gas Safe registered, but the work on this page is the public health side in its own right: booster sets and pressurisation, above ground drainage, water hygiene, safe hot water, backflow prevention and hot and cold water services.
Epsom's commercial water systems, building by building
Longmead and Kiln Lane together run to roughly 35 hectares, and the borough council's economic value report counted 126 companies across the pair. Longmead, off Longmead Road, is around 20 hectares of industrial and warehouse space running from small start up bays to large storage centres, with ME Group International's global head office among them. Kiln Lane, east of the railway and reached off the A24, is around 15 hectares and mixes a large superstore and trade sheds with smaller unit clusters and a run of car dealership franchises. Wholesale, retail and motor vehicle repair account for just over a quarter of the companies there, then manufacturing. In practice that means washdown bays, high demand hot water in valeting and workshop areas, and hose union taps that need backflow protection.
In the town centre the constraint is the building fabric. The council's conservation area appraisal records that 47 per cent of the main buildings in the town centre conservation area are listed, with a further group locally listed. That changes how water and drainage work gets done. A new soil vent pipe, an overflow discharge or a condensate run on a front elevation needs consent thinking before a quote goes out, so the sensible route is usually a rear yard, an internal stack or a roof slope out of public view. Behind the very wide High Street, the old covered carriage entrances survive as alleys and yards, several of them now feeding into the Ashley Centre malls, and they are the practical way in for pipe and plant.
Then there is the institutional and corporate stock, where the water hygiene records matter as much as the pipework. Epsom General Hospital on Dorking Road has been built and rebuilt in stages, so buildings of very mixed age and height stand on one site and a single hot water circuit can cross several vintages of pipework. Epsom College on College Road, Blenheim High School on Longmead Road, Rosebery, Glyn and Nescot at Ewell all empty over the holidays, which is when tanks get cleaned and outlets get flushed. Global House at 1 Ashley Avenue is a multi storey serviced office building next to the Ashley Centre, served by passenger lifts, and Epsom Downs Racecourse runs conference and event space across the Queen's Stand and the Duchess's Stand.
What this covers in Epsom
Hot and cold water services
We survey, repair, alter and replace hot and cold water pipework in occupied buildings: copper, stainless, calorifiers, plate heat exchangers and the secondary return balancing that keeps every outlet at temperature. In a mixed age estate or a multi storey office, the fault is often a return never rebalanced after a floor was reconfigured. Epsom has plenty of both, from the hospital site on Dorking Road to the offices around Ashley Avenue. We record riser flow and return temperatures and balancing valve positions before pricing.
Booster sets, pressurisation and incoming mains
Most taller buildings in Epsom depend on a booster set, and most of the faults on them are control faults rather than pump faults: waterlogged vessels, drifting pressure switches, duty pumps that never rotate. We service and replace variable speed booster sets, cold water storage tanks and pressurisation units, and we renew incoming mains and meter arrangements where a unit on Kiln Lane or Longmead has outgrown the supply it was originally built with.
Above ground drainage and soil stacks
Above ground drainage is the quiet failure in older retail and office property. We test, repair and replace soil and vent stacks, waste branches, air admittance valves and grease management in commercial kitchens, and we set out new runs to BS EN 12056 where a layout has changed. Behind the High Street, stacks often run through rear yards and alleys shared with neighbouring units, so we agree the route and the working window with every occupier before a board comes up.
Water hygiene and Legionella control
If you employ people in Epsom or you control commercial premises there, the Legionella duty is yours. We carry out the water hygiene work that sits under your risk assessment: tank cleans and chlorination, dead leg removal, temperature monitoring points and outlet flushing regimes. School and college estates across the borough empty over the holidays, so tank and outlet work is programmed into Easter, summer and half term against a hard handback date.
TMVs and safe hot water
Hot water has to be stored hot and delivered safe, and that tension is where most compliance failures sit. We select the valve class for the setting, service and test thermostatic mixing valves, record the failsafe shut off and the mixed outlet temperature, and replace strainers and check valves at service. Care homes across KT17, KT18 and KT19 sit at the strict end of that, where servicing intervals and written records matter as much as the plumbing itself.
Washroom and kitchen fit out with backflow prevention
We install and strip out commercial washrooms, tea points and catering kitchens, including panelling, sensor taps, urinal controls, boiling water taps and stainless waste. Backflow protection is designed in rather than added afterwards: check valves, air gaps and the right fluid category protection at each connection, from a cleaner's sink in an Ashley Centre unit to a chemical dosing point in a Longmead workshop. As-fitted drawings and a valve schedule are handed over with the job.
Records a duty holder can actually hand over
Most of the water hygiene problems we are called to are record problems first. The system is broadly sound, but nobody can show the last tank clean, the schematic predates two refurbishments, and the valve list has more mixing valves on paper than exist in the building. What we hand over is the artefact that fixes that: a marked up schematic of the system as it stands today, an asset register that matches what is physically on the wall, and a dated record against each asset for every visit. That is the file an incoming tenant asks for at the start of a lease, an insurer asks for after a claim, and an environmental health officer at Epsom and Ewell Borough Council asks for when they visit. One place, not three inboxes.
Working around Epsom's access and its calendar
Access is priced before pipework. Nonsuch Industrial Estate on Kiln Lane runs a private barrier controlled estate road with CCTV, so vehicle registrations go in ahead of the visit. Longmead and Kiln Lane are split by the Waterloo mainline with no vehicle link between them, so a two site day means driving back out and round. The Ashley Centre car park is council run, so access and permits for a Luton or a tail lift need confirming first, and much of the High Street is pedestrianised, so retail work loads in through the rear. The Market Place holds markets on Thursdays and Saturdays and a farmers' market on the first Sunday of each month, and the town centre hosts Derby Festival events, the Christmas light switch on and Remembrance Sunday, so we plan around the calendar rather than against it.
Typical commercial buildings in Epsom
- Industrial and warehouse units on Longmead and Kiln Lane
- Motor trade workshops and dealership sites off the A24
- Town centre retail and food units behind the pedestrianised High Street
- Serviced and multi storey office floors around Ashley Avenue
- Independent and state school estates across the borough
- NHS premises including Epsom General and St Ebba's
- Care homes across KT17, KT18 and KT19
- Event and conference venues including Epsom Downs Racecourse
- Managing agents, landlords and main contractors in Surrey
Duties and standards that apply
- Legionella control is a health and safety duty rather than a plumbing extra. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 place the duty on employers and on those in control of premises. The Health and Safety Executive's Approved Code of Practice L8 and the HSG274 guidance set out what a suitable regime looks like, including a written risk assessment and a named responsible person. Our work supports that regime; it does not replace your risk assessment.
- The Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999 apply to plumbing connected to the public mains in England and Wales. They cover backflow protection by fluid category, the quality and standard of the fittings used, and advance notification to the water undertaker for certain types of work. That matters most at the connections Epsom's industrial stock is full of: the hose union taps and washdown bays on the motor trade units at Longmead and Kiln Lane, and the chemical dosing points in Longmead workshops, which each need the right category of protection rather than a single check valve. We notify the undertaker where notification is required, and we fit materials suitable for contact with wholesome water.
- New and altered pipework and drainage in England is subject to the Building Regulations. Part G covers sanitation, hot water safety and water efficiency, including unvented hot water storage. Part H covers sanitary pipework and drainage. Epsom and Ewell Borough Council is the local building control authority. Separately, where a building in the town centre conservation area is listed, and a large share of the main buildings there are, work that affects its special interest can need listed building consent as well.
- Thermostatic mixing valve servicing is governed by guidance rather than by a single statute. For NHS premises such as Epsom General on Dorking Road and the St Ebba's site on Hook Road, Health Technical Memorandum 04-01 sets out the expectations for safe hot water and mixing valve maintenance, and many of the care homes across KT17, KT18 and KT19 follow the same approach. Servicing frequency should follow the valve manufacturer's instructions together with your own scald risk assessment for the people using each outlet.
Common questions
Yes, and that is how most of it is done. Tank cleans, chlorination and stack work are planned as out of hours or weekend visits with temporary supplies or a stated shutdown window agreed in writing first. In a building like the Ashley Centre, where offices sit above and around a covered mall, work is isolated by riser rather than by building so trading floors keep running. You get the isolation plan and the recommissioning plan before we start, not afterwards.
Yes, and school water hygiene work is nearly always holiday work. Tank cleans, dead leg removal, outlet flushing and mixing valve servicing on school and college sites are booked into Easter, summer or half term against a fixed handback date. Everyone attending carries identification and we work to your safeguarding and visitor rules, including sign in, escorting and area restrictions where you need them.
Usually not. On boosted systems in multi storey offices, repeat tripping is more often a waterlogged expansion vessel, a failing pressure transducer or a duty assist set that has stopped rotating its pumps. We check the vessel charge, the control settings and the incoming main flow rate before anyone quotes for a pump, because replacing a healthy pump on a sick control system simply moves the fault along.
The duty sits with whoever is in control of the premises, which in a multi let building normally means the landlord or the managing agent for the shared water services, and the tenant for anything downstream of their own demise. On the serviced office floors around Ashley Avenue that usually puts the risers, tanks and calorifiers with the operator and the tea point with the occupier. On the multi occupier unit clusters off Kiln Lane the estate owner tends to hold the incoming main while the tenant holds everything past the boundary. Read the lease alongside the risk assessment, because that split is where gaps appear, particularly on outlets in unlet or lightly used suites.
Yes. Plenty of Epsom's town centre buildings are passenger lift only, and several are reached through the old covered carriage entrances behind the High Street, which sets the size of anything that can be carried in. That usually means lift lobby protection, breaking plant down into liftable sections, or an out of hours lift or crane slot. We survey the route first, measure the tightest point, and specify a calorifier or booster set that can be split and rebuilt in place rather than one that has to arrive whole.
Talk to us about Epsom
If you are responsible for water services in a commercial building in Epsom, we can start with a site walk and a written report on what is there, what is missing and what needs doing first. That works whether you manage one unit on Kiln Lane, a portfolio across KT17, KT18 and KT19, or a school estate. Call the Surrey office on 01306 621 057 or email info@wtsmechanical.co.uk to book a survey. Emergency cover for burst mains, failed boosters and blocked stacks runs 24 hours a day, and work is covered by a 12 month defects period on parts and workmanship, alongside the survey report and handover records.
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