About Chalk & Cistern
In short
Chalk & Cistern explains hard water, boilers, leaks and the plumbing rules for homes in Portsmouth and south-east Hampshire, using published figures and the regulations themselves.
Updated
What this site is
Chalk & Cistern is a reference shelf for people who live in, own or let homes between Fareham and Emsworth, from Southsea up to Waterlooville and across to Hayling Island. The name comes from the two things that shape the area's plumbing: chalk under the South Downs, which makes the tap water hard, and the cisterns, cylinders and pipes that have to cope with it.
The pages answer practical questions. How hard is the water at your address? What does Approved Document L say about scale on a combi boiler? Who pays when the pipe under the front garden leaks? What must a landlord check every 12 months? Each answer leads with a figure, a regulation or a date, and links to the document it came from.
What it is not
Chalk & Cistern is not a plumbing or heating company. It does not visit homes, quote for work or fit anything, and its pages never recommend a particular firm. For gas work the answer is always a Gas Safe registered engineer; for water fittings, an approved plumber listed on WaterSafe.
It is also not Portsmouth Water, which supplies the drinking water, and not Southern Water, which runs the sewers here. Where the pages quote either utility, they say so and link the utility's own page, so you can check the wording at the source.
Who owns it
Chalk & Cistern has the same owners as two US water-treatment shops, SoftPro Water Systems and Quality Water Treatment. Eleven pages link to products in those shops as US reference models. The owners and shop links page lists them and explains how the shops' own claims are handled.
Using the pages
Start with how hard Portsmouth's water is, or go to the three sections: water and limescale, boilers and hot water and leaks, pipes and rules. The way figures are gathered, dated and corrected is set out on how pages are checked. Everything here is general information, not advice for a particular home; the terms page says more.