Lead Water Pipe - Tricky Situation

[chuckalicious]

Hi all,

I have just found out that the mains water pipe entering my property is lead. I am in the process of speaking to Scottish Water to come out and test the supply and my local authority will pay for 50% of the replacement costs. However I have a couple of questions I hope someone might be able to answer.

Basically, the water company are responsible for the feed up to the boundary of my property. From there it's my responsibility. Make sense so far.

However, I'm in an unusual situation whereby my water supply comes in the back of my house, which has a shared, communal garden. The stopcock is underneath a common pathway, shared by the other neighbours. I have no idea if the main is only lead from the stopcock to my internal stopcock (it's copper from there) or if it's lead all the way to the street.

Does anyone know how this sort of thing is dealt with? Would the water company only carry out the work outside the boundary of the communal ground? If so I assume I'd need to speak to the neighbours about costs.

The mains feed comes into our utility room, through a concrete floor - I'm assuming the new feed would need to also come in at a depth and thus would need to come through the same concrete floor - which would be a big job.

Lastly, if it is confirmed that it's a lead pipe, can I be forced into replacing it by the council or water company? There's only so much I can afford and it could end up being a huge job!

Thanks and sorry for all the questions.

 

[adlplumbing]

Hi all,

I have just found out that the mains water pipe entering my property is lead. I am in the process of speaking to Scottish Water to come out and test the supply and my local authority will pay for 50% of the replacement costs. However I have a couple of questions I hope someone might be able to answer.

Basically, the water company are responsible for the feed up to the boundary of my property. From there it's my responsibility. Make sense so far.

No they are responsble to outside stop tap.

However, I'm in an unusual situation whereby my water supply comes in the back of my house, which has a shared, communal garden. The stopcock is underneath a common pathway, shared by the other neighbours. I have no idea if the main is only lead from the stopcock to my internal stopcock (it's copper from there) or if it's lead all the way to the street.

Then you and your neighbours are responsible, from that comunal stop tap

Does anyone know how this sort of thing is dealt with? Would the water company only carry out the work outside the boundary of the communal ground? If so I assume I'd need to speak to the neighbours about costs.

only if they care about having their`s upgrade too
i bet they don`t

The mains feed comes into our utility room, through a concrete floor - I'm assuming the new feed would need to also come in at a depth and thus would need to come through the same concrete floor - which would be a big job.

not nessaryly they will go for an external wall

Lastly, if it is confirmed that it's a lead pipe, can I be forced into replacing it by the council or water company? There's only so much I can afford and it could end up being a huge job!

no they can`t as it your pipe, and their a lot lead pipes around

Thanks and sorry for all the questions.

your welcome

 

[chuckalicious]

Thanks for that.

Good to know I can't be forced. My only real concern is that I have a 6 month old daughter who's formula is made from mains tap water. Lead ain't good for brain development so if I can cut out as much lead as possible then great.

I understand that simply running the tap for a few minutes in the morning makes a big difference though.

I'll update this once I know more, in case anyone else is in the same situation.

 

[chuckalicious]

Quick update here.

Turns out the main stopcock is a lot further away from my house than the one I thought was our main one.

Our water company think that it's lead all the way to the boundary.

Now I need to get quotes

Will be interesting to get the water test report back tho.

 

[JohnD]

you are in Scotland so it may be different from here.

In England, the water co must replace the lead pipe from the road up to the boundary of the property at their expense. They also have a subsidy scheme towards the cost of replacing lead pipe on private property (they will want to inspect the new one before it is covered over to verify that it has been laid per standards and at correct depth. It is easier to connect your new plastic pipe to their new plastic pipe in their hole, so try to get the trench dug before they come. It will be lots more work to dig it out again and possibly be faced with a non-standard old connector.

Have a look at your water co's website or ask for the lead replacement scheme leaflet. In England, they vary in helpfulness and generopsity depending on where you are. It is very important to get the water tested for lead before you start replacing. When I did it a year or so back, they were so slow in coming to test that I had already had to replace a burst lead pipe, so I got the burst pipe subsidy but not the lead pipe subsidy.

Try to put in a good big plastic pipe. The work is the same and the cost is not much more but it will give you better flow for a combi or shower later.

 

[chuckalicious]

Thanks.

My local authority offer a 50% grant, which I have the forms for. They have also given me the names of some companies in my area who are familiar with this kind of work.

What I aim to do is get 2 quotes, as required for the grant, and then wait on the test results.

My 2 concerns are:

1. A lot of communal land will need dug up - I don't think the neighbours will have an issue with that, but I bet if I asked any of them to contribute to the cost, that'd screw the grant.

2. How do you co-ordinate the private company digging up my part and the water company doing theirs? Sounds like a lot of people could be without water for some time....

 

[Agile]

In spite of what JohnD has said the water supplier do not HAVE to do anything!

Most will, at their discretion, and when it suits them, replace their street pipe with plastic up to your BOUNDARY ( not beyond to your stopcock! )

If long distances are involved then rather than digging its sometimes cheaper to have a new pipe moled in.

Min 750mm deep and has to enter the property at that depth.

Tony




Thames Water now add phosphoric acid (?) to their water to reduce the dissolution of lead into the water.

 

[chuckalicious]

Oh the water company (Scottish Water) are more than happy to do this, they've been spectacularly helpful in fact.

I now need to speak to the council regarding the grant, because it sounds like I'm going to be better off getting a new supply instead of dealing with 7 other owners who have absolutely no reason to replace a working pipe (or I replace it for them and foot the bill).

 

[Agile]

If you have mean neighbours then you may feel better to have your own new plastic pipe installed up to the boundary and a connection there to either the existing supply pipe ( as a "tee" ) or to have a new connection onto the main .

But doing that runs the risk of the water co NOT giving you a free plastic connection to the street main if they are less than co-operative.

I wish you luck. Its interesting just how different people seem to get different deals!

Tony

 

[chuckalicious]

It's not so much that they are mean, just that some of them are pensioners and so can't afford to go shelling out for work that they themselves don't need done. Some of the houses are also rented so it's harder to get in touch with the owners.

It was actually the water company that suggested it might be easier getting a new supply laid due to the complications with the shared pipe. I'd be happy to go down that route as we often get terrible water pressure.

They did say there was an extra cost involved though as there's a "new supply" registration charge, but that's like £300 or so.

I have absolutely no idea how much this kind of work costs though, so that'll be the deciding factor.

 

[Agile]

You could budget on £30 per metre of soil and £60 per metre in concrete as long as the distances are enough to make it a worthwhile job.

But it depends a lot of just who you get to quote!

The water co might also quote.

Cheapest would be to find some men working on water supplies and offer them the job as a cash deal on a Saturday!

Reminds me of when I needed 20m length of concrete drive broken up. Contractors were quoting about £600-£900.

Wife called to say there was a man sitting outside beside a compressor reading a newspaper. I told her to rush out and give him a cup of tea and ask him to break it up. Took him two hours and wife gave him £50 !

Tony

 

[chuckalicious]

Wish it were that simple. Anything that gets dug up inconveniences 8 houses, so I can't really stagger the work as such. I'm just going to have to wait and see what they quote.

To be fair though, if those prices you quote are even close, it's a lot less than I would have expected. There's probably 15m of loose slab to lift and then it's just soil underneath.

The only tricky bit is how they get it into my utility room, which has a concrete floor

 

[kirkgas]

Wish it were that simple. Anything that gets dug up inconveniences 8 houses, so I can't really stagger the work as such. I'm just going to have to wait and see what they quote.

To be fair though, if those prices you quote are even close, it's a lot less than I would have expected. There's probably 15m of loose slab to lift and then it's just soil underneath.

The only tricky bit is how they get it into my utility room, which has a concrete floor

getting through into the utility room is easy, they will either drill a 2" hole through the concrete from the inside and burst the wall on the outside at the right depth and fit the pipe up through a sleeve, or they can bring the pipe up on the outside of the wall and drill a hole and feed the pipe through the wall, as long as it is enclosed in the properly sized sleeve with adequate insulation, give last yrs weather up here i would prefer it fitted down through the floor

 

[chuckalicious]

I wasn't aware they could just drill and meet the wholes up, so to speak.

Interestingly I was Googling lead pipe replacement and noted that a few companies were quoting that they don't need to lift driveways etc to run a new pipe - they can just bore undergound - is that practice commonplace?

 

[kirkgas]

I wasn't aware they could just drill and meet the wholes up, so to speak.

Interestingly I was Googling lead pipe replacement and noted that a few companies were quoting that they don't need to lift driveways etc to run a new pipe - they can just bore undergound - is that practice commonplace?

yes its used by a lot of companies, its called a mole, someone mentioned it in an earler reply, they use it to go across roads etc to minimise disruption but soem use it simply to save digging up, chance it will hit a drain or something, but thats their job, price could end up the same as they want you to pay for their machine and know how but it greatly decreases disruption and mess