Thames Water woes

[icon_boy]

Hi guys,

Hope someone from here can help out with the issues I’m having with Thames Water, who are present seem to abstain from their responsibilities due to the pandemic….

Issue 1 - I’ve applied for the Lead replacement scheme, I have replaced the lead pipes within my property, it’s been signed off and accepted by Thames. They have come out and determined that there is a 22mm poly pipe and won’t change the communication pipe to the industry standard 25mm pipe, however in their notes, they mention that, any piping determined to be smaller than 25mm will be replaced.

I’ve challenged them on this, however they are not budging, more info around the lead replacement scheme can be found here - https://www.thameswater.co.uk/media...y/lead/lead-pipe-replacement-request-form.pdf

It does state the following:

“The new pipe we install will be the same size as our existing communication pipe – unless this is below the industry-standard 25mm diameter. If our existing communication pipe is narrower than this, we’ll replace it with a 25mm diameter pipe.”

Issue 2 - my plumber was unable to turn off the water to the house, as we want to change the Internal stop valve, Thames Water have stated that due the pandemic, they will not change unless its an emergency (basically if my house is flooded) I’ve asked for further info regarding this ploy change, but they are unable to show me, where on the their website its states this.


I will be officially complaining about the above two problem, would love to hear from your guys too.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Old Salt]

Water ombudsman but I don't think it will make any difference because if your supply is 22mm that is not a lot of difference to the 25mm.

Ombudsman site will explain the process and I believe you will have had to exhaust the Thames Water complaints process first.

Cant your plumber “freeze” your pipe to allow the stop valve to be changed?

 

[jono_h]

Well I know they’re not the only Water Company who have a waiting list of months to sort out external stop-cocks in non-emergency situations - it’s the same here with South East Water.

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Put a 'Squeeze off' on the Blue pipe, fit your own external stoptap, then shut off using that to change the internal Valve. There would be so little difference between the 22mm and 25mm it's not worth the effort of changing it. Most domestic supply pipes round here are 20mm IIRC.

 

[icon_boy]

Thanks for the responses! - is there really not much of a flow difference between a poly 22mm and 25mm?
I have it piped all the way to a balanced cold feed (Megaflo) via 22mm copper and some plastic 22mm

 

[JohnD]

.

 

[icon_boy]

.

that much?

 

[JohnD]

I was puzzled by 22mm plastic (current popular sizes for blue plastic are 20mm and 25mm, the 25 has about twice the capacity and is equivalent to 22mm copper; and the 20mm plastic is about the same as 15mm copper

but perhaps you have old black pipe, which can be in different, non-metric sizes.

I don't know the wall thickness or how the ID compares.

I edited my earlier post because I had made the mistake of thinking you meant blue.

 

[icon_boy]

I was puzzled by 22mm plastic

I should perhaps be more clearer

1. communication pipe is 22mm black poly
2. within the boundary of my property, its 25mm blue poly
3. 22mm copper, however there is some 22mm Hep20 piping, which then leads to 22mm copper thats connected to the balanced cold (3 bar)

 

[JohnD]

I have black alkathene coming into my house, I think it's 3/4 inch nominal but it doesn't measure to any sensible figure.

If yours is 21.5mm O.D. it could be half-inch I.D.

 

[JimCrow]

With comparison to the blue MDPE it looks like ½ inch Alkathene you have which has an OD of 21.5mm,
Blue MDPE has an ID of 20.4mm - 326.85 mm²
½ inch Alkathene class C has an ID of 15.5mm - 188.69 mm²
½ inch Alkathene class D has an ID of 14.1mm - 156.14 mm²

 

[JohnD]

if you have the chance to dig up more of that black pipe, see how near the meter you can get and if it is worth changing up to 25mm. See what your flow is like.

In a previous house I had about half a meter of 1/2" lead pipe from the meter to my garden stopcock, then blue pipe, and the flow was very satisfactory.

 

[icon_boy]

If yours is 21.5mm O.D. it could be half-inch I.D.

I believe you may be correct!

 

[icon_boy]

lo and behold, Thames Water are outside - re-digging up the pavement!

 

[Old Salt]

lo and behold, Thames Water are outside - re-digging up the pavement!

Perhaps they read this forum