Best way to repair this leak?

[benraz69]

Hi all,

We live an old Edwardian property that was converted into four flats many years ago. Myself & the owner of the ground floor flat have an outside tap each (The gardens are quite big, so these taps are freestanding, i.e. not mounted to the main building or anything). The single main that feeds both these taps has a hairline crack/split approx 100mm long in it under my neighbour's decking (see photos).

I assume the best thing to do would be to rip up all the decking, re-dig the trench & lay a new main - but you're talking at least 20m of trench (10m of which would be under decking). I've offered to split the cost with my neighbour, but he's not particularly interested in paying hundreds on an outside tap he doesn't use that regularly, which is fair enough I suppose...

Is there an in-situ repair I can do here? I think the pipe is iron/steel & as you can see from the photo, it's pretty lumpy & corroded!

Thanks, Ben.

 

[Agile]

Well if you all want to live with outdated and unreliable plumbing then thats what you are going to do.

For a start mains pipes outdoors should be 750 mm minimum below ground to reduce freezing problems.

In the meantime there are bodge repair kits which clamp a bit of rubber against the leak.

Or you could even save the cost of that and use a cuple of jubilee clips and a bit of old inner tube!

Tony

 

[Bosswhite]

A cheap pipe repair kit, works quite well. £8.

 

[stardanny]

As above but I rather replace it with mdpe pipe as there may be more leak as it look too corroded.

Could it be reroute a different way or abandon it and fit an outside tap on main building and use long hosepipe for watering?

Daniel.

 

[AGAS]

As agile has said I think you would be better off replacing all of it now, must consider
what the rest is like, especially if frost gets hold of it. It would only cost more money in the future . I suppose it's a risk for you to decide what to do ??
paul

 

[Bosswhite]

If your neighbour refuses to replace the pipe, I would suggest cut back the old Galvanised pipe to a good section and fit a Philmac Universal fitting and you can fit your own underground PVC pipe to the fitting,
The fittings are not cheap but would solve your problem.
Any further bursts would be his problem then.

http://www.philmac.co.uk/products/universal-transition-couplings/