Dug through underground pipe :(

[swiftgti]

So, I was digging out a trench on the front of the house today ready for laying a pipe to a soakaway box and have struck through a clay pipe with the shovel

There is water leaking from it at a constant rate, until the water around it was about level with the pipe.

The pipe is running horizontally across the drive, and isn't where i believe the water main comes into the property.. I assume if it was the main it would be under pressure and be spurting out so must be a drain of some sort?

What are my options for repair? I'm in Severn Trent's water area, should I get in touch with them or would an independant be cheaper? (If there isn't an easy fix I can do myself).

I've attached a pic of the damage.

 

[theprinceofdarkness]

It looks like your sewer pipe. Having said that it should be empty, just a trickle or a flush when some waste water goes down the drain. So looking at the line of the pipe, where does it come from?. It could be a land drain running from down pipes from your roof. The soak aways they end up in do get blocked, so the pipe fills. If its a land drain type then there is no great urgency. If there is a possibility thats your sewer pipe, then flushing the toilet should give a burst of water from the crack , which has to be mended asap.
I have seen water board types "mend" holes in high pressure water pipes by clamping two plastic saddle around the pipe and bolting them up while still under pressure, time to repair 2 minutes, time to dig the hole? one hour, time to respond to my telephone call ?, a fortnight
If you can get the right sized clamps, you can do it your self.
Frank

 

[r896neo]

Your first move regardless is to dig back and expose more of the pipe. Aim for 400mm either side of the damage. Its not mains water if its clay. It can only really be drainage of some sort and should be straight forward to fix.

You can easily fix it yourself but technically if its a shared drain then it would be the responsibility of the water authority but i dont know much about that as i'm in northern ireland where regs are different.

If you come across any joints in the clay then dig back to expose them fully.

At least if you do the above you'll be able to get definitive advice and be able to see what you need to buy before breaking open the whole pipe.

 

[swiftgti]

Thanks guys, I will aim to dig out a little more around the area and possibly get one of those clamps to seal it up.
What are they called, are where can you buy them? (Just so I can research them and have a look at sizes etc)

Not sure what could be in the pipe, as our soil pipe is at the back of the house, at the front we have a valley between our house and next door which drains to a down pipe and into a drain at the front, but the location of this pipe doesn't seem like it would line up with that at all..

 

[vinn]

Look for the nearest manhole on your side or your neighbour's side and draw a mental line from the manhole to the pipe in the photo.
Pour some coloured water (food colouring) down the down pipe gulley, and watch at the sliced pipe for the coloured water to appear. Repeat and observe in the manhole.

The fittings are Fernco or Flexseal. There's a utube video of how to fit them.

 

[noseall]

Looks like an old land drain to me. These would typically be of terracotta appearance, smaller bore than salt glaze (though the walls of the pipe are quite thick) and are in short sections (18" - 24" long). Breaking one of these usually results in lots water pi$$ing out but stops after a while. Easily repaired. There are no male-female joints on land drains. As I said - they are butted.

 

[swiftgti]

Thanks guys, old land drain sounds plausible - its an old house, out in the countryside.. Everything is 'old' here
The pipe is probably smaller than 110mm I'd say (haven't measured yet) and is terracotta looking.. So sounds about right.

Will check out those clamps.
Do they require splitting the pipe fully? (To slide it on) or do they have a split so it can be slotted over and tightened?

Edit - Just googled fernco to have a look at the clamps and found this, anyone have any experience with this? Says it even holds under mains pressure, so could do the job (seen as mine is not anywhere near that..)?
Https://www.fernco.com/plumbing/pow-r-repair/pow-r-wrap

 

[vinn]

You've tried a site in another country. Try drainage superstores.co.uk or something similar or plumb centre or maybe screwfix?
That repair stuff is useless for your purpose.
Why not dig out to reveal about 600mm of pipe and be certain of what you have got down there?

 

[swiftgti]

Well I thought I'd give Severn Trent a call this morning and just sound them out as to getting it repaired as I won't have time to look at it for a few weeks.
They were great and sent someone out today to assess, they've looked and confirmed they will repair free since its a shared pipe.
They have booked in followup work to do the repair, so just have to wait until they confirm when it will be.