Lead piping, can it have a tee

[tomredsky]

Hi,
We recently moved into a terrance house. Our main supply is lead and I'm looking to replace it. We share the supply with one neighbour next door so we'd also have our own supply and a meter.
I have been tracing the pipe which enters our house, lifting floorboards and I've traced the pipe up to the kitchen. It is still lead up to this point. So far I have not found where the supply tees off to my neighbour.
Looking under the sink, there might be a lead pipe to a cooper tee there but it is hard to be sure because the view is very restricted.

My question is, is it possible for there to be a tee, in lead? I ask because the only spot I have not been able to check so far is the 2 meters from the front of the house to the stop cock on the street. Before I rip up all the kitchen floor, I like to have some surety that the tee isn't behind me.
Thanks in advance,
Dermot

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

My question is, is it possible for there to be a tee, in lead?

Perfectly possible, for a skilled lead worker to have made a T in lead pipe.

 

[Exedon]

Teeing into lead service was easy enough make a hole use bent pin to create socket.
Clean everything clamp plumbers black to stop solder running too far.
Tallow for flux stick of grade D wipe joint.
Wiping joints still been done when I started this god forsaken job!

 

[avonmouth]

Teeing into lead service was easy enough make a hole use bent pin to create socket.
Clean everything clamp plumbers black to stop solder running too far.
Tallow for flux stick of grade D wipe joint.
Wiping joints still been done when I started this god forsaken job!

The good old days when you had 20 inches of lead pipe that you had to freeze and wipe a joint at the same time.I still have some sticks of solder.

 

[polesapart]

Tee in lead perfectly possible, as above.

More likely, however, is that they split the supply somewhere near the first point of use i.e. the original kitchen or outhouse area.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

More likely, however, is that they split the supply somewhere near the first point of use i.e. the original kitchen or outhouse area.

Yep - basically, it would run from outdoor stop tap, into one terraced house, to feed it's sink via a T, then on to next door. So your house might be the first port of call, or the next door/end of line. There were commonly, two, three, or four houses, on the one stop tap.

 

[tomredsky]

Thanks for all the replies.
I've a mate that's a (retired) plumber and he's suggesting to stop the water, cut the lead and cap in somewhere in the front of the house, turn the water back on and see if next door has any water. The idea being we know if the tee is in the front garden or not.

to feed it's sink via a T, then on to next door

I took a picture of under our kitchen sink. I don't know how good the image is but the top pipe in the image is the cold water feed. It looks kind of lead-like to be. It's hard to get to. It goes on past our sink to the back of the house, presumably where the old outside toilet was. It seems strange that it would go from our sink on to the next door neighbour but at the same time, I'm not going to discount the idea.

I am wondering if there is some kind of flow test I could do? The house next door runs their sink at full and I turn ours on, if the flow stays the same, the tee is before our sink, if there's a stutter or drop in flow, the tee is after. Would that be a useful experiment?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I am wondering if there is some kind of flow test I could do? The house next door runs their sink at full and I turn ours on, if the flow stays the same, the tee is before our sink, if there's a stutter or drop in flow, the tee is after. Would that be a useful experiment?

Not really - it would depend on any pipe restrictions upstream of your joint supplies. Better to start, by locating, and turning off the stop tap out in the street, then see who complains of no water supply. You can hire pipe and cable tracing equipment