lead water main question

[andymarshal]

hi i recently had some building work done buy not the greates builders in the world shall we say. I had a kitchen extension built and can remember him finding the lead main under the floor. this lead main as connected to 15mm copper he simply connected about 1metre of speedfit an brought this up the wall as the main supply for the whole house.

my electrician told me that it would not be adequate for a main and it needs to be blue pipe from the lead main up to the kitchen wall and then into 15mm.

is this correct do i need to replace the speedfit with blue water pipe or is what is in place ok. please help

Cheers

andy

 

[Agile]

All those pipe types are ( just ) adequate!

Having found a lead main supply it would have been better to have replaced the lead all the way back to the external stopcock with at least 20 mm blue poly for health and flow reasons.

As there is now a non conducting pipe I hope the electrician has taken account of this with the earth bonding.

Tony

 

[andymarshal]

hi, thanks for the reply. It was my plan to rplace the lead main, however no one could locate the stop tap for the house. we turned off everyone we could find to no avail.

do you thinks i should connect blue pipe straight to the lead main?
the pipe would be about 1.5m in length
would this alter the flow much


cheers

Andy

 

[andymarshal]

Sorry forgot to mention that im not sure what the electrician is doing but he is fully qualified, what should he be doing?

 

[Agile]

The lead pipe could have been excavated to see where it came from and that would probably have located a stopcock within your boundary.

Many water suppliers have a lead replacement program whereby they will replace any lead under the pavement if you remove all lead inside the property.

Tony

 

[gastight]

I assume you are in Birmingham from location in your profile.
A lot of the terrace houses in Birmingham share the mains same stop cock. You can have as many four houses running of the same stop cock in the street.
Seven Trent used to lead free replacement ( I think they may still do).
You have (( or get a plumber )to dig a trench at least 1 meter deep, lay a at least 20mm ( 25mm or 32mm would be better) and seven trent would do the connection in street. There are certain regs you have to follow where the pipe enters your building - needs to be sleeved in another pipe ( 110M soil pipe would do) and caulked with suitable material.
Seven Trent would inspect the trench and pipe before you can backfill it Some plumbers are 'authorised' to do this without an inpsection

Ring Seven Trent and they'll give the info.

 

[andymarshal]

hi, thanks for the replies. i just measured the flow from the 15mm speedfit at around 18 litres per minute. is this adequate pressure. also can you run the new blue water main in the ceiling? as this would be the best route for me. If the qater company changes you over from lead do you have to have a water meter fitted.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Belle427]

you can also buy the correct fitting to allow you to convert the lead main into a copper pipe for your application,any decent plumb shop will have them

 

[chrishutt]

can you run the new blue water main in the ceiling? as this would be the best route for me. If the water company changes you over from lead do you have to have a water meter fitted.

You can run the blue MDPE pipe internally, but it is more common to convert to PEX or PB plastic (or copper) above ground. 25mm poly = 22mm PEX, PB or Cu. Check with your water company about their requirements for lead replacement (their bit should be FOC).