New water feed back to the road.

[cox377]

Hello guys,

I’ve currently got the floor up throughout the ground floor of my house. This is apart from the kitchen, which is a solid concrete.

It’s a semi. Coming out of the wall in the kitchen is a lead pipe with a stop cock / valve on it then goes back into the wall. This feeds the water into the house. I’m currently re plumbing the whole house, but thought while I was at it, I might as well put a new water feed from the stock cock on the pavement.

Would this be recommended? The pipe work is lead, is this an issue?

It’s impossible at the moment to see where the lead pipe goes, would it go under the house of run down the outside of the house?

Much appreciate guys

coXen

 

[mickyg]

if its not going to be a great upheavel then definately replacing your old lead pipe with a good size(min 25mm) mdpe one is a good idea. Impossible to say where it goes as all houses are different, but should be able to work out roughly from stopcock in road to entry into property.
You will have to liase with the water company of course so they can connect your new pipe up with their old one.

 

[TicklyT]

The pipe run is probably whatever was easiest for the installer at the time - bearing in mind the pipe may have been laid before the house was even built!

If you are re-plumbing everything, you can run it to wherever is best for you. there's no constraint to rigidly following existing pipe runs.

Now would be a good time to install pipework adequate to feed, say, an unvented cylinder, if you think there's even a remote possibility you may wish to install one in the future.

edit - Your water supplier may wish to inspect your handywork before connecting to their supply, so get them on board before digging in the pipe.

 

[JohnD]

start by asking your water supplier to test your drinking water for lead. It may take them several weeks to make an appointment.

If there is more than an insignificant amount, they must replace the part of the lead pipe they own, and may give you a subsidy to replace yours. If they are digging up the road to replace their bit, it will be an ideal time for you to ask them to connect your new 25mm MDPE blue plastic pipe to their new bit. You may have to dig at least part of your trench in advance, and have the new pipe ready for them to connect to. The plastic pipe will probably only cost you £30 or so, and 25mm is not much more expensive tha 20mm but can give better flow, but you will also need stopcocks and connectors. Digging the trench is the hard bit.

If you have to ask them to connect your new pipe as a separate job, they will probably charge you £500 or so

I recently had to replace the consumer's side lead pipe with plastic, and it was very difficult connecting it to the water co's 100 year old lead pipe and obsolete stopcock tails in a strange size, but this did save me the £500 reconnection fee.

 

[mysteryman]

Surely they have to be at least 25mm now?

Go for it - it's well worth doing while you can. The routing doesn't matter, but the new pipe on your property must be at least 750mm deep.

 

[JohnD]

this was my one

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