Odd water pipe behaviour

[HayMaker]

I was helping dig a post hole at my mates house yesterday, and we hit a water pipe (that comes in from the meter on the pavement). It looked small, like half inch copper pipe. It was battered and bruised but didn't leak, so we thought no more about it. Until his mum tried the kitchen tap and no water came out.

We turned the stopcock off to the house and checked the meter - it was not moving. So we turned it back on again, the kitchen tap slowly started and over the course of the day went back to normal. Every other tap in the house was not affected.

We can't figure out why this happened? The pipe was about 2 foot in the ground, I can't see that catching it with the shovel could have affected anything, as it was too buried to pull out/loose from either end. There is still no leak from where we hit it. Any ideas please? It seems like too much of a coincidence that the kitchen tap stopped working immediately after we hit the pipe. And then slowly started working on it's own again

 

[Wayners]

15mm soft cooper pipe in ground which is the main water feed?

 

[HayMaker]

15mm soft cooper pipe in ground which is the main water feed?

I don't know anything about plumbing, but yes it seemed like no more than 1/2 inch copper pipe. And it comes down the garden slope exactly in line with the meter on the road, so we assume this is the main water feed. I did say it looked too small for the main feed, but I don't know anything.

Someone suggested that maybe the pipe being hit with an auger dislodged something that was sitting in the pipe - maybe some earth or stone that got in there when the pipe was laid? Which then found itself to the first outlet that demanded water, in this case the kitchen tap. But it's fixed itself now i.e. back to normal pressure so we're still stumped

 

[denso13]

But it's fixed itself now i.e. back to normal pressure so we're still stumped

Sometimes things just happen, with no rhyme or reason. If it's all working now then just claim you fixed it!

 

[Wayners]

50s and 60s build and maybe a copper pipe. Called soft copper Vs standard 15mm.
It's bendy.

They can rub stones with ground movement causing burst pipe as a few of my neighbours has had that.
Just sounds like a air lock or some crud come through pipe from road works.
We had that a few years ago when road pipe was updated.

 

[dilalio]

So, you sure you haven't crushed it flat anywhere, or kinked it a bit?

 

[robinbanks]

Are you also certain that there wasn’t a temporary water supply problem to the entire area that coincided with your actions/concerns ?

 

[gas112]

by sounds of it you had probably knocked some crude off the inner pipe wall that then moved and stuck in the tap
turning water off and then back on has been enough to dislodge it out of the tap

 

[HayMaker]

by sounds of it you had probably knocked some crude off the inner pipe wall that then moved and stuck in the tap
turning water off and then back on has been enough to dislodge it out of the tap

that seems like the only explanation. can't have been anything else because all the other taps in the house were running fine

 

[gas112]

that seems like the only explanation. can't have been anything else because all the other taps in the house were running fine

YEP just stuck in first tap it came to which is usually the kitchen and most used