Shared supply

[1john]

I have recently purchased a property to renovate and live in which is a ex-LA semi detatched house, with the next door being still owned and rented out by the LA.

At the end of my drive is a stopcock with 7lb 1/2 lead running from it which goes up my drive and tee's off under ground somewhere to my kitchen, and then around the back of my house and tees somewhere else to my out house, it then goes next door and presumabally tee's into their outhouse and then arrives in their kitchen.

Anyhow, i did not know this originally and so this is what has happened -

The lead pipe that arrives in my kitchen began to leak before my internal stop tap so i went to the road stop tap and turned it off as much as i could by hand, this reduced the flow dramatically, which ment i only had to bail out two buckets of water a day from my kitchen floor.

Over the course of the next ten days from this I have dug a trench in the lawn next to my drive, excavated a hole through my drive andran a new 25mm MDPE pipe into my property to a new location at the front. I then cut the old lead pipe and coupled my new pipe up to it.

My neighbour then askes me if my water is on after i have back filled the trench and the hole in my drive (with mainly clay after 4" of topsoil!!)

This is the point in which i realise what has happened, although they have had really poor flowrate for about 10 days (it woulkd take about 3/5 mins to fill a 15l bucket) and seen my digging a trench and excavating an old lead pipe etc.

Temporarily I have had to find the cut pipe in the hole in the drive, cap it off and then back feed through the new stoptap on the MDPE to the old lead pipe in the kitchen, i have got a 15mm speedfit pipe running from my utility room, under my stairs and into the kitchen, with a tee in it feeding a ball o fix over a bucket for my water supply.

Now I am stumped as to what i can do or am oblidged to do to rectify this problem, the LA are saying it's my responsibility as i have cut the pipe, the water board are saying that it is the councils responsibility and i am stuck with a lead pipe running through my property to next door which has started breaking down (well the pipe in my kitchen wasspurting water where the copper was wiped into it) and as far as i am concerned is not required by me any more.

Congratulations if you have survived so far in reading this, i dozed off twice composing it, just trying to get a many facts and as much info down as possible. Basically I would like some advice as to what to do as i still cannot isolate my propertys water supply without cutting off next door, and they have the feed to their house running through my house, i cannot afford to replace all this old lead pipework in my drive (20 metres if i am lucky) and even if i did we would still be sharing the same stop tap and have no independent means of isolation.

Thank you for reading

John

 

[big-all]

you have a joint supply
its not your supply with your neibour tacked on
afraid you need to reinstate to full origional flow

the lead pipes after the join wont be a great problem to you as the water pressure will wash any lead away

 

[1john]

hmm, that isnt good news as i will still have an unused lead supply in my kitchen which could cause me further problems. shouldn't we have independent means of isolation??

 

[big-all]

theres nothing to stop you teeing at the stopcock and taking your own supply from there
if you want to fully get your own new supply you will have to pay for a new spur with your own stopcock and you will still be responcible for the old pipework to your boundery

 

[Tipper]

I had to pay to get a shared supply split by adding a second connection to the main and second supply pipe ......but I did get a 20% discount because it was a 'separation'!

 

[1john]

well after speaking to the water board, they seem to be under the inpression that the council should provide a seperate pipe for their property in which case the water board would then connect it, they also said that they are going to replace the lead from their stopcock upto my new pipe and chenge the stopcock too. I am very confused.

 

[big-all]

if you have a gang relacing the lead up to the stopcock then this is a good time to talk to the gang on the street doing the work about an additional pipe from the mains to your property as theres less "administration" to be paid for at street level

 

[1john]

No no no, i dont think i explained properly, they are replacing the stoptap in the street and the lead onto my property, all 4/5 feet of it. that is why i am confused

 

[big-all]

you need 2 seperate feeds from the mains to get maximum pressure on both propertys

 

[tamz]

No no no, i dont think i explained properly, they are replacing the stoptap in the street and the lead onto my property, all 4/5 feet of it. that is why i am confused

When they do that, you need to T your new supply to it and join the old lead supply back up. Dig up and find where the old supply came in at the back of your house and cap it off there.

well after speaking to the water board, they seem to be under the inpression that the council should provide a seperate pipe for their property in which case the water board would then connect it

That is unlikely to happen soon although the council will have a lead pipe replacement program and may get done in the future. You could if you like, speak to someone at the council and see what their plans/timescale are regarding lead replacement.
You may find this of interest
http://www.ciwem.org/policy/policies/lead.asp

 

[Nige F]

Thanks for the link - I got as far as "complex subject" and couldn`t be bothered Government BS . Surely there must be a few £ from all those LA houses sold - to repair the left over stock . I`ll bet Joe`s got some thoughts

 

[tamz]

Surely there must be a few £ from all those LA houses sold - to repair the left over stock

Probably spent it all on shyte (not the pipes though)

 

[1john]

No no no, i dont think i explained properly, they are replacing the stoptap in the street and the lead onto my property, all 4/5 feet of it. that is why i am confused

When they do that, you need to T your new supply to it and join the old lead supply back up. Dig up and find where the old supply came in at the back of your house and cap it off there.

Thats what i plan to do, although presumabaly i am still responsile for the pipe on my land until it reaches the boundry around the back?

 

[tamz]

Not if you cut off your out house too

 

[1john]

well I initially intended to have all the lead made redundant, which is what i will end up doing now, but how am i responsible for it now and wouldn't be if i cut my house off from it completly.