Shhhh! Keep the guy from the water undertaker away......

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.... for the mo'!

Friend of mine's just moved into a [approx] 50's ex-council house. Was a repo so everything turned off and drained. House has a retro-fitted downstairs bathroom behind a tiny kitchen [ I'm guessing the bath used to be in the kitchen in the past - the loo looks like it's been there for ages ]. Out back is a brick build shed block, which looks like it was an outside washhouse, loo?, shed.

He's stripping the bathroom out and we're going to put it upstairs so to organise him with water at the kitchen tap and a flushing loo, I cut/capped everything else and turned the water on at the street.

As I came round the back of the house to turn on the stopcock in the kitchen, he was leaning over a hole [remains of an iron lidded access] out side the washroom, connecting a Hozelock female to a Hozelock male... the male on a flexi 3/4" connector attached to copper pipe underground & the female attached to green garden hoze!

Assumptions were quickly being made - that the water from the road, T'd into the house and carried on out back to the washroom & the previous occupant had patched in a hose from there. The hose, running underground to feed a caravan they had someone living in down the garden.

So... as we didn't know where tha gardenhose ended & clearly there was water now to it, we'd best disconnect it there and cap it for the minute - until it could be dealt with properly. That was done.

Here's the punchline.... having had water in the house, now there isn't!
Turns out that the water is supplied TO the house via the underground garden hose!!

From the roadside, somewhere underground it connects to garden hose and is Hozelocked into the copper at the back of the house to feed the stopcock in the kitchen!

Me thinks the water undertaker will do his crust! Heh!

*Reaches for spade* Clearly we're going to have to do some digging! I've sent him to the Council to see if there are, by any chance, any plans showing the routing of supply piping..... there are no signs of any holes outside.

D'oh!
 
I thought you were going to say the meter had been by-passed :P
 
I'm sure, given the folks who were living there :-

1 family upstairs with a makeshift bathroom [ electric shower totally unsealed tray/walling with power taken from a wall socket with loose cable and a connector block under the tray ], another downstairs and at least 1 family in a caravan.....

There is a live cable cut 4 inches from the isolating switch on the powerboard.... wopped a cover over that kiddie!!

All kinda smells of shifty - however, there's no water meter on that property - though the other 2 street-side water stop valves do.

I'm amazed..... risk of death and/or contamination is high!

Still.... we'll get him sorted!
 

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