united utilities going bonkers?!

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I have a new water supply and a new meter which is installed outside of the property. Still, the old water supply is active and I can't remove it without shutting the old stopcock which is communal and sited on the pavement outside of the property - so it's responsibility of United Utilities.

United Utilities agreed to send someone and remove the old internal water meter (it's their property - I can't remove it)....but then I was asked to sign a paper stating that I was going to remove the piping myself...ok, but who is going to shut the supply (for a few hours?) and notify the neighbours about that?
I've contacted UU and they told me I wasn't supposed to shut the stopcock by myself and that someone from UU was going to do that...then a week later I received another call from a guy from UU telling me that it was my responsibility to remove the piping inside my property and that it was perfectly normal for anyone to shut the communal water supply? This contradicted the message I received earlier on (which in turn contradicted the one left by the guy who asked my to sign a piece of paper...which also contradicted the initial instructions).
Surely, something isn't quite right at UU...
Common sense tells me the external stopcock should be operated by UU ...but maybe it's common practice to allow privates plumbers to shut the supply for the occasional maintenance work....surely, to suggest that anyone can shut a communal water supply sited on the road at any time is a gross overstatement. If so, why UU doesn't give us privates a proper written authorization? (rather than a vague and risky suggestion).
Bearing in mind that some neighbours might not be that cooperative sometimes...in this specific case there are 8 properties involved - just one no is enough to give me some hassles...at least UU is the authority - they can ignore any objection (after all it's their piping).

Any ideas?

btw: is there a way to cap a lead pipe with water running inside it? So I wont have to bother with that external stopcock nor my neighbours?
 
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It's normal practice for a plumber to shut off stoptaps in the street, you can even buy stoptap keys from local merchants.
In this situation rather than disrupt supplies to 8 houses I would work live & freeze the pipe, you might pay a bit extra for the job as a can of Polar Freeze is about £15 & could use up to 2 cans depending on how quick your plumber is.
 
It's normal practice for a plumber to shut off stoptaps in the street, you can even buy stoptap keys from local merchants.
In this situation rather than disrupt supplies to 8 houses I would work live & freeze the pipe, you might pay a bit extra for the job as a can of Polar Freeze is about £15 & could use up to 2 cans depending on how quick your plumber is.

thanks for the hint....actually I'd prefer to spend £15 than asking permission to my neighbours.
Then, I'd been googling this matter and found out possible solutions and complications...
It seems common practice to cap lead pipes by hammering them flat - now, can we do that on live pipes? (I doubt)...wouldn't it be better to use a vice first (to lessen the shock) and then hammering for good the flat area then cut and fold?
Then...a possible complication - capping a communal pipe would create a dead branch with standing water which can breed bacteria...this can affect the supply of my neighbours?! If so, I understand why UU doesn't give us a proper permission and leave matters in a greyish/vague position leaving us responsible of any possible complication in the future. In fact I've read some posts where the second supply was used as a secondary source of water for the garden (to minimize any complication and not having to cap any pipe).
 
Hammering the lead flat is a short term solution, over time it will open up & leak no matter how good you bend it over.
Officially you have to trace it back to the supply pipe & cut out the tee, as for using it as a secondary supply....... on record naughty! off record if it's only used as a "flushing out" point who will know ;)
 
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Strictly any work on a mains water supply needs to be done by a water regs qualified plumber who can self certify his work!

There are quite strict rules for mains water pipes!

Tony
 
There are even stricter rules for gas work & they don't seem to enforce them, so if anyone tries to enforce water reg's then I'll show my ****
 
Hammering the lead flat is a short term solution, over time it will open up & leak no matter how good you bend it over.
Officially you have to trace it back to the supply pipe & cut out the tee, as for using it as a secondary supply....... on record naughty! off record if it's only used as a "flushing out" point who will know ;)

there isn't a proper garden...just a small concrete area good for a free liberating fart here and there - no, really, I'm trying to avoid having to contact all my neighbours (some are the kind you don't want to ask any favour) and I don't understand why UU put us private users in this awkward position...the "common practice" adopted by UU stinks...I wasn't allowed to dig an inch away from my property (as I was "invading" UU area) so, why should I go and close a stopcock which isn't mine and is sited on communal ground?

Apart from the extra water supply....the frozen gas option seem the more practical - but I have no idea how long the dead branch is going to be...to find out I'll have to dig deep under the concrete (with the added risk of damaging the lead piping).
 
on second thoughts....
how do we know where to find the tee to the main branch? What if this is located in the perimeter of the neighbour's property? This might involve having to dig partially in their property or just outside their property (UU area). So? 3 diggers are involved here (me my next neighbour and/or maybe UU too) as I'm not allowed to chase a pipe which goes outside my property = a dead branch might still be left in place after my work is done.
 
The only way to find the tee is to dig back from a known point & follow the pipe, the only way the tee will be on next doors land is if you're the last house on the run in which case you cap it off at your boundary.
After that any dead leg is not your problem, just keep a record of any correspondence with UU to prove your efforts were to "best endeavours"
 
The only way to find the tee is to dig back from a known point & follow the pipe, the only way the tee will be on next doors land is if you're the last house on the run in which case you cap it off at your boundary.
After that any dead leg is not your problem, just keep a record of any correspondence with UU to prove your efforts were to "best endeavours"

Bingo! my property is the last on the run...now, I'd have to dig at least 2m inside my house and cap the pipe near the perimeter in common with my neighbour...this will leave a dead branch of about 2 meters as the next tee junction should be found around the middle of one side of the neighbour's property.

I wonder how many dead branches are left around - can you imagine? Standing water for more than 50 years? Any stats about possible poisoning/health hazard issues?
shouldn't UU take care of these matters? I might start feeling guilty about my neighbour...I might knock on their door and say "look I've improved my supply but yours might got worse as a result - take care and good luck".
Beside...I don't understand why UU doesn't notify my neighbours they can take advantage of the new supply pipe and get rid of the old lead pipes altogether (we'll all be happy - except UU apparently).
It doesn't make sense to dig the whole road to supply only the last house while all the rest are still "in the dark ages".
See the wonders of privatization? Sometimes it simply doesn't work - water is a communal item and it shouldn't be privatized (same for trains and energy and more....)
But then apparently, there are no major issues...
 

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