Upgrading the water inlet pipe

[indus]

Hi

I understand that there is a water inlet pipe that runs from the road across my drive and into my house. And this of course can be 'upgraded' to a larger calibre.

However I gather there is also the pipe that directly feeds my pipe that belongs to the water company. Obviously if this is a small calibre pipe then upgrading my own pipe is a waste of time.

A couple of questions please?

1) Is it only the water company that can upgrade that supplying pipe?

2) If so, any idea what they would charge and whether I could find out the calibre of that pipe ?(without digging)

3) If I did pay them to upgrade their pipe would they automatically fit a water meter?

4) I had the pipe that goes across my drive upgraded in about 2005, at that time I took little interest in these matters so have no idea what calibre it was. Is there a particular size most plumbers were fitting back then?

Many thanks

 

[Agile]

You have made a wrong assumption about the size of pipe and its effect on water flow!

Generally the connection into the house is the size of pipe to your boundary. That's often 25 mm blue MDPE.

The communication pipe from street main to your boundary can be any material or size. The water Co in theory can tell you hat it is. Easier to ask neighbours so look at any new connections being mawde.

Most water Co will fit a meter box and some will fit a meter too. They should not start charging you ( yet ) by meter without your agreement.

Tony

 

[indus]

You have made a wrong assumption about the size of pipe and its effect on water flow!

Generally the connection into the house is the size of pipe to your boundary. That's often 25 mm blue MDPE.

The communication pipe from street main to your boundary can be any material or size. The water Co in theory can tell you hat it is. Easier to ask neighbours so look at any new connections being mawde.

Most water Co will fit a meter box and some will fit a meter too. They should not start charging you ( yet ) by meter without your agreement.

Tony

Thanks Tony

1) Does that mean if I look at the main stop cock/shut off valve inside my house then the pipe calibre at this point should be the same as the inlet pipe that was installed?

2) If the communication pipe is small then having uprated my boundary inlet pipe won't have helped will it?

Many thanks for your help

 

[Agile]

Usually the pipe you first see inside the house is the one under the garden!

The flow rate depends on the length and the diameter of the supply pipe.

Increasing any part will improve the flow rate.

Stopcocks can also be rather restrictive and fitting a larger size is often worthwhile but it needs to be considered in relation to the greatest resistances to flow.

Tony

 

[indus]

Thanks Tony.

I'm a bit unclear about what you mean by 'the pipe you first see in the house is the one under the garden'

I don't think the pipe runs under my garden! It goes across my drive and then under the house. The first time I see it is when it comes up from under the sub floor where there is a stop cock.

So should this pipe coming up from the ground be the same size as the inlet pipe?

Thanks again.

 

[Porque223]

My service delivers about 6 GPM but store-bought meters for this purpose go up to 16 GPM.
You should probably decide how much more GPM you want from current levels and, Is it worth it?

 

[Agile]

We are in the UK where we measure flow rates in litres per minute!

As far as I am concerned your drive is part of your garden!

What I am saying is that usually the pipe you see at the stopcock is whatever runs under your garden from the street ( garden to include sriveway, paths, flower beds etc. )

 

[Porque223]

We are in the UK where we measure flow rates in litres per minute!

http://www.onlineconversion.com/


The metric system is superior so of course on this side of the pond we don't use it.

Quite a while ago a spacecraft crashed because some engineer did the conversion improperly or didn't do it at all.
I assume he was fired unless he was a 'political appointee' engineer in which case someone else was the fall guy.