Where is My Water Service Pipe Connection?

[NeilJones]

I recently had Severn Trent Water turn up at my house and tell me they'd detected a leak on the service pipe. They dug around the side of my house for a while trying to locate the service, but once they hit the drains and power supply said they couldn't got any further and it was now up to me to get the leak repaired within 7 days (it's within my boundary).

It's a new-ish (9yo) house with a plastic service, so they told me it's 99% certain that the leak will be on the connection between the plastic pipe and the internal copper pipe and therefore should be a simple repair that I'd be able to do myself. However, the problem is finding where this connection is and how to access it! Where is the connection normally made - should I be digging at the side of the house where I think it enters, or should I be taking up the utility room floor instead? My internal stopcock and smartmeter are in a cupboard against an internal wall in the utility room, about 1.5m away from the external wall where I'd imagine the service enters - you can even hear water running.

Any advice would be very much appreciated before I start digging or dismantling unnecessarily.

Thanks,

Neil

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

The connection from plastic to copper, in a build of that age, is usually made at the internal stop cock where the supply enters the building. The stop cock accepts the plastic in the inlet side, and changes to 15mm copper on the outlet side. http://www.screwfix.com/p/brass-poly-stop-cock-15-x-20mm/98486

I would think the leak is external, if that amount of water was leaking internally you'd have realised by now!

 

[NeilJones]

Thanks for the reply.

My stopcock is in a cupboard under the sink in my utility room - the inlet is copper and comes from a hole cut in the back wall of the cupboard. I can only assume that behind that it drops down and connects "somewhere" to the PE pipe. The Water Board say it was leaking 240l/hr, which in there terms "wasn't very big", but I definitely think I would have noticed that had it been above ground level!

So if my PE->Cu connection isn't at the internal stopcock, I take it there's no hard and fast rule as to whether it would be under the floor in the footings, or under the ground outside the house? Really don't know where to start. I guess digging up outside would be the cheaper/easier first choice, but surely copper wouldn't just be in the ground?

 

[stardanny]

Can you remove the plinth under the sink base and have a torch looking where it come up and is it plastic pipe. 9 years old house normally have plastic pipe.

Is it topsoil around the house? Can you do a test pit to see the condition of soil, is it dry or wet, or very wet.

Daniel.

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

240l/hr is about equivalent to 45 gallons, or an oil drum full going somewhere..... I would be absolutely amazed if there was any copper externally, the copper should start from the stoptap on where the services enters the building. (Stoptaps are purposely made to accept the plastic at the inlet and copper on the outlet to allow for the change in materials as the service enters the building!)

Secondly, the service should be sleeved where it passes through the walls/subfloor to enter the house. It is not acceptable (or allowed!) to simply concrete the pipe in with the oversite, it must pass through a sleeve or duct, which can then be sealed appropriately. If you can excavate (carefully!!!!) just outside the property where the pipe enters, and locate it there then take it from there.

Any DIY excavation must be undertaken with utmost caution, as there will also be electric, gas and possibly telecom services to the property, possibly shallow drains, and make no assumptions as to depth or route for any of them!

 

[NeilJones]

I've just removed the plinth and basically there's another stopcock under there, with the inlet (copper again) coming vertically out of the concrete or screed floor.

When the water board were digging at the side of the house looking for the service, the ground was "normal", i.e. no indication of where this 240l/h is coming from or going to.

Untitled

• NeilJones
• 8 Oct 2014
• 1

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

I'd be concerned about that copper in the screed, can you see if it's either in a duct or has been sleeved where it passes through the concrete? If it's buried directly in the floor with no protection then that in itself could cause the copper to corrode and leak, the water may be escaping under the house and soaking into the subsoil below the floor!