dnb Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 I am about to start putting the services into the new house from them being "parked" in the old garage. The water supply is currently a 25mm connection from the meter. I am wondering if it is worth laying 32mm from the garage to the house (I intend to leave an outside tap on the garage wall, with a view to doing something more interesting with the old garage later.) and in time getting the supply changed to 32mm. Total pipe length from the stopcock to the house will be approximately 35 metres, and the old garage is close enough to the direct path to make little to no difference in pipe length. My thoughts are that 32mm over a relatively short length makes little difference to the water supply quality but I am not sure where the break point is for this. My usual luck says it's at 35 metres... ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faz Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 25mm MDPE pipe is fine mate - I would suggest that you run a straight pipe from the meter to your internal stopcock with no connections - MDPE joints tend to leak in a very short space of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Punter Posted February 23, 2021 Share Posted February 23, 2021 1 hour ago, Faz said: MDPE joints tend to leak in a very short space of time. Interesting. I did not know this was an issue. Is there evidence for this? Any particular make / type? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conor Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 7 hours ago, Mr Punter said: Interesting. I did not know this was an issue. Is there evidence for this? Any particular make / type? I was briefly working on a water meter installation project and I'd say 1 in 10 of the connections in developer estates were leaking by the time we came round to screw in the meter. Back to the OP, no harm in 32mm if it's not that more expensive. You won't see an advantage unless lots of water demand at the same time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faz Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 20 hours ago, Mr Punter said: Interesting. I did not know this was an issue. Is there evidence for this? Any particular make / type? Our site temps are all in 20mm MDPE and we have had 4 leaks. We are taking our supply from a neighbor and his 25mm joint (5 years old or so) has just started to leak. I think the O rings in the joints are the weak spots. Like I say - best to avoid below ground joints if you possibly can. The pipe costs F/A in the scheme of things. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Punter Posted February 24, 2021 Share Posted February 24, 2021 @Faz & @Conor I understand this but there are times when you need to connect below ground. I am surprised that the fittings are so poor. It is a pain if they go wrong and the are 700mm below your nicely paved drive or patio! There are a lot of below ground MDPE fittings out there and there must be millions underground. I think everyone would agree not to join but sometimes they get damaged by excavators, tee off, reduced etc. This seems a very high failure rate. Is Plasson, JG, Floplast etc all the same poor quality / high attrition? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conor Posted February 25, 2021 Share Posted February 25, 2021 @Mr Punter tbh it was normally a case of poor installation. E.g the connection located where the pipe was pulled to a tight radius. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faz Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 Well...I did do it myself so anything is possible ?. Leaks were all in straight locations though. Anyway - for peace of mind I will be installing the water pipe to the plots as a single run. Can't go wrong then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oz07 Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 (edited) Mdpe joints are the devil's work. I had an elbow on a stand pipe, diverted to a straight joint when the stand pipe was changed to a house feed. The plumber did the connection for me and we testes befire backfill. The connection was fine 2016-2019 as confirmed by meter not turning when not using water. It started leaking this year. Apparently 40l per hour although I'm amazed it was that much. Water board dug up their meter to check, No joy. I told homeowner to contact insurance, they told him to content nhbc, I told him there was no nhbc and would not likely be covered any way. He contacted insurance again, what a surprise he was covered. Such honest companies these insurance bodies are. Edited February 26, 2021 by Oz07 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Jones Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 there is no extra charge for 32mm connection and as the cost increase in MDPE is miniscule id run it in 32. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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