How big is yours?

[Mulberry View]

Get your mind out of the gutter. I mean your Water Main?

 

Our planned build is a good 150m from the highway, where the mains water will be connected. We have been told that 32mm is our specified size, according to the modeler at the water company. This is against the guidelines in their literature, which says over 100m needs 50mm pipe.

 

Do I trust them? They've suggest that they will take responsibility if I have low pressure issues, but I cannot see them ever agreeing to re-dig my 150m run and replace all the driveway etc along the way.

 

They said that if I go against their advice and fit 50mm, then I have to take responsibility for it.

 

Thoughts...?

[ProDave]

Well here the "main" that serves 12 houses is 50mm and WELL over 100m long, so i would say 50mm for one house is over size.

[IanR]

From main to house is 130m for me, and we've run that in 32mm and have good pressure.

 

IIRC 32mm is as large as you can go before you need run some disinfection process (possibly with water samples sent off??) before the connection is permitted.   That helped make my decision!

[Ronan 1]

16 minutes ago, IanR said:

IIRC 32mm is as large as you can go before you need run some disinfection process (possibly with water samples sent off??) before the connection is permitted. 

That is the cases with most companies, and cholorination is a pain in the arse which takes 3 days of site visits for the cholorination team and then a set samples sent of to a certified lab which takes 3 or 4 days to come back before you can connect, some will also ask for pressure testing !!!!! 32mm is plenty for a single house 100m of the main.

[gc100]

68mm , 900m

 

they still connected me to at the main with a 32mm join .

 

pressure is just right. 50mm would of been fine as well tbh 

[dpmiller]

^ we're about the same length on a 32mm run, and no issues.

[Conor]

32mm is more than sufficient, unless you planning on filling a swimming pool, running sprinklers and having a shower at the same time.

[gc100]

We only had 68mm as the chap and no did it advised it and it only  cost a few hundred quid more. It was more due to the flints in the ground and farm traffic over the top and not wanting to get a leak I the future 

Edited April 28, 2021 by gc100

[Mulberry View]

Thanks everyone. Very helpful.

 

While you're here, let me give you another scenario.

 

Our plot is a subdivision and is off a shared privately owned driveway (not owned by us). Our mains water connection has to be made at the highway, so down the private drive. Once we have finished our build, we plan to orchestrate the resurfacing of the shared drive. The existing property was built in the 1950's and almost certainly has a lead water main and the water meter is in a weird place (10m inside next doors drive - 60m from the highway). The local water authority do a lead replacement service, so at the moment we're in discussion about what they'll replace. They want to go only to the highway boundary, but this leaves the 60m length of pipe from there to the meter in next doors drive as lead (which they probably laid years ago), which seems stupid to me.

 

Now, I could lay a second pipe alongside the one for our new build to switch the old property over to a modern MDPE pipe and get the meter where they want it, down by the road. There would be fairly extensive additional works needed by me because the digging to get the new pipe to the old house would be fairly hefty and complex (2 almost crossed over RPA's). I think that the water authority should help me out with my costs for the highway crossing to connect the main for the new build as they'll have to make the same crossing for the old house as part of their lead replacement service. Is that reasonable? Otherwise, I'll be paying for the crossing and they'll use that to connect the old property, which they would have done at no cost to me had we not been after a further connection.