Replacement water supply pipe -

[markocosic]

A friend of mine has just bought a house. The original house is 1920s with a side extension by Handy Andy in the 00s.

 

The floorboards on the ground floor are coming up as we speak for rewire / replumb / insulation. Boundary stop tap is in the footpath outside the front gate; approx 0.5-0.75m from the property boundary. Incoming water pipe is steel. Indoor stop tap in the kitchen. No water meter. Current floor is wooden boards on joists on dwarf walls with concrete oversite. It'll probably get the dwarf walls knocking out, 300-500 mm of EPS in the hole, and a sand/cement screed when it goes back down.

 

 

We think there's a leak between the stop tap in the footpath and the house.
 

With stop tap in the footpath open you can "hear water" with the sound coming from the incoming water pipe - whether the indoor stop tap is open or closed - at all times of day/night.

 

It's about 20 metres as the crow flies from the stop tap in the footpath to the incoming water pipe. 

 

 

Q1) Does that sound like a leak to you? Or is it possible that with the stop tap open you hear water fro the mains rushing past to other houses?

 

Affinity Water offer free leak detection services...but only if you have a meter fitted.

 

 

Q2) He doesn't want to touch this ever again. A plastic pipe from the meter to a stop tap inside the house would be ideal.

 

What's the most appropriate approach / phasing?

 

 

 

We were thinking:

 

Indoors:

- Drop 25 mm EPS on top of the concrete oversite (to cover any sharp bits)

- Run MDPE from the final inside location (at rear of property in kitchen) across the top of this, clipped in a straight line, then out through the front wall of the property into a hole outside the house, and left in a coil for now

- DPM over that EPS and cut/taped around the incoming MDPE (and potentially existing incoming electricity supply that he's yet to expose)

- Main EPS floor insulation, secondary "DPM" to stop the screed floating the insulation when laid, then pipework / cabling / screed

 

Outdoors:

- Trench to the footpath, unroll MDPE, ask for a meter to be fitted and hook up the MDPE at the same time to avoid needing to dig up the footpath or having joints on the consumer side of the meter.

 

or

 

- Trench to the footpath, unroll MDPE, ask for a meter to be fitted to the existing steel supply, then hook up the MDPE whilst whistling

 

 

Potential issues:

 

A neighbour had a replacement supply pipe fitted. Affinity Water refused to connect without "certification" from a professional that it met some requirements about how it enters / type of stop tap etc. Probably these:

https://www.affinitywater.co.uk/alerts/lead-pipe-replacement/lead-supply-pipe

 

I think these are the same but clearer:

https://www.nwl.co.uk/globalassets/customer-pdfs/wholesale-pdfs/laying_new_water_supply_pipes_2018.pdf

 

Involving burying this kind of thing:

https://www.murdockbuildersmerchants.com/110mm-90-degree-long-radius-ducting-bend-ud471

https://www.murdockbuildersmerchants.com/110mm-single-socket-ducting-pipe-60m-ud460

 

 

That duct with a 750 mm radius exiting 750 mm below ground level would be a kango hammering ditch digging footing disrupting pain in the backside. The cold water pipe would then need to be trenched all the way around the house. This is (1) digging  35 metres rather than 10 metres and (2) would mean digging this in a side alley and I suspect digging below the footings of the Handy Andy side extension (tops are visible 400 mm below ground level) which he isn't took keen on vs taking the pipe through the front wall and under the floor. 

 

What we're proposing would have the pipe ~600 mm below finished floor level; shoved through a ~75 mm hole drilled at a downward angle through the outside wall and packed with stainless scourers to end up ~600 mm below ground level outside and dipping quickly to 750-850 mm below ground level for the run to the stop tap before rising up again to ~500 mm below ground level. (which is where the stop tap is...)

 

 

Is this a stupid idea? The folks that you're allowed to talk to as a consumer aren't interested in informal advice. You'd have to notify to get a decision and at that point...you've notified and are kinda bound by that decision.

 

https://www.affinitywater.co.uk/metering/water-fittings-regulations-notify

 

 

We haven't found the existing entry point yet (pipe enters kitchen floor void horizontally before kicking up in the corner) but based on where the stop tap is in the street / electricity cutout is / gas meter has been moved to we think the water pipe might have entered where Handy Andy built the extension and suspect if there is a leak it'll be where they might have whacked the pipe with a digger / concreted it into a footing that moved.

[HughF]

I’d just get on and do it yourself… trench to footpath, new pipe in, chop out the steel from the stop tap, for your mdpe, water back on…

 

no need to inform anyone. That may or may not be how it’s done down in the south west…. I couldn’t possibly say. 😉

[markocosic]

It is fine.

 

 

A surveyor will be sent. The surveyor needs to see a stop tap in the street and a stop tap in the house. Photos are needed for the form / app to raise the job.

 

 

The meter fitter needs to see a pipe in the trench connected to the meter. Photos are needed for the form / app to close the job.

 

 

The form / app doesn't ask for photos showing that said pipe in trench is indeed connected to said stop tap in the house.

 

It is very much in the interests of the men with the meters and shovels wanting to close the job to assume this though. 😉 

 

 

Happy aligned pragmatic incentives. 🙂