sediment/dirt in water supply

[Adsibob]

I finally got around to swapping some shower heads which we weren't happy with. When I took them off their supply pipes, I noticed that within the metal gauze filter that sits at the entry point of the shower head, there was a little bit of dirt. This was the case in both shower heads. Not a lot, just a four or five pieces of something; bigger than a grain of sand, but smaller than a grain of rice: maybe 2mm or 3mm in size. Is this normal in a completely new install? We've lived at the property for 10 months, so had plenty of use of the showers in question, so maybe this is not anything significant, but it surprised me as our connection to Thames Water was also completely new. Is this just general crud that will have got into our pipework at some point?

[ProDave]

It can happen even with mains water.  Our supply went off a few weeks back due to a local burst main.  Shortly after it came back, one of our toilet cisterns would not stop filling.  Dismantling the fill valve revealed a similar sized "foreign body" that must have come in with the water jamming the fill valve open.  It must have got into the pipe during the repair.

 

Thames water are well known for their leaks, if they actually fix them, the same could happen to you.

[saveasteading]

52 minutes ago, Adsibob said:

within the metal gauze filter that sits at the entry point

That's what the filters are for. Usually it will be lime scale or sand from the filters, but it is near impossible to keep muck out of a repair to the mains. They will often flush through, but can't always, and some may escape.

I have heard of insects getting through, so keep the filters in place and check again next year or so.

There may be more gauze filters if you have a fancy mixer.

[Redoctober]

Similar experiences with @ProDave - we noticed that our water supply was yellow in colour on one ocassion. Contacted the local water board and was informed that there was a burst water main repair being undertaken in the local town - some 3 miles away - and residents should expect some "disturbance" filtering through their systems for a while - The advice was to let the water run and all would come good - which it did.