Existing water supply to temp

[SarahG]

We are currently living in the property we plan to start demolition early next year. I spoke to Thames Water and seem to get confusing messaging about using our existing water supply as a temporary builder's supply. I had a chap out from Thames Water who tried to tell us because we have lead pipes we should get a completely new connection, at our expense. Assuming around £5k for this.

I've since found out there is a lead replacement scheme we can use to get them to replace from boundary to main free of charge, then we replace the pipes on our land. So I now want to use our existing supply for the build. Called up again and got put through to operations team from developer services and he said our builder can just turn off the outside stop cock and connect up a stand pipe and then turn back on.

I don't think this is right as we have an unmetered supply and would think they would want to put on a meter at least and sign off our standpipe. I've emailed developer services again anyway, but wondered what others have done in this situation? Can we just crack on ourselves? I want to follow the correct process, but not keen to get an unnecessary new supply when we already have one!

[Conor]

A bit late now, but I wouldn't have contacted Thames at all. You have a supply, use it as you see fit.

 

You can apply for the lead replacement once you have finished the build and you have laid your own plastic supply pipe to the stopcock. Thames will then replace the lead pipe on their side.

[SarahG]

12 hours ago, Conor said:

A bit late now, but I wouldn't have contacted Thames at all. You have a supply, use it as you see fit.

 

You can apply for the lead replacement once you have finished the build and you have laid your own plastic supply pipe to the stopcock. Thames will then replace the lead pipe on their side.

Yes this is what I am now thinking I should have done, thanks for the confirmation.

 

They seem to be telling me to do that anyway and I think I can probably now just get lost in the system as nobody I talk to on the phone seems to care that much anyway. They even told me to use my neighbours supply, which it says on their own website is illegal! I'll chat to builder when he comes to site in the New Year.

 

We are sorted for gas and electric at least. I guess water is the less risky bit!

[Russell griffiths]

I thought the lead replacement scheme only applied if main was under 25m in length. 

[SarahG]

1 hour ago, Russell griffiths said:

I thought the lead replacement scheme only applied if main was under 25m in length. 

 

It says this on the website - We can’t install a pipe with a larger than 25mm diameter under the free lead replacement scheme. 

Which I think is fine as 25mm is industry standard.

 

Or do you mean distance from boundary to main? For us it is 9m from boundary to main they would need to replace, so should be ok I think.

[Russell griffiths]

So if your main is 9m long then where are you getting the figure of £5000 from. 

At that length you would have it dug out and reconnected in a morning, materials would be no more than £100. 

Plastic pipe is very cheap. 

I would get your groundworker  to dig you a new supply in and get a plumber to connect it leave enough length on it reach the new house with a cap on it, put a tee in the line to run to a builders supply stand pipe which if you plan it right you can leave for a garden tap, leave it long and it can be cut back when your finished and probably run up the wall of a new shed or greenhouse. 

[twice round the block]

Thames Water shouldn't be poisoning  customer's with lead and if they are going to change that section of mains pipe to your boundary FOC that's great as they will fit it to a stopcock. A meter can be purchased direct from Kent Meters and installed after the stopcock by your builder.

Just run a long section of poly pipe from this that terminates just beyond where your new kitchen sink will be and put a standpipe there.

That's the future service in place.

[saveasteading]

7 hours ago, SarahG said:

I can probably now just get lost in the system

I'd think so. If you wanted you could do all the stuff inside your boundary to get a tap where you wanted it, well away from the building. ready to connect to the house later.

Thames are a bit big to be watching you, and you're doing nothing wrong anyway.

Just keep paying the bills.

[SarahG]

20 hours ago, Russell griffiths said:

So if your main is 9m long then where are you getting the figure of £5000 from. 

I'm getting the figure from here - https://www.thameswater.co.uk/media-library/home/developers/charges/2023/charging-arrangements-for-new-connection-services-2023-24.pdf

So a new 4m connection looks about £6-7k now on pg52 (I'm sure it was less when I was looking last week). So for a new 9m connection then surely that would be even more? They need to dig up road and traffic light it. So I assume that is going to be where a lot of the cost is coming from. Maybe I will check with them. 

They have now come back and said I need a new supply as they can't fit a meter to the existing one. If it's going to cost silly money then it's going to make far more sense to use the lead replacement scheme. 

 

22 hours ago, twice round the block said:

Thames Water shouldn't be poisoning  customer's with lead

It does seem ridiculous for them to charge us for a new supply when it's their pipes that are lead, agreed. 

 

22 hours ago, twice round the block said:

A meter can be purchased direct from Kent Meters and installed after the stopcock by your builder.

Just run a long section of poly pipe from this that terminates just beyond where your new kitchen sink will be and put a standpipe there.

That's the future service in place.

Yes this is what the Thames guy was suggesting for the new supply, sounds sensible to do. Thanks for the meter recommendation.

 

22 hours ago, saveasteading said:

Thames are a bit big to be watching you, and you're doing nothing wrong anyway.

Just keep paying the bills.

Yep I will. They can't really complain when the advice they give is completely different depending on which team you talk to.

[Russell griffiths]

More confused now, maybe a sketch will help. 

 

If you have a supply feeding the house you live in, then why not use that for the new house, simply change the bit your side of the stop cock. 

If Thames are saying the supply pipe won’t take a new metre, then surely that’s their problem. 

They supply the pipe up to the stop cock, you own the pipe from the stopcock to your property. 

Is it you that wants a meter or are they saying a new property requires a meter. 

 

Ive knocked down my place, renewed the plastic main to the new house and didn’t tell anybody. 

Just paying the bill. 

[SarahG]

No we don't want a meter, it's Thames saying we should have one. Seems like they want us to foot the bill for their side, which seems unreasonable.

 

5 hours ago, Russell griffiths said:

If you have a supply feeding the house you live in, then why not use that for the new house, simply change the bit your side of the stop cock.

 

We could definitely do this. I guess I am just worried about getting in trouble! I think I'll just ignore them for now and chat to the builder in the NY  

[Conor]

It's a domestic self build, commercial metering not required for your builder. Never speak of this again 🤫

 

[Gone West]

On 14/12/2023 at 21:11, SarahG said:

I've emailed developer services again anyway, but wondered what others have done in this situation?

We built in the garden of the bungalow we were living in. I just put a T connector in the existing pipework to the bungalow and ran a supply to the new house. When I demolished the bungalow I kept that water pipe and used it as a garden supply. I never told the local water company that we were even doing a new build.

[SarahG]

2 hours ago, Gone West said:

We built in the garden of the bungalow we were living in. I just put a T connector in the existing pipework to the bungalow and ran a supply to the new house. When I demolished the bungalow I kept that water pipe and used it as a garden supply. I never told the local water company that we were even doing a new build.

Should have asked here first and saved myself some extra pre Christmas stress 😂

I'm just going to leave it with Thames and see what the builder wants to do. Thought I would try and help him out by getting all the services sorted. I think we just crack on with the demo and use existing supply and he can put it where he wants/thinks is best. Probably don't need a garden tap where our supply comes in, so maybe we run a new pipe next to the kitchen and have the temp supply there and he can just connect up once the house is up. 

[Russell griffiths]

Put a bit more thought in your plumbing. 

You generally don’t take the water main into the kitchen anymore, normally it’s to the plant room/ cupboard. 

The days of having your stop tap under the kitchen sink are a thing of the past. 

[Kelvin]

1 hour ago, Russell griffiths said:

Put a bit more thought in your plumbing. 

You generally don’t take the water main into the kitchen anymore, normally it’s to the plant room/ cupboard. 

The days of having your stop tap under the kitchen sink are a thing of the past. 

Yes exactly. It’s much easier to bring the main to the plant room (or specific cupboard) and distribute it from there. 

[SarahG]

3 hours ago, Russell griffiths said:

Put a bit more thought in your plumbing. 

You generally don’t take the water main into the kitchen anymore, normally it’s to the plant room/ cupboard. 

The days of having your stop tap under the kitchen sink are a thing of the past. 

Ah ok, we do have the utility right next to the kitchen. So maybe that will be best place.