Scures_Selfbuild Posted August 11 Share Posted August 11 Good Evening, looking for some advice or anyone that has been in a similar situation. Bought our plot of land and as part of the checks we did pre-purchasing, we ensured we could connect to all services within budget. South East Water quoted us to connect to the water mains which we were satisfied with. Now the build has started, we have asked South East Water to commence work and they have come back and said that it will cost us >10 times their original quote to connect us to the water mains (mainly due to traffic management). We are currently looking into using a third party for traffic management, as this is where the bulk of the cost is coming from, but if we are unable to bring costs down, we will need to look at alternatives to getting water to site e.g. borehole. Does anyone have a borehole and can you advise on company to use or factors to consider? Or anyone been in a similar situation to us and have advice on how to proceed? Thank you in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted August 11 Share Posted August 11 (edited) Where are you? Most private water supply companies are relatively small operations so not national. we have a borehole so have reasonable knowledge of them. How much is 10 times their original estimate? Boreholes aren’t a cheap option either. Edited August 11 by Kelvin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conor Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 Unless you are crossing a motorway, traffic management will be cheaper than a borehole. If you can post more details, e.g. their design / map that would be a help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnMo Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 We have a borehole also. Main connection although very near close, came with issues. So went borehole. Our company would not drill or price until their water diviner had been. It was ace to watch, within 10 mins of being on site, he said we will drill here, first water will be at 8m (I think), ignore and the second water will be at 34m. Within a metre when it came to drilling. Costs, drilling isn't that expensive it's the liners they need to add, and it really depends on how much steel ones they need, compared to plastic. Every hole is different. Then you need, pump, accumulator and filter system. And serviced each year. Ours worked out cheaper than mains connection, and annual service is way cheaper than water costs here and have better tasting water (no chlorine) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunc Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 Do you just need to cross a road, or is the main under a road? Could you use a moling company to go under the road? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 (edited) To give you some idea of borehole costs. The cost to drill our hole, liners etc was £18,000. It’s 147m deep. It was a condition of sale that the vendor had to find a plentiful supply of potable water so this cost was borne by them. I subsequently got various quotes for the plant equipment necessary based on the water analysis and our water supply yield results. The plant needed was: a water softener, pump controls, 2 filters, pump (from garage to house), 1200 litre water tank, two UV lights (we have an unsoftened drinking water tap) Quotes were: 1. £24,000 - Highwater 2. £11,000 - one man band with a good reputation 3. £10,000 - Filpumps We went with Filpumps. In addition you need to do all the groundworks, borehole headworks chamber, and electrical connection. That was another £750 although I did much of that myself. As said, every hole is different. Water treatments are expensive. You might be lucky and just need filters and a UV light. You might be unlucky and need a whole load more plus a big holding tank. The equipment also requires space to house it. Best case it all fits in a kiosk type box worst case you need a separate outbuilding/shed. Ours is in the garage but of house separately it would need a fairly big shed circa 8’x6’. You might not have a plot suitable for a borehole. Also finding enough water isn’t guaranteed. While we have a decent supply it’s way below typical. Our borehole recharges very slowly for example hence why we have such a big water tank. Given a choice I’d probably prefer to be on mains since you’re guaranteed a supply. There’s a certain risk with a private water supply and there are a few horror stories around where I live regarding them. Edited August 12 by Kelvin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnMo Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 (edited) Ours a little different in cost, but much less deep Borehole and lining £5000 Borehole pump, submersible cable & stainless steel wire. Steel well cap. Pipe work & fittings at borehole. Pressure vessels & controls. 40 litres per minute system £1800 Backwashing iron reduction filter. Backwashing turbidity filter. Stainless steel ultraviolet steriliser. Sediment pre filter housing kit. £1750. So around £8600 total. Edited August 12 by JohnMo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnMo Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 1 hour ago, Kelvin said: Given a choice I’d probably prefer to be on mains since you’re guaranteed a supply. Our neighbours have had around 3x 24 hour water outages, main water leaks and fixing, since we moved in, so far none for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saveasteading Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 27 minutes ago, JohnMo said: 3x 24 hour water outages An option then might be an old fashioned 'tank in the attic',, or a large plastic tank in an outbuilding, inline with a pump. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnMo Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 Think the real issue with boreholes is power cuts. No electricity equals no water. We have batteries now and a generator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scures_Selfbuild Posted August 12 Author Share Posted August 12 Thank you all for replying so promptly. To answer some questions: We are based in Hampshire The original quote from South East Water was £10,000 to connect our site to the mains water supply. The new quote from them is almost £150,000. The mains water is across the other side of the road which is an A road Most of the cost is in traffic management. We will investigate a third party to do moling - thank you for suggestion Thank you for the approximate costs of boreholes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saveasteading Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 3 minutes ago, Scures_Selfbuild said: The new quote from them is almost £150,000. Ouch. and even then it wont it won't be reliable? We have a quote of about £3k but crossing a B road which they are just going to close for the day, as they do. Rainwater harvester with 10m3 capacity so that not a drop is lost? depends on roof area of course. No, a borehole seems the way ahead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scures_Selfbuild Posted August 12 Author Share Posted August 12 I don't think our self build mortgage company will allow rainwater harvest...🙁 I think we will need to investigate the borehole option then and potentially moling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelvin Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 5 hours ago, JohnMo said: Our neighbours have had around 3x 24 hour water outages, main water leaks and fixing, since we moved in, so far none for us. I mean over the lifetime of the house. Boreholes might rarely run dry but they can run dry. We have a neighbour who is currently having this problem with their 20 year old borehole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conor Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 3 hours ago, Scures_Selfbuild said: Thank you all for replying so promptly. To answer some questions: We are based in Hampshire The original quote from South East Water was £10,000 to connect our site to the mains water supply. The new quote from them is almost £150,000. The mains water is across the other side of the road which is an A road Most of the cost is in traffic management. We will investigate a third party to do moling - thank you for suggestion Thank you for the approximate costs of boreholes. That's crazy. I assume 25mm MDPE service? What's the length? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jilly Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 If it’s highways costs, are you also having an electric connection? I had to pay each service to close the road and then was reimbursed by the water co because they shared the trench. They won’t set it up differently because of the jeopardy, so at my risk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temp Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 8 hours ago, Scures_Selfbuild said: Thank you all for replying so promptly. To answer some questions: We are based in Hampshire The original quote from South East Water was £10,000 to connect our site to the mains water supply. The new quote from them is almost £150,000. The mains water is across the other side of the road which is an A road Most of the cost is in traffic management. We will investigate a third party to do moling - thank you for suggestion Thank you for the approximate costs of boreholes. Yikes. Dont tell the moling company what they quoted. Some recent figures here... https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/moling-under-road-and-subsoiling-water-pipe-through-field.403469/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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