Water connection. Not sure of the best approach

[flanagaj]

I am terrible for overthinking things and am really struggling with the best way to install the water connection to the static caravan and also to the yet to be started house.  The image below shows what I have done so far.

I have pulled a trench to the boundary and also then a trench to where the static caravan will go.  The issue I have, is that the water board want to inspect the pipe before they will connect us.  My original plan was to just put the pipe in for the TBS, but pull the trench slightly further into the plot so that I could have a tee feeding the TBS and a capped off length of pipe.  Once the trench was filled and we had water, I could then pull the trench for the static caravan when I need to and the pull the trench to the house.   These would obviously be done at different times, as the site has not been cleared and cannot be started until we have our conditions discharged.   The LPA have confirmed that we can put the water in for the static as this does not constitute development.

I don't like doing jobs twice and burying a pipe, only to dig it up later and connect to it seems a pain.  I also don't like having joints underground, but given I need to have water to a static and a temporary standpipe, I am not sure how I can avoid it.   It would be fine if the water company didn't want to inspect the TBS before connection as I could simply leave a coil of pipe above ground, but they want the pipe buried.   I don't understand why they simply don't just install a double check valve at the meter and then any risk to contamination is handled.

The circle on the roof is the plant room and where I will feed the mains supply to.  Note. The driveway entrance shown is a new driveway and the shown patio ... does not exist.  It's currently a wasteland.

[Mulberry View]

Our plot is about 170m from the road and I too wanted a single unjointed pipe run. But a single fusion-welded connection is what I eventually settled for.

 

We installed the 32mm MDPE pipe (100m) in blue 100mm ducting, but coiled it up at the end of the shared private driveway but just into our plot (still 100m or so from the house). The end of the pipe was attached to a TBS, which had to be lagged etc. We VERY crudely back-filled it and I mean crude. I arranged blocks and slabs to enable me to throw a few inches of soil over it so that it would appear to be back-filled. They signed it off and connected it without issue.

 

After they were gone, the pipe was dug up, uncoiled and run up to the plot in the correct way. The fusion-welded connection was added about 30m upstream from where the TBS had previously been. The pipe was left long enough that it'll be able to serve the house when the time comes, but for now I buried the coil again and connected the end to the caravan and a TBS. It sounds like a faff, but it wasn't really. The coil is buried about 15m from the house and will easily pass in through a duct already installed. The only challenge will be what we'll do when we want water to the house, but are still in the caravan. So consider that.

 

Believe me, things like this will pale into insignificance once you get into the build. All the seemingly great decisions you make early on will not remove the risk of having to re-do things or do them a little differently. Just do you best and crack on. I have to move the main drainage chamber I lovingly installed and currently services the caravan. Nightmare, but it's life.

[Conor]

If it were me, I'd just install a standpipe at the boundary, get connected up then do whatever pipework you want to without the water company messing you around. We ran our temp supply to the caravan over ground! Only froze a couple of times as we're near the sea. 

[flanagaj]

1 hour ago, Mulberry View said:

We VERY crudely back-filled it and I mean crude. I arranged blocks and slabs to enable me to throw a few inches of soil over it so that it would appear to be back-filled. They signed it off and connected it without issue.

 

After they were gone, the pipe was dug up, uncoiled and run up to the plot in the correct way.

Brilliant.  

 

5 minutes ago, Conor said:

If it were me, I'd just install a standpipe at the boundary, get connected up then do whatever pipework you want to without the water company messing you around.  

I am beginning to think that this is the best approach.

[Mulberry View]

By doing it the way we did we also avoided the chlorination process they insisted was necessary for long runs.

[Alan Ambrose]

We have much shorter runs but used a kiosk similar to an electric kiosk and got the mains water routed to that from the mains in the verge. Then we have a mixture of temporary pipes, some above ground and some below in ducting and some permanent in ducts ending up coiled for connection to the house. The connection goes … mains, join, meter, kiosk. In the kiosk is a double non-return valve, main stop tap, some T adaptors all with their own stop taps, then onto the various runs. You might want more than one ‘standpipe’ around the site for temporary use close to where you’re building.