Hi all,
Woke up this morning, went downstairs to hear the distict sound of water through pipe.
No obvious leaks, nothing being used water wise so I turned off the stopcock. Sound continues.
Went outside to water meter- its still going round (slowly). Oh dear. Turn off main stop, and go back to kitchen. Sound has stopped.
So I've got a leak somewhere between the stop on the kitchen and the meter.
Water board are coming out Wednesday morning to advise, but its probably an insurance job involving a lot of digging out and upheaval.
Anyway - what to do until then?
I'm not prepared to go without water - but am I doing any real harm (other than to my meter reading(!)) by restarting the main supply until this is fixed?
If anyone has advice, or experience of the situation, I would appreciate their thoughts - particularly in the area of the repair side - ie cost/amount of upheaval etc.
Thanks!
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you need to keep the supply off whenever possible, the water leak could compromise the foundations.
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Of course, you don't know for how long the water has been running under your house, but now you know it is running, it's best to stop it.
I've had supply interruptions in the caravan, and it's possible to live a relatively normal life from containers.
You only really need running water at bath time, so I'd be inclined to turn the supply on then, have a bath, fill as many containers as you have (including the bath), and then turn it off again.
All this is much easier to manage if there are only one or two people in the household.
If it was just me, I might even decamp to a hotel or my caravan for a few nights.
I wonder if this leak makes your home technically uninhabitable?
If so, it might be worth contacting the insurance company now to see if you can claim for the cost of alternative accommodation.
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>> If anyone has advice, or experience of the situation, I would appreciate their thoughts -
>> particularly in the area of the repair side - ie cost/amount of upheaval etc.
Entirely depends on how far and what the pipe runs under.
If its a paviour drive, or concrete - complete nightmare and costly to make good.
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Currently United Utilities, because of its hosepipe ban, is repairing leaks from house boundaries to properties free of charge.
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Unfortunately I'm with Veolia, who do not appear to offer this. Luckily my house insurance covers this, but I'm getting the Veolia inspector to check first in case it is something to do with their water meter (my neighbour had a problem a year or so ago with theirs).
As for switching off the water/moving out, if it were just me then yes. But guess what? School holidays just started so the kids are off making it doubly difficult.
Think my plan is to switch off in the evening and turn back on in the morning - at least then I will have halved the time it's leaking into the ground...
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Oh dear, I had a similar problem a couple of years ago. First I knew of it was when I stepped back from washing my car onto my front lawn and the surface, which must have just become a crust, gave way casting me into a six foot deep, appproximately 20 foot square mud and water filled pit. Fortunately for me the leak was before my meter and was the council's responsibility to make good. They had to dig up my garden and aboutt a 50 foot stretch of the road to fix it and then fill it all in again, re-lay the block paving in the road and re-turf my lawn. Whole process took about two weeks and caused a fair old mess.
Hope you get it sorted without too much bother.
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Humph, you have block paving in the road? You're paying too much council tax!
JH
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paved with gold down here.
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paved with horse doo dah along our lane. Good for the compost bin :-)
JH
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"Executive" development allegedly. Suppose it might be slightly apt. Most of us round here carry a facial expression similar to that seen on occupants of Death Row. You know the sort of thing, loong forward to decades of incarceration knowing that nothing terribly exciting will happen until its time for the end game.......Suburban stupefaction personified.
:-)
Last edited by: Humph D'bout on Sun 25 Jul 10 at 16:25
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Mock tudor or mock georgian?
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Tudor of course. Shove some black and white wooden bits on the front and it's supposed to look classy. God help us.
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They'll rot out soon enough.
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Aye, with luck. Maybe I should re-trim it mock-gothic. Towers and such. Wander about in a cape. Might stir things up a bit.
:-)
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>> Tudor of course. Shove some black and white wooden bits on the front and it's
>> supposed to look classy. God help us.
>>
At least it only ups the purchace price by £50,000.
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You reckon ON ? Maybe I should get some more wood. Or a plaque claiming that Shakespeare took a leak against tree standing on this very spot on his way to a matinee in Chester.....That should be good for a few sovs....
:-)
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The original Tudor was from Anglesey apparently - speaks volumes. Like the Romans they have a lot to answer for...
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they do say genes indicate we are all descended from 1 anglesey woman 10,000 years ago.
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From Holyhead maybe Zero ?
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Never been all that sure about the Welsh. Pointy hats and eat seaweed. Odd coves.
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No, the hats aren't pointy, that's witches you're thinking of. They've got a blunt end. They probably were pointy once but then someone said "oi, you could have someone's eye out with that" and the rest is history.
Eat seaweed? Really? I thought that was the Chinese? Though since most of them are a long way from the sea I don't see how that works either.
JH
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Lava bread, It's just not right is it ?
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I've managed to avoid it :-)
JH
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...Lava bread - it's just not right is it?...
Or as Samuel Johnson defined oats in his dictionary:
"A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland appears to support the people."
www.samueljohnson.com/definitions.html
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What's the pipe it running under?
How much is leaking (L/hr)?
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What I would do, by Dog.
What I would do is get a piece of metal pipe about 4ft long and say 1inch or so wide and use that as a listening device like the waterboard do themselves (or used to)
Place the pipe vertical over the area you think the water pipe might run and work your way along the pipe towards the house,
When you come to a point where the water leak sounds the loudest - get digging.
Of course, all this assumes y'all 'up for it', like moi.
Last edited by: Dog on Sun 25 Jul 10 at 21:28
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...get digging...
And when EP has a geyser of water shooting several feet into the air, what does he do then?
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>> ...get digging...
>>
>> And when EP has a geyser of water shooting several feet into the air, what
>> does he do then?
take a bunch of debris -- shredded up tires, golf balls and things like that -- shoot it into the hole and see if it can clog it up and stop the leak.
Good enough for BP!
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it didnt work for them either.
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I'm sure clogging the leak with the right stuff might work. It might also stop the supply of water.
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And the water company says self inflicted tampering and walk away. (Or wash their hands in it, or of it).
Last edited by: Old Navy on Sun 25 Jul 10 at 22:10
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>> And the water company says self inflicted tampering and walk away.
paddle away....
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>> And the water company says self inflicted tampering and walk away.
They're unlikely to help (free), it's his pipe.
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>> I'm sure clogging the leak with the right stuff might work.
Arr. You want a Dutch boy for that, you do.
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>>And when EP has a geyser of water shooting several feet into the air, what does he do then?<<
Fix it dear geezer, dear geezer, dear geezer, Fix it dear geezer, dear geezer - Fix it.
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>>>What's the pipe it running under?
>>>How much is leaking (L/hr)?
From the meter in the front garden (concrete/block paving) to inside house (concrete and assorted kitchen cabinets/freezers/ovens etc)!
Doesn't seem much more than 1 to 2 L/hr.
Switched off last night and the standing water level at the meter dropped by about 5cm this morning.
I'm ok DIY wise but I think the experts can deal with this one!!
Thanks for the input, and the interesting thread drift about Mock Tudor...
Last edited by: Everest Pete on Mon 26 Jul 10 at 08:05
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For a couple of litres per hour, it won't matter for a while. Don't panic.
It could be a meter-pipework problem, in which case the supplier might deal with it (how long ago was the meter fitted?) - you might also reclaim the cost of the leaked water. If it's a pre- or about '60s house, it's probably a steel one, else plastic. If it's steel, it could be that fitting the meter contributed to hastening the inevitable leak, but there's no mileage in trying to claim against the water Co.
If it's plastic, locate the leak and put in a join.
If it's steel or lead (!), find a convenient route, and lay new MDPE pipe, make it 25mm, join in to your internal stopcock. Leave the old pipe there (unless digging out on the same route).
.... or get someone to. If you do some work, it will cheapen the job a lot. It might be an idea to get some prices from plumbers.
A thought - is the leak your side of the meter to your stopcock, or between your stopcock and the rest of the system? You might be able to narrow down the area.
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Eggcellent advice Foth Tom, but me thinks the OP doesn't feel confident enough to tackle sed job.
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"Leave the old pipe there (unless digging out on the same route)."
He he... in my Parents' old house we replaced the steel pipe (after it burst under next door's garden for the third time) with plastic. We ran the new plastic up to the house then connected it in in a new location then back flushed it before cutting off the old steel pipe and finally connecting the new plastic. So there were 2 stopcocks - one behind the dishwasher and one behind the washing machine. Never got around to finishing the mod, so it stayed like that - and was so when they sold it. Wonder what the new owners made of it....????? Getting a new water pipe under a 3ft thick 200 year old stone wall was interesting!
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>>lead!
Au contraire. Most of London's water comes through lead pipes.
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..."Leave the old pipe there...
Make sure it's well stopped up at least at the house end - you don't know what might crawl or slither along it.
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>> ..."Leave the old pipe there...
>>
>> Make sure it's well stopped up at least at the house end - you don't
>> know what might crawl or slither along it.
>>
It may be possible to run a MDPE pipe through the old pipe if it is big enough, the MDPE water pipe into my house runs through a plastic conduit.
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>> It may be possible to run a MDPE pipe through the old pipe if it
>> is big enough
The iron ones are normally 1/2", and choked with hard rust deposits. It's a wonder how they supply enough flow.
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I once had a problem like this, while living in an old house in Bradford. I just dug a trench following the pipe from the street stopcock, then called a plumber around to do a 10 minute fix on the lead pipe. Really it all needed replacing, but was OK for the time i was there.
I reckon I dug a 10ft trench about 2`6" deep, before finding the leak.
Last edited by: oilrag on Mon 26 Jul 10 at 21:23
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>>I reckon I dug a 10ft trench about 2`6" deep, before finding the leak. <<
Jaysus! We could ave done with you at our previous house when we needed a new soakaway for the septic tank :)
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Absolutely no way I am randomly digging out the concrete in the front garden. Several reasons:
1) The water company dug it up and concreted to fit the water meter when we moved in and we had no choice in the matter (I believe there is no longer a compulsion, but there was when we moved in). It is most likely their work/products which are faulty.
2) I am covered by my insurance after the first £100 excess, so should it not be the water companies job I would much prefer a professional dealing with it.
3) The pipework/trench is approx a foot away from my neighbours one for his meter - and I certainly do not want to be accused of creating any future faults/leaks at his supply because of my DIY work!
I wait with anticipation for the water board inspectors visit tomorrow and will report back.
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>>I am covered by my insurance after the first £100 excess,<<
No brainer then really, is it - some people pay that for a toaster, I hear.
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...some people pay that for a toaster, I hear...
Or a sat nav they probably rarely use.
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UPDATE:
The water co inspector turned up at 8.30 this morning. 90% certain the leak is close to the meter. Will be sorted within 5 days.
He also told me off for turning the supply off at night! Thought I was helping conserve a precious resource but apparently that's not so important - something to do with allowing ground water etc to enter the system through the leak when the water is off, and potentially poisoning us all. With hind sight this sounds plausible.
Anyway, he also said that should the worst happen and they find the leak is not outside then the water co will pay £100 towards the internal repairs necessary - which just happens to be the excess on the insurance!
Now I just have to wait for large holes to suddenly appear in my front garden....
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Soonds good - did he use a stethescope (listening rod!), or just look and suck his breath in through his teeth, or use something else?
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Looked in the meter housing, noted the flow and the back fill speed into it. Used a metal probe thingy around the concrete to the house wall. Then used some lovely blue spray paint to identify the area his guys were allowed to dig up later! Actually quite like blue concrete and may look to keep it afterwards - daughter certainly approves!!
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"quite like blue concrete " well if it's still there, remember they're likely to dig it up, then brick cleaner should shift it. Basically acid.
I hope they don't make too much mess EP.
JH
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>>I hope they don't make too much mess EP
Thanks, but to be honest this section of the front has been dug up 4/5 times in the last few years; each time with a different concrete over finish so they can't really make it much worse than it already is!! Luckily it is only a metre or so wide joint owned entry path between our house and the neighbours. The rest is block paved but so far no excavation has affected this.
Still feels a bit odd being told to leave the water running all the time though....
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>> Still feels a bit odd being told to leave the water running all the time
>> though....
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Insignificant in the grand scale of leaks, and the water company don't care about any damage caused by the leak.
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>> allowing ground water etc to enter the system through the leak when the water
>> is off, and potentially poisoning us all. >>
When it is fixed, just run off the first lot of water into a bath or something you aren't going to drink, and then nice clean water will follow on after the old is flushed out.
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If you've got a water butt for the garden use the first lot of water to fill that using your hose. Then it won't go completely to waste.
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Update.
All fixed. Water co. dug up and repaired on Monday. Sub contractor came this morning and back filled the hole. Second sub contractor came this afternoon and concreted/made good.
Odd system of doing things but it's cost me nowt and now I'm off to have a nice long bath!!
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It all progress through privitisation. When we had a gas meter replaced similar thing happened. The contractor took out the old meter, dug a big hole in the pavemement and another in the front of the house... sent one of those mole digging this through and laid a new pipe and fitted a new meter. British Gas came a few hours later to connect the meter. Someone came to fix the garden properly.
I pity the ones away when they were doing this... you just got cut off from the gas supply.
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Water Supply Pipe Leak - any advice? - Zero
