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Is it worth it? Anglian water want £22.99 a year to cover the pipe, but how likely am I to need it? My house insurance mentioned something about covering water pipes - would this likely cover my supply pipe?
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Stu, I keep getting kind offers from my water company to provide such cover. I haven't taken them up. In the (in my view) unlikely event of something happening I will either pay for it myself out of the money I've saved by not paying the premium or I'll claim on the home insurance.
I think people sit in offices dreaming up things to frighten us with and then offer to insure.
John
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From the external stopcock to your house is your responsibility. Check out the route, what its laid under, how hard it would be to replace or fix it in the event of a leak. Make a rough estimate of the worse case cost.
Then decide if you need it or not.
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Also look to see where your meter is. If in the roadway or verge remember you will be charged for all leaks occuring in the pipe to the house, and the cost of replacing maybe 200yds of pipe under a paved approach are not insignificant:)
If your meter is in the house at least the remedial work is not necessarily so urgent, and you can weigh up the options. When my meter was fitted about 10 years ago they were unable to find the stopcock and took the soft option of fitting it inside the house. Must remember to go and re-mark the location of the stop cock before alzheimers finally kicks in.
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I had the same offer this week from the people I bought a shower from 5 eryars ago (Aqualisa).
Quick straw poll then - how many people would have claimed under such a policy, ever in their life?
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Im in two minds, I mean, its a pittance, even by my standards, but if home insurance would cover it - I have home emergency cover - then it would be pointless, but Im going googly eyed reading small print!
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There's a reasonably balanced piece here about it, from the Guardian, which is five years old but still relevant.
www.guardian.co.uk/money/2005/feb/05/utilities.jobsandmoney
Apparently there are proposed changes afoot from next April which might be relevant to your situation. This link is from Southern Water, but it's a national thing.
www.southernwater.co.uk/DomesticCustomers/whoOwnsTheSewers/
For my part, I had this insurance but Homeserve eased the premium up each year so much that in the end it wasn't worth it, in my view, and I cancelled (at which point they instantly offered me about 100 years cover for a golden ha'penny piece, but I left anyway).
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>>at which point they instantly offered me about 100 years cover for a golden ha'penny piece...
Which suggests that that is the true cost to them. The rest is just advertising and profit.
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Our water supply pipe has never been touched for the 20 odd years we have owned the house..The on/off switch was changed when we bought it .. and that's it..
20+ x £30 pa is a sizeable sum...
Last edited by: madf on Mon 18 Oct 10 at 13:50
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We have a shared stop cock so who owns that?
As for internal pipes if there is always somebody in the house its not really a major issue, if a pipe bursts simply just turn off the water and replace the pipe. Its more of an issue if a pipe bursts and you're away because of the amount of damage it will cause.
Again this is really only an issue in the winter.
The only issue we have ever had with plumbing leaks is the colder water tank valve which tends to fail every ten years and caused a mess last time as the over flow was damaged.
A lot of it really depends how good you are DIY too :).
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>> Its more of an issue if a pipe bursts and you're away because
>> of the amount of damage it will cause.
>>
>> Again this is really only an issue in the winter.
>>
>>
I know of someone who had a mains pressure pipe joint failure in their loft while on holiday, every ceiling in the two storey house was down on their return and the water still flowing freely, also someone who had a radiator fail, £20,000 damage to floors and carpets.
I now turn off my water at the stop cock if the house is going to be unoccupied for more than a couple of days. Insurance is OK, but not the hassle.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Mon 18 Oct 10 at 16:02
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>> I know of someone who had a mains pressure pipe joint failure in their loft
>> while on holiday, every ceiling in the two storey house was down on their return
>> and the water still flowing freely, also someone who had a radiator fail, £20,000 damage
>> to floors and carpets.
>>
I remember house hunting in Wilmslow , Cheshire (downmarket and unsalubrious part of Cheshire where you meet all the rough end of social life: like footballers and other hoi polloi) in the 1980s and seeing ahouse for sale at £80k like that. Master bedroom devatstated by flood from loft, ditto kitchen below.. We offered £20k less, somone paid the asking price...
Like you , we always switch off the water if going to be absent for more than a couple of days.. summer OR winter. Ballcocks can and have jammed before-- water running down walls (in our case) was no fun... especially as some entered the light switches.. (OK after drying out but replaced for safety..) Damage nil - as we caught it in time..
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Anglian water will actually repair a leak in the supply pipe between the stopcock in the road and your house free of charge under their "watertight promise" as long as the cost does not exceed £250. They don't make a big play of this as they would like you to buy the insurance for which they receive a commission.
see:
www.anglianwater.co.uk/_assets/media/watertight-promise-terms-and-conditions.pdf
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Very interesting thanks folks. Ive just renewed my home insurance and it appears that the supply pipe is covered by their 'Home Emergency' cover anyway, so ive saved a few pennies :-)
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Turning off the supply when you go away for a while is a good idea.
Always do it at the caravan, winter or summer.
The tap is at knee height by the front step, so it only takes a few seconds.
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>> The tap is at knee height by the front step, so it only takes a
>> few seconds.
>>
Thanks for the info iffy...
... watch out when your having a shower, I may be round to turn your water off..... ;-)
(evil laugh!!)
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I'm trying to imagine a caravan with a BACK door too.
Pat
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...I'm trying to imagine a caravan with a BACK door too...
Some have two doors, or a second door on the end, which acts as a fire escape.
Mine has windows in each room which you can climb through.
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...
Thanks for the info iffy...
... watch out when your having a shower, I may be round to turn your water off..... ;-)...
It would be even easier to turn the valves off on the gas bottles which would result in a cold shower.
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So I can be a pedant and point out that 'front steps' should actually read 'steps' since there are no back steps?
Pat
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...So I can be a pedant and point out that 'front steps' should actually read 'steps' since there are no back steps?...
You could, 'front' in the sentence is arguably superfluous.
Your use of the word 'actually' falls into the same category.
In my defence, some caravan decks have two sets of steps, although my deck doesn't.
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The important thing is that a non pedant has made a known pedant defend himself!
Pat
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...The important thing is that a non pedant has made a known pedant defend himself!...
Talk about a red rag to a bull though, I thought I handled the situation commendably calmly.
By the way, the word 'that' can almost always be left out.
'The important thing is {(that)} a non-pedant...' makes sense.
The same could be said of 'has'.
'The important thing is a non-pedant made a known pedant defend himself,' is snappier, and uses fewer words for the same meaning.
While I'm on, the word 'non' cannot stand alone, so it needs a hyphen to link it to the word to which it refers.
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>> ...The important thing is that a non pedant has made a known pedant defend himself!...
>>
>> Talk about a red rag to a bull though, I thought I handled the situation
>> commendably calmly.
>>
>> By the way, the word 'that' can almost always be left out.
>>
>> 'The important thing is {(that)} a non-pedant...' makes sense.
>>
>> The same could be said of 'has'.
>>
>> 'The important thing is a non-pedant made a known pedant defend himself,' is snappier, and
>> uses fewer words for the same meaning.
>>
>> While I'm on, the word 'non' cannot stand alone, so it needs a hyphen to
>> link it to the word to which it refers.
>>
>>
Snore...........
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...Snore....
Pay attention at the back, you might learn something.
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>> ...Snore....
>>
>> Pay attention at the back, you might learn something.
>>
>>
>>
Like:
How to bore readers by being a pedant? :-)
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...Like:
How to bore readers by being a pedant? :-)...
Poor use of the word 'like', use 'such as' in this context, please. :)
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>> How to bore readers by being a pedant? :-)
>>
The pedants on this site are driving away some contributors. This site has certainly become a lot iffy in recent days.
Correction, it has been taken over completely by iffy.
Time to rename it "iffy4play".
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>> "iffy4play".
You been speaking to my wife? ;-)
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That applies to most men.
Pat
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...it has been taken over completely by iffy...
Tripe.
I'm not the most prolific contributor on here, and so what if I was?
It's a good thing a few of us start a few threads and make a few posts, otherwise the place would die on its feet.
I might be a boring pedant to some, but it's harmless fun at worst, and some people are interested in the use of English.
John,
Why not post something positive instead of just sniping?
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>> Why not post something positive instead of just sniping?
Quite. We like to keep a friendly house here.
Enough of the criticising of other forum members please.
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Iffy is single handedly tackling the barbarian hordes and deserves your support. Only the other day I read of an item have a mouth watering price. That would be an attractive price then? No, it was five times the price of a "normal" piece of kit. In it's defence it was very much "high end" but it's price was eye-watering.
So join in. The next time you hear a fat, tattooed, drunken slob say "like", correct him. Or her. He / she will show their appreciation. :-)
John
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Back to the OP's (now resolved) question, or rather:
>> Quick straw poll... how many people would have claimed under such a policy, ever in their life?
My plumbing tutor replaced his mains pipe from the street main to his house a few years ago, but only because a) he was having his front garden landscaped anyway, and b) he teaches plumbing and likes to "pimp" his water system.
The guy has a thermal jacket water cylinder for goodness' sake (Like an indirect cylinder but back-to-front - mains pressure water incoming through the coil, heated instantaneously by 110 litres of water being cycled through the boiler!).
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>> The guy has a thermal jacket water cylinder for goodness' sake (Like an indirect cylinder
>> but back-to-front - mains pressure water incoming through the coil, heated instantaneously by 110 litres
>> of water being cycled through the boiler!).
>>
My house was built with one fitted, a good system. The 110 litres also feeds the radiators.
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He says it's not very efficient (energy and water efficiency - the holy grail of all plumbing works these days) but as a plumber he views it as no different to a mechanic driving an old Range Rover or Jag because he can :)
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Water supply pipe cover - Tooslow
