Emergency repair to lead water pipe

[ringi]

I am starting to dig in an area that may have our lead water pipe, if I should damage it how to I repair it and what should I have in my “get out of jail� kit?

[local patios and driveway]

A hammer, if it springs a leak beat the hole with a hammer, it'll seal until you can get the fittings to make a repair

[lutonlagerlout]

you really want a new water main
lead is rather toxic for the old drinking water
LLL

[Dave_L]

Definitely!

Don't ask me round for a cuppa!

[local patios and driveway]

Must admit in the old days you could run the tap to get uncontaminated water after a few seconds but now people have these fridges that hold water and chill it for dispensing and make ice cubes.. Pretty lethal

[ringi]

you really want a new water main
lead is rather toxic for the old drinking water
LLL

That's what the digging is for! I just need to dig a bit close to the current water main, then it takes something like 6 weeks before they come to connect the new main.

[lutonlagerlout]

cant they mole it
they normally do it in a morning?
LLL

[Colin James]

Have you checked with your local Council?
The goverment were giving grants, up to 90% in some areas to have lead pipe water supplies replaced. The grant was administered by the councils.
If not a grant, you should be able to get a loan from the council to do this work.

Regards,
Colin.

[Mikey_C]

my local water board wanted a trench when I did mine. mind the gave me a discount for doing the trench myself. still robbed me blind though.

[Carberry]

Last year I did it for a guy I was doing driveway and patio for. Had a lot of bother with the waterboard though, they couldn't understand that the driveway was going up to a minimum of 230mm above the top of the trench so I ended up having to dig down 4ft and get 2 inspections to appease the morons.

[GB_Groundworks]

I put some pipes in for new connections to two rural houses on a narrow single track lane that has close to 10 car movements a day, more horses go up it, we put the pipe into the lane as we cobbled the threshold, anyway water board wanted £7.5 to do connection as they'd need traffic lights rd closures etc joke.

Need to find a tame useless utilities or seven Trent guy to do the connection if we do the digging.

[sussex]

if its a lead stand well back from edge of the trench the do as u likeys wont think twice about knocking you in as they remove the problem from the whole road!!!!!! no lead pipe . no problem. on a serious side dos;nt lead need sweating to make the joint ?so long ago since i've seen any .

[ringi]

cant they mole it, they normally do it in a morning?

I am going to have a mini digger on site for other work anyway and my front garden is getting a total makeover after that. So in my case moling is not a good option, I have been quoted close to £400 by a moling company, but can buy the parts and do the plumbing myself for closer to £50 (a bit more if I put the pipe in a duct, that I will do if am also use the trunk for drainage.)

[47p2]

Hi Guys, not been here for a while. Hope you are all keeping busy and having a good year.

When I had my paving done I asked the contractor if he would dig a trench for me to renew the lead pipe with plastic. There are special fittings which take you from lead to plastic and they just slip over the end and tighten up. All very easy and the job was done in about 30 minutes. Cost from a plumber was £900, grant was 50%, cost doing it myself £25.00....Makes you wonder really

Anyhow I'm off to read some more.

Thanks again for a great forum and for all the advice and support you gave me in my hour of need.

Cheers
John

[local patios and driveway]

I dont like amy fittings on lead, they all seem to leak eventually. Seen it many times. Thats expensive if it leaks for a year unoticed too.