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Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2004 10:56 am
by celeste
I am having a new brick drive being laid by contractors and seem to have watch what they are doing all the time to enusre it is done correctly. They have now made a small hole in the poly mains water pipe and want to repair it rather than replace the whole pipe. Will a repair be secure enough to ensure that we do not have a leak in the future or should the whole length of pipe be replaced? The pipe will run under the driveway (although the part that needs repairing will be under soil), and don't want to have it dig it up if problems in the future!
Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2004 1:20 pm
by clive
Occasionally these things happen but you should not worry too much as poly water mains are easy to repair. Just ensure that your contractor uses a proper coupling. It will only be necessary to replace the length of pipe visibly damaged and any repair undertaken should last as long as the pipe it’s attached to
Examples of which can be seen at:
http://www.polypipe.com/POLYPIPE/pp_html/water/water_main.html
This though is not the case with other services such as Gas and Electric. Any damage done, however slight should be inspected by the utility company concerned without delay and repaired to their satisfaction
All such repairs are normally under taken at the contractor’s expense.
Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2004 4:29 pm
by Tony McC
Just to add to Clive's execllent guidance - what dpeth was the water pipe? There's supposed to be a minimum of 900mm cover for water services, to protect them from frost.
Unless this is the riser to the house, I'd be concerned that either your service isn't buried deep enough or the block paving gang have dug down awfully far!
Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2004 5:04 pm
by Nigel Walker
Tony
Isnt the required depth for a water pipe 750mm.
It has been 4 years since I did all the groundworks for building sites, so there may have been a change in the regs.
Talking to other contractors there has been a lot of regulation changes in the last few years. I';m glad I'm not working on sites anymore !
I am actually a qualified Site Manager, but you will never see me running a building site anymore. To much paperwork and rules and regs. I much prefer the hands on approach. Besides I dont need the stress !!
Nigel
Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2004 6:26 pm
by ABILITY
I think Tony, the key words in your reply are 'suppossed to be'.
Tend to find water pipes, along with electric cables etc at just about all depths, from the bedding sand layer under flags to the bottom of footing trenches, usually without any warning tape and usually late on Friday afternoons.
But as Clive says, no problem in a repair to the poly water pipe, make sure pipe inserts are fitted before coupling!!
Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2004 12:57 am
by Tony McC
You can usually spot the Friday afternoon cable/pipe installations - they're the ones just beneath the surface!
As far as I know, Nigel, it's still 900mm depth for water services, but there may be variations between utility companies since <spit>Thatcher privatised the water authorities.
Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2005 10:44 pm
by essexpaver
installing water pipe at the mo on site the spec is 800 invert with an 80 ml pipe ? came across loads of water pipes on site 200-300 ml deep lol