Will I land in deep water?

katiel

Hello - my first thread on this board and as far as I can find, there hasn't been a question on this before. Apologies if it's been done to death and I haven't noticed.
We have lived in a Victoria semi for the last 20 years, and we have never enjoyed good water pressure. We suspect that we share a water supply with our neighbours (mains tap by shared wall, water pressure drops even further sometimes for no good reason etc etc). I would like to contact our water company to find out what the situation is, and what can be done to improve it, but I'm concerned about dropping ourselves and our neighbours into deep, expensive water. Will the water company instantly want to change the water supply at our expense? What might it entail? Will they insist on a water meter being installed? Would be very grateful for any knowledge anyone can share. Thanks

4$£&*(£$&*(!

I've experienced this problem first hand too. It's because in new build homes each property gets its own feed straight from the main, whereas particularly Victorian houses share branches. You're likely to be shared with three, four or even more neighbours and each time one of them runs a bath or has a shower your pressure will drop. It should still be reasonable but perhaps not fantastic.

You won't land in any problem by querying it - the water company won't start work without your agreement - but there's only one cure and that's to run a new line straight from the mains to your property totally bypassing the branch arrangement. The likely cost of this is around £400 as a very rough guide.

katiel

Thanks for that. Makes me feel more positive about looking into this. We were contemplating thousands of pounds and greatly offended neighbours.

uncovered

A joint supply is very common and does cause alot of problems in later years, particularly if it is a lead supply. Basically what you are wanting to do is split a joint supply and there are a couple of options but both require a bit of work and expense. the problem you have mind is not a pressure problem, but a flow. The installation and seperation of the supplies will not increase the pressure, it will be the same as before, but it will increase the amount of water that can travel through the pipe and in reality increase the operating pressure (god that sounded so technical!)


The best option would be this. You can apply for a new service connection. Your water company should give you a foc quote for this work and you will be under no obligation to carry the work out. Their qoute will basically be to just give you a new connection from the main to the boundary of your property. The cost will be something like £300 or £400 for the connection PLUS the costs of the reinstatement which can cary depending on which side of the road the main is laid.

You would be responsible for laying the pipe from your house to the boundary in a trench 2' 6 " (750mm) AND also disconnecting yourself from next doors supply. If you went down this route you would end up bearing all of the costs and your neighbour would be quite happy as they would now having the old supply all to themselves.

katiel

Thanks for that. It sounds like going to all that expense is not actually going to increase the water pressure, which is apparently what we need if we want to go down the route of a combination boiler. So unlikely that the benefits will be worth the cost

uncovered

katiel wrote: »

Thanks for that. It sounds like going to all that expense is not actually going to increase the water pressure, which is apparently what we need if we want to go down the route of a combination boiler. So unlikely that the benefits will be worth the cost

No, please forgive me if this pressure thing is confusing the situation, its just as a water company employee there is a big difference between a pressure problem and a flow and alot of plumbers used the term Pressure when infact it is Flow they are talking about.

Every house in your street is fed off the same main delivering the same pressure BUT every house will have different flow rates depending on their own supply pipes (the pipe from the main in the street to the house) If you renewed your pipework your pressure wouldn't increase but your flow would significantly increase.

You are suffering from poor flow as your pipe appears to be shared. The pipe you currently have would possibly feed one property adequately but it seems it cannot cope with two or more as it cannot get the amount of water through due to the size restriction of the pipe. If you renewed your pipework then you would be connected to the same water main outside which will have the same water pressure in as it has now BUT your new supply pipe will be able to carry 3 or 4 times the amount of water and you would notice a big increase in flow.

A combi needs flow aswell as pressure due to the fact that when you have the hot and cold tap open (filling a bath?) then the water will be coming through the same pipework (due to no hot water tank)and a decent flowrate is required.

A visit lots of customers who have this problem AFTER they have had the combi installed. Basically the only option to increase the flow is to renew the lead. It will only get worse in years to come as lead closes up.

Just to reiterate, replacing the pipes doesn't increase the pressure, it increases the flow. But if you get your water company to come out they will give you all of this advise and will carry out a pressure test just to make sure. If your pressure is low then they may have a leak on the main outside or something.

katiel

Well, we have just discovered that we do indeed have a shared water supply, and that our neighbours have been paying for our water ever since they had a water meter installed! Worth thinking about for anyone moving into a road of Victorian houses I guess. And the cost of separating the water supplies is about £800 here even before it gets to the front door.