help, burst water main pipe under drive - fix needed

allan673

hi, the neighbour has a burst water main pipe under his drive. we noticed water coming down my block paved drive but after a lot of digging weve found the leak under his concrete drive. weve turned off the water at the mains on the pavement to enable us to dig and find the leak - and used a water pump to remove all the water.
how do we repair this please? can we get anything to do a permanent repair.
plumbers cant come till tomorrow pm - and do the water board need to be notified?
thanks so much.

Steve_xx

The pipe that's burst is on your land and after the water board stop valve and therefore it is your responsibility to put it right. There is no need to notify the water board.

You can fix it yourself if you want to. Having dug down to where the leak is will save you a good deal if you decide to employ a plumber. That is assuming that the pipe is in reasonable condition and that it can be repaired. If it is old lead piping then you probably would consider replacing the whole run.

allan673

cheers, its on the neighbours land/drive, weve dug down and temporarily fixed it.
going to get "lead locks???" tomorrow to try and repair - if not we will get a plumber in.
its easily accessable now weve dug right down etc.

jemw

who is your water company?

27col

Not difficult to do it yourself. It depends what the pipe is made of. You have to get the appropriate couplings to join a new piece of pipe into what ever the existing pipe is made from. The last time that I did one, I think I got the couplings from a place called Pipe Center. Probably easiest to use plastic, you can probably get what you want from Wickes.

stargate222

Check out your water suppliers website as some will repair a leak even it it isn't their responsibility.

allan673

yorkshire water and its a lead pipe about 28mm diameter

jemw

yorkshire water sometimes offer a free repair service, even if the leak is prior to the ESV

if it is a lead pipe, it will probably need replacing. however, as long as your neighbour has not had a previous repair, they may help out. also, he may be eligible for a leakage allowance if he is on a meter.

strongly recommend to contact YW to see if they can assist

Good luck
Jen

swagman

The Drinking Water Inspectorate recommends that lead supply pipe should be replaced. Water companies are able to test the water coming into a property for lead content.

If lead is present it can have serious health effects over a period of time. It would be best for your neighbour to have the check done.

markie1980

As mentioned, it would be best to have the pipe replaced as it will be pretty old now and obviously getting a bit weak, otherwise it may be a case of throwing good money after bad by mending endless leaks.
However, the are various ways of repairing this type of leak, if you can clean the pipe up well enough.
You can cut out a small section and replace with plastic, using special compression fittings which join metal to plastic or you can get metal clamps with a rubber liner that you put over the hole and tighten up.

ormus

seriously consider replacing the whole pipe run (in plastic) whilst you have it exposed.
it would make a lot of sense.