mains supply pipe insulation?

G_M

My neighbour is doing major building/landscaping work. As part of this he is renewing the water mains feed to his property. My own mains comes across his front garden (parallel with his), round the side of his house, round the back, and then enters my rear extension. As the mains pipes are old (narrow guage copper), and as my neighbour is in any case digging new trenches, it makes sense to renew my own supply as well. The cost to me will be materials only.

However his builder is proposing to bring the new pipe through my wall, about 6 inches above ground level, and connecting to my internal pipes, bypassing the existing stopcock. The existing feed comes through the wall below ground level and up through the floor.

Presumably this means the pipe will exposed outside where it comes out of the ground before coming through the wall.

Should I insist the new pipe enters my property below ground level, or is there a way to protect the pipe from frost outside?

jhe

hi.we replaced our mains water pipe with alcathene pipe{excuse the spelling if its wrong]the water board inspector was strict on the depth of the pipe and inspected it before they would connect it to the mains at the entrance to our property.

G_M

Thanks. So the answer is..........?

ariba10

Personally if the existing supply pipe is copper I would leave it as it is.

jhe

why not ring your local water authority for advice. they might vary with the advice in different areas. the only reason we changed ours was it was old lead pipe and as we were getting a new kitchen extension thought it better to do it then rather than maybe have a problem later in time.
if i remember correctly i think the pipe had to be at least 1 metre deep. but best check with your water provider.

Wookey

Been a long time since i read water reg's but if my memory serves it was a depth of 300mm min that a mains supply should be covered by. If your service pipe is in decent condition why not leave it alone and instead just get ducting laid in along the route, that way if it should need replacing then it will just be a matter of pushing some polyethylene pipe up the duct and opening the ground at either end to make the connections.

caleyles

800mm minimum depth up here and it's NOT acceptable for a water main to be exposed at all. It should still enter your premises under ground level and have an acceptable stop valve inside the house in an accessible position. Having it coming up 6" outside is looking for trouble i.e. burst pipes etc - unless you live in the med of course;) If in doubt ask someone from youir local water board for the relevant depths regs etc HTH

27col

A compromise would be to bring the new pipe as near to your existing entry position and then to convert onto your old copper pipe for the actual entry into the house. This would ensure that no part of the supply pipe was above ground. 300mm is far too shallow for protection against frost.

G_M

Took jhe's advice and rang Anglian Water. Depth has to be 750. They will do the connection in the road ('Piecing Through' it's called !?) once the new pipe is laid, but they are not interested in inspecting anything else. Where the pipe is exposed by the wall before entering the building it has to be insulated to a certain standard. Recommended using Insuduct if anyone is interested!!

Thanks everyone!