Help! Need a plumber for underground pipe work.

elpollodiablo

Hi all,

My underground fresh waterpipe has developed a slight leak leading to a (very) large waterbill. The pipe is quite deep underground (as my house is raised) and runs from my frontwall, under the house, then upwards at the back wall of the house.

I've been advised that I can either:

a) Have someone trace the leak. This will cost £1000's although the insurance company will cover the repair costs for digging up the living room etc. (but won't organise the trace and access). This is the needle-in-a-haystack approach as the leak could be anywhere and my water company were unable to determine exactly where.

Or

b) Have a new pipe fitted, completly by-passing the old pipe. While this will not be covered by the insurance, I'm tempted to do this approach as it means getting a new pipe fitted, thus (hopefully) avoiding future problems. I live in a terrace house so any pipe can't go around the house, it will have to go under.

My question is this: If I went for option b) -- who do I ask to get this work done?

The task itself is not a simple job and will involve some digging so I'm assuming not every "Yellow Pages" plumber could handle the task. Should I stick to the larger companies? I've already contacted Dynorod and I'm about to contact Homeserve as well. Can anybody recommend anyone big enough to do the job?

Thanks is advance.

ormus

you can sometimes trace underground leaks by the simple method of using a stick with yer ear placed on top. use just like a stethoscope.
as for digging trenches, get yerself a paddy off a building site. they will dig it in no time. then use a plumber to make any repair or install a new pipeline.

i would go for the new pipe.
ps
new pvc water pipe is very cheap.

Rosanante1

Ouch! I feel your pain with this one.

Ormus has made a sensible suggestion. I would spin that one a little bit and check the pipework that you can get at front and back. Should not be too expensive to get a couple of labourers to start digging. If there's no leak found then you know it's under the property. I'd say you've got a 50:50 chance of getting lucky.

If you're unlucky, I might then be tempted to run a new pipe into the front of the property and relocate your incoming mains internally. This has to be better than going under the house.

Gloomendoom

I had this happen to me. It is really hard to find the exact source of the leak. The pipe was repaired twice. The third time a leak appeared I'd had enough and replaced the whole lot with decent quality pipe laid in sand. It was back breaking work as I was too skint to hire a machine and had to do all the digging myself.

It was definitely the best option though.

elpollodiablo

Hi guys, thanks for the replies.

The problem is Severn Trent already checked for where the leak is and all they could determine is that the leak is somewhere under the property, either the house of the garden. The problem is that the front garden is raised so straight away the existing pipe is deep underground.

Like you say, I could hire somebody to dig up the garden and hope I get lucky but I'm tempted to go with the fitting of the new pipe approach.

Is there any issues to the house being a terreace? If it wasn't, I assume the pipe could have been laid around the side of the house. As it stands, it looks like it's a dig up the living room approach!

Does anybody know anybody other that Dynorod and Homeserve who could handle the digging?

* Edit *
I've rang Homeserve -- they don't handle this kind of problem.

Gloomendoom

You may not have to dig up the living room as you don't need to bury the pipe once it's in your house. Within reason it could run anywhere.

One point that hasnt been mentioned is that if you have a prolonged water leak under your house it might cause structural problems.

ormus

you need to come up against an internal wall. the pipe has to be so deep until it enters the house. as protection against freezing.
i thinks its 1m deep? youll have to check that figure.

Wookey

Replace the entire pipe with new, also if possible put the new pipe inside a duct pipe, i would even go so far as to put a second duct pipe in if you intend to stay put as you never know when you may need to add another service pipe or cable to the house.