Upgrading water mains with wider Pipes

Bleg

I have just read the diydoctor site. Very informative. Thank you everyone this site never lets me down. Information is power.

keystone

Bleg wrote: »

Excuse my ignorance is this a gauge I use myself on my kitchen tap?- as it is fed directly from the mains.

Thanks

Use one of these:



It has a 3/4" BSP threaded female connection on the opposite end to the gauge itself. I say the W/M supply valve or the outside tap because both of these will be fitted with a 3/4" BSP male thread so you just screw it on. Both of these are most usually at mains pressure as well. Virtually impossible to use on a kitchen tap. Your plumber should have one if you don't want to buy one.

Cheers

keystone

Bleg wrote: »

Thank you everyone this site never lets me down. Information is power.

So now is the time to get two or three heating engineers/plumbers round to discuss your requirements in detail and get them to recommend appropriate costed solutions to suit your needs. Let them do the system design rather than trying to do it remotely via here. You will then have proper proposals to compare against each other and more to the point you'll start to understand the cost implications of different solutions. I have a suspicion that a system boiler with unvented cylinder will probably do the trick for you but see what they come up with.

Good luck with the project.

Cheers

Canucklehead

Hi

Not used one of these, but would overcome the foundation /mains entry problem. Not much help if the room inside is,say, a lounge.

GSR.

Bleg

I had spoken to a couple of gas engineers a few had said it may be necessary to have on upgrade I was just curious to know how many zeros to add to my already limited budget.

vaio

Mate of mine is doing something similar, he’s currently on a shared main and want his own bigger supply, he’s doing all the digging on his land and installing the pipes and the water company are charging just over £1500 to cap his existing branch and connect his new pipe to the main in the road.

OP, you need to measure the flow and check that’s it enough for your proposed system, if it’s not then increasing the size of the main pipe might help, old houses tend to have half inch supplies, the standard for a new connection is one inch and that increase will significantly increase the maximum flow for given pressure

keystone

Bleg wrote: »

I had spoken to a couple of gas engineers a few had said it may be necessary to have on upgrade I was just curious to know how many zeros to add to my already limited budget.

Backs of fag packets, sucking of teeth, shaking of heads and "maybe"s are not going to help you find that out. Get your quotes for the system performance you want.

Once you have those quotes you may find you have to compromise to a greater or lesser extent on your desired system to suit the budget or you may just be pleasantly surprised. However, there has to be a starting point.

It may not be necessary to change the main at all but until you get some system designs and quotes done you won't know. We can all gum-flap on here until the cows come home but you still won't actually know.

Bon Chance

Cheers

Canucklehead

Bleg wrote: »

I had spoken to a couple of gas engineers a few had said it may be necessary to have on upgrade I was just curious to know how many zeros to add to my already limited budget.

That's why the question was asked 'what is the water main made of.'

You would get it replaced FOC if it's lead. Back to their main from the stopcock in the pavement if need be.

If you're handy with a shovel then very little cost.

GSR.

Here's a start.
Does a magnet stick to the incoming water main pipe?

Bleg

I have just done the magnet test and the in coming mains pipes and it does attract a magnet. What does that mean?

ormus

it means the pipes are ferrous metal. ie ferric magnetic.
ie cast iron or steel.