Water Pipes

diz79

The hose goes to the outside tap, the main pipe goes underground to the house which I was trying to explain but can be difficult through this mdium sometimes.  Im going under the kitchen today, hopefully can get to the bottom of it, thanks for ll your input.

Homer_home

Why do you have an elbow which has black plastic connected either side of it , in the middle of a blue pipe run?

You need to get rid of all that too and replace with one straight run of blue pipe 

diz79

Jeepers_Creepers said:

So, there is a main stopcock OUTSIDE your land and this serves JUST your house? Cool - that's the WB's responsibility.

And then there's ANOTHER stopcock INSIDE your boundary at that hedge? Cool - that's handy to have in an emergency, tho' most folk don't. 

Ok, is there ALSO a mains stopcock INSIDE the HOUSE? Hopefully 'yes', in which case can you post a pic of it please?

And you replaced the 'hedge' stopcock? (You did this by presumably shutting off the 'road' (WB's) stopcock?)

What would have been really useful to know is what the flow rate was like at your hedge stopcock when you replaced it. To be frank, if YOU want to investigate where the problem lies, this is the best way to do it. Can you access this stopcock again and disconnect it from the pipe supply coming from outside your boundary? If you can, then aim it in to a bucket and open the WB's stopcock FULL for 10 seconds. Measure how many litres come out in this time.*

Then just 'see' how solid the flow is - does it gush?! What happens if someone sticks their thumb over the flowing pipe end - is it powerful? Almost or actually impossible to stop the flow?

There's your answer - what is the flow at your hedge stopcock like compared to your kitchen cold tap inside your house? And at your garden tap?

* 'Times' the number of litres x 6 to get 'litres per minute'. Then repeat this for your kitchen cold tap - bucket under, open fully for 10 seconds - and garden tap.

Report back please. :-)

Hi sorry for delay was a hectic weekend of trying to sort this. I manged to look under the sink and follow the pipe so far, the water doesent come in there, it looks like it comes in in the middle front of the house near the bathroom.

We have two stop cocks outside theo house one in the road about 50metres away and one in a field about 100m away.

Here is the water pressure detials for 60 secs

Kitchen 7.8ltrs

Outside Tap 9ltrs

Bathroom (bath tap) 12.6ltrs ( I tried this several times as couldnt believe it was so much more)

Ive started digging a hole accross the path in fromt of the bathroom but no lucj so far. I think this weekend I will atempt to follow the pipe from the stopcock at the hedge all the way to the path which is bewtween the bathroom and garden. I have taken pictures if you need them but might confuse things im not sure.

Many thanks

Jeepers_Creepers

 Thanks for the readings (the pedant in me has to point out that these are 'flow' or course, and not 'pressure') :-)

These are very poor. The kitchen will be from the cold mains, and most likely the garden tap will be too. Do you have a cold water tank in the loft (a CWS)? If so, that is likely to be supplying your bath tap, so that's why it's better.

I understand the very minimum flow that householders are entitled to expect from their supplies is 9lpm, so yours is borderline. However, if the issue is down to the pipe on your land = your responsibility, then it's your problem to solve.

Although I suspect strongly that the issue is largely down to 'your' pipework - that black pipe looks well suspect... - ,  the only way you can really prove this is to disconnect the pipe as close to the hedge (your boundary) as you can and check what the flow is like there. If that is good - 20+lpm - then you know what you need to do, and that's replace 'your' pipe from there to the house.

At this point I think I'd be looking at getting some quotes for this work - try for recommendations on your local Facebook page. Pros will hopefully work out where the pipe actually comes in to your house and should be able to give you options for getting the pipe there under your patio - eg by 'mole'. 

If you want to reduce costs, agree with them that you are happy to dig the main trench as far as you can.

I have to say I totally confused about this whole layout - I thought we were dealing with a pipe leading to a hedge and hence the road, but now there's a field involved too :-(

Bottom line - you need to get a new single length of blue MDPE from your house to the WB's tap in the road. By all means add a stopcock where the pipe comes on to your land, provided you can keep that area clean and tidy. And then a single obvious stopcock inside your house that's easy to get to and operate - a full-bore lever valve.

diz79

Jeepers_Creepers said:

 Thanks for the readings (the pedant in me has to point out that these are 'flow' or course, and not 'pressure') :-)

These are very poor. The kitchen will be from the cold mains, and most likely the garden tap will be too. Do you have a cold water tank in the loft (a CWS)? If so, that is likely to be supplying your bath tap, so that's why it's better.

I understand the very minimum flow that householders are entitled to expect from their supplies is 9lpm, so yours is borderline. However, if the issue is down to the pipe on your land = your responsibility, then it's your problem to solve.

Although I suspect strongly that the issue is largely down to 'your' pipework - that black pipe looks well suspect... - ,  the only way you can really prove this is to disconnect the pipe as close to the hedge (your boundary) as you can and check what the flow is like there. If that is good - 20+lpm - then you know what you need to do, and that's replace 'your' pipe from there to the house.

At this point I think I'd be looking at getting some quotes for this work - try for recommendations on your local Facebook page. Pros will hopefully work out where the pipe actually comes in to your house and should be able to give you options for getting the pipe there under your patio - eg by 'mole'. 

If you want to reduce costs, agree with them that you are happy to dig the main trench as far as you can.

I have to say I totally confused about this whole layout - I thought we were dealing with a pipe leading to a hedge and hence the road, but now there's a field involved too :-(

Bottom line - you need to get a new single length of blue MDPE from your house to the WB's tap in the road. By all means add a stopcock where the pipe comes on to your land, provided you can keep that area clean and tidy. And then a single obvious stopcock inside your house that's easy to get to and operate - a full-bore lever valve.

Without seeing things it can be confusing, this house is in the middle of nowhere and an old house. I had to check where the water was coming in. The original pictures were by the hedge where the water was coming in thats the only trench ive dug so far as this is the stopcock that broke originally, and I replaced with the new plastic stopcock.  I went out to the road and field to see if we could adjust the flow to this point.

The bathroom is on the ground floor and we suspect this is where the pipe comes in to the house, the water tank is not that good and in a cupboard next to the bathroom.

Looking at the two stop cocks outside our land they actually have blue MDPE pipe on them so is annoying the pipe coming into our land is the small black pipe. Is that their responsibility or ours to replace the pipe coming into our land?

The original stopcock I replaced is the one coming into our land.

As I said I will look this weekend to dig a trench and see where that gets us and report back. Thanks for all your input.

Jeepers_Creepers

The field isn't yours? In which case that should be the WB's responsibility.

They probably won't replace 'their' bit of black pipe, tho', unless you also replace all of yours.

Ok, that new stopcock you fitted near the hedge - that's pretty close to your border? You really need to check the flow on there before knowing what the issue is - it's the closest you'll get to knowing whether the flow is pants before it comes on to your land.  Shut it off, disconnect your end, open up fully and count... :-)

diz79

No it isnt the two outside our land isnt but these are the points which lead to the edge of out land where the small blsck pipe is but stragnely these points do have the newer blue pipe.

I will chekcthe flow at the weekend then we are conclusive thanks for all your help. I will update you

diz79

Sorry for the delay, here are some more pics to maybe help you understand our problem, it looks like we cannot do the pipe work ourselves as it looks like it goes under the path to the bathroom, the kitchen is the first window you see ( we know it doesent go to there as we've checked inside) bathrom is the double one in the middle.

diz79

I think its a job we maybe will do in the future or get a decent pump in the house for now.

Jeepers_Creepers

Looks like you are almost there? So you may need to cut through a concrete path, that ain't the end of the world.

For the sake of 2m max, you'd really install a pump?

Can you get under your floor at all?