Replacing incoming lead water pipe

rob7475

The main water pipe coming into our house is lead which then changes over top copper shortly after entering the house. 

The water flow is around 12 litre per minute which has been OK for the 15 years we've lived here but we're now looking to add another bathroom with shower in the loft.

I've applied for Yorkshire water's lead replacement scheme but they have advised that our house is fed from a private 2" water main that runs through the back gardens of our street (apparently this is common in our area).They said we can get someone in to replace the lead back to the 2" main and don't need to involve them.

Yorkshire water do have a 4" main running along the pavement at the front of our house. We can request a new connection to this main if we want but would need a contractor to run a new pipe from our boundary into the house before paying Yorkshire water about £1500 to connect it up in the pavement.

The cheaper option would be to get a contractor to replace the lead to the 2" private main but I'm unsure if I would get a good improvement being fed from a 2" main or if I should just get connected to the 4" main.

Has anyone experienced similar?

GDB2222

Do you have a tank in the loft? Are you switching over to a mains-only system? Will you have more people showering at the same time? Combi boiler or hot water cylinder/megaflo?

rob7475

We're on a WB 8000 30kw combi, no tanks. We may want to have both showers going at the same time. I'm not sure the 30kw boiler will cope with 2 showers so if we can get the incoming mains flow up to a decent level, I may put a decent electric shower in the loft