water leak

paso11 · 9 October 2016 at 12:56PM

Hi,

Has anyone come across this before?

Water leaking up from the concrete on the side of a Victorian end of terrace.

I'm on a metered individual supply which isn't showing abnormal usage or spinning crazy, water leak still there if the external stop tap is turned off and no pressure loss inside the house.

Water company coming out to investigate in a few days but is it possible that at some point there was a shared supply pipe running up the side of my house and feeding the whole terrace from the rear? to feed the old outhouses etc when they existed.

i.e. even through everyone is now on individual supplies, the original pipe is still in place, capped off somewhere?

My questions are:

Has anyone come across a situation like this before? and;

If my hypothesis is correct am i liable for any leaks on the pipe even if it is not servicing my house?

Thanks.

Chanes · 9 October 2016 at 9:10PM

We had an individual feed to a house as did the other houses (with a stop tap in a grid outside at the front for each) but along the length of the entire terrace to the rear and beneath the floorboards was a communal main that was still 'live'. And we found that out when it burst in a neighbour's property. It was fixed and I cannot remember if it was isolated after that event? It was years ago.

NB
I don't think anyone paid anything for the repair.

paso11 · 9 October 2016 at 11:01PM

Chanes wrote: »

We had an individual feed to a house as did the other houses (with a stop tap in a grid outside at the front for each) but along the length of the entire terrace to the rear and beneath the floorboards was a communal main that was still 'live'. And we found that out when it burst in a neighbour's property. It was fixed and I cannot remember if it was isolated after that event? It was years ago.

NB
I don't think anyone paid anything for the repair.

Thanks- I'm hoping if there is one and no one else is relying on it, they shut it off altogether..

FreeBear · 9 October 2016 at 11:45PM

paso11 wrote: »

Thanks- I'm hoping if there is one and no one else is relying on it, they shut it off altogether..

Used to have a gas pipe that ran from the road up between two semis. It fed a tee then on to the gas meters located at the rear of each property. On our side, the gas meter had been removed years ago and the pipe capped.

Poking around in the ground one day, I could smell gas, so rang the gas board to report it. A team was out that day to confirm a leak and fix it, which they did by disconnecting the pipe from the main supply out in the road. Pointed out that next door was probably still using the pipe, but the crew were adamant that "we don't supply properties off a teed pipe"...

Neighbours returned a few days later from a holiday to find their gas supply had been disconnected :eek:

Same crew were back a few days later to reconnect and install a new meter :rotfl: At the end of the day, neighbours were happy because they wanted the meter moved but were not prepared to pay for it - Gas board ended up doing it for free.

If gas was supplied to properties from a teed pipe, it is quite possible that water is also supplied the same way. Quite likely using cast iron or lead pipes - So if someone did get disconnected, they would get new plastic pipes as far as the stopcock/meter.

paso11 · 31 October 2016 at 8:02PM

So turns out there is a pipe there- the water company found the outside stop !!!! and turning it off stops the leak. The trouble is all they do is to issue waste notices to the houses served by it (not me) and turn it back on again. Apparently the leak detection guys can't locate the pipe around the leak spot. Seems odd don't these things normally run in straight lines? I.e. You should be able to trace it from the stop !!!!? Or is it possible that it is deep enough that they cant detect it through the concrete and soil?

Chanes · 31 October 2016 at 8:10PM

How long has it been leaking like that?

paso11 · 31 October 2016 at 8:23PM

A few weeks- maybe 5/6

Chanes · 1 November 2016 at 12:37PM

I was just wondering about any problems with the substrate but i am sure the utility company would be aware of that.

Andrew_Davies · 27 December 2017 at 4:34PM

Hi,

Sounds like it needs leak detection with a trace gas.

Le_Kirk · 27 December 2017 at 4:47PM

Since it was first posted in October 2016, I would hope the leak is fixed by now!

Andrew_Davies · 27 December 2017 at 4:54PM

Le_Kirk wrote: »

Since it was first posted in October 2016, I would hope the leak is fixed by now!

Yup, just noticed that! (oops)

water leak

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