New mains feed from meter, lead to MDPE

[jimAuk]

Am i correct the I as the home-owner am responsible from the meter onwards?

Our meter/stopcock is just inside our garden boundary, but about 15m away from the house.

The pipe from the meter to the house is lead, after the in-house house stopcock everything else is either copper or new plastic.

I am planning as part of another project, to replace the the lead line with MDPE line.

Any tips, guidance or legality advice?

Thanks

 

[muggles]

Am i correct the I as the home-owner am responsible from the meter onwards?

Sort of. You are generally responsible from where the supply pipe crosses your official boundary


Our meter/stopcock is just inside our garden boundary, but about 15m away from the house.

Unusual for your meter to be inside your boundary, in this case you may be responsible for the pipework your side of the meter, not quite sure on this, generally meters are outside the property boundary


The pipe from the meter to the house is lead, after the in-house house stopcock everything else is either copper or new plastic.

I am planning as part of another project, to replace the the lead line with MDPE line.

Any tips, guidance or legality advice?


If you want to replace it yourself that's OK, run it via whatever route through your garden you like although you'll need to end up by the meter, the pipe must be buried at a minimum depth of 750mm and a maximum depth of 1350mm, and must also enter your property at this level. Take the opportunity to upgrade the size of the pipe if necessary, it's better to be too big than too small, 25mm minimum, 32mm for that bit extra / bigger houses.

Thanks

 

[jimAuk]

The meter is about 2m inside our garden. I thought you can have the meter where you wanted?

The previous ouwners had themter installed.

My parents had a meter installed a few years back and they picked to have it in their house.



What difference does it make what size of pipe you run, as it goes down to 15mm in the house?

Surley you will not get any more flow?

So bottom line is, I can do it myself? Easy to dig a trench, just grass to lift.

Also read that it is best not to run a staight line, a bit of a "meandering" line, so if ground shift, has in effect a bit of slack to joints are no pulled.

I also plan to add a whole house filtration system (sediment and hardness)

Thanks

 

[muggles]

Generally meters are outside your boundary, along with the suppliers' stopcock, but yes they can sometimes be inside, I was just making the point that if both are inside your boundary then there may be confusion over who is responsible for what, and who therefore has to replace what.

The idea of running a larger pipe is that you or a future owner may wish to upgrade the plumbing in your house, and run 22mm off the internal stopcock. For the tiny bit extra it's going to cost to buy 25mm pipe instead of 20mm it really is worth doing. Also, there is a certain amount of flow resistance over a long run, and the larger pipe size will combat this.

Yes, you can do it yourself, a metre is deeper than you think though (always better to go deeper than the minimum, and a metre is a nice round measurement).

You'll get a slightly meandering line in a straight trench due to the pipe not straightening out completely as you unroll it, but there's no need to create one as there will be a gooseneck to take up the slack where your pipe connects into the mains in the road (suppliers responsibility).

If you're adding a filtration system, definitely go for 25mm and upgrade to 22mm from your stopcock as this will reduce the flow quite a bit. Shouldn't be sediment in mains water though.

 

[jimAuk]

Thanks very much for you info.Will go for 25 mm pipe.


Ref the house filtration, I think you might be correct in the "snake oil" selling of these units.

 

[ManxPlumber]

When you do replace the pipe, make sure it's the right depth, 750 - 1350mm deep

 

[muggles]

When you do replace the pipe, make sure it's the right depth, 750 - 1350mm deep

Already covered, but thanks anyway

 

[jimAuk]

Just got my tape measure out....even 750mm is a deap trench!

It sounds simple "30mm pipe" but in reality I guess to dig that deap you need to be able to physicaly get in the trench.

! Me thinks a mini digger might help?

I will proably need a digger for a nother part of the project, so kill two birds with one stone over a weekend.

 

[muggles]

A digger would help enormously but watch out for electric/gas on the way through

 

[jimAuk]

No problem.

We have no gas and the electric is over-head to the house!

Simples!

 

[MANDATE]

I don't think you can replace the pipe without the approval of the water authority and in accordance with their requirements.
I did carry out all the work except the final connection to mains supply.
The pipe had to be in 100mm ducting (bend plus straight) where it entered property. It also had to be insulated with specified insulation that was not easy to find.
I suggest you look to see if water authority has web site which should tell you all you want to know.