Cost to connect house to water main 0.5miles away
Cost to connect house to water main 0.5miles away
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Codswallop

Original Poster:

5,256 posts

211 months

Friday 7th May 2021
quotequote all
Hello PHers,

do any of you have experience/ cost ideas of connecting a property to a water main?

In my case, it's a potential property about 0.4/ 0.5 miles from the nearest water main. There is an adopted road leading to the property so I guess the water main spur would go under the road.

I've contacted the local water company but looking for indicative costs if anyone has experience of such a thing.

Cheers

Pixelpeep Z4

8,600 posts

159 months

Friday 7th May 2021
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if its anything like the other utilities, be prepared to pay more for 'construction' than the actual supply materials.

If there is any highway digging involved it adds FORTUNES to the project.

i turned down UKPNs £5000 bill to upgrade our supply to 3 phase. £3k of it was to dig across our tiny garden and 3 feet of public pavement.

Zoon

7,039 posts

138 months

Friday 7th May 2021
quotequote all
Codswallop said:
Hello PHers,

do any of you have experience/ cost ideas of connecting a property to a water main?

In my case, it's a potential property about 0.4/ 0.5 miles from the nearest water main. There is an adopted road leading to the property so I guess the water main spur would go under the road.

I've contacted the local water company but looking for indicative costs if anyone has experience of such a thing.

Cheers
£8.5k upwards

Chrisgr31

14,095 posts

272 months

Friday 7th May 2021
quotequote all
No idea but would like you to video your reaction when you get the price as I suspect it will be "HOW MUCH?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Potentially a lot cheaper if you can dig the trench to put the pipe in yourself, but thats not going to be possible if it has to go under the road. Is there no water main in the road?

anonymous-user

71 months

Friday 7th May 2021
quotequote all
I'm about half a mile from the nearest water supply so have a borehole with a water treatment plant which corrects for PH, filters and uses UV to remove any nasty bacteria.

We have fantastic water pressure and the running costs (3 monthly filter and yearly UV bulb and PH correction media change) are far lass then I used to pay SE Water in our last house for the privilege of frequent cuts in supply and water full of chemicals.

I wouldn't rush to be reconnected to the mains in a million years.

normalbloke

8,175 posts

236 months

Friday 7th May 2021
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£35k is my best guess! Depends on the routing though, if it’s across a busy roadway, dripping in utilities, then add a few more zeros.

Herdwick

150 posts

255 months

Friday 7th May 2021
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Did this almost exactly half a mile maybe 10 years ago.

UU water wanted around £30k + vat to our boundary, then we had another 200yds of our own driveway to sort. We actually used our own contractor to do all the work and got UU to do the connection after they checked the work done.

Our contractor was actually a self employed subbie who did utility works, so had all the relevant insurance, equipment and obtained permits etc to put ''Our'' pipe in the highway etc. Total cost was around £25k inc vat for all the pipework connected to our door, PLUS £3k for UU to connect the pipe to their main.

I suspect prices have increased somewhat since then, but hope that gives a rough estimate to work on.

Codswallop

Original Poster:

5,256 posts

211 months

Friday 7th May 2021
quotequote all
Thanks for the feedback folks. I guessed it would not be cheap. Around the £30k mark is what I'm expecting. Luckily it's not a very busy road, so hopefully that would reduce disruption and cost to an extent.

Interesting idea on the borehole as well! Definitely an option to explore further.

joshleb

1,548 posts

161 months

Friday 7th May 2021
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If possible, avoid the road and try and go through the field with permission from the landowner.

Saved my parents thousands doing that.

HRL

3,353 posts

236 months

Friday 7th May 2021
quotequote all
MercScot said:
I'm about half a mile from the nearest water supply so have a borehole with a water treatment plant which corrects for PH, filters and uses UV to remove any nasty bacteria.

We have fantastic water pressure and the running costs (3 monthly filter and yearly UV bulb and PH correction media change) are far lass then I used to pay SE Water in our last house for the privilege of frequent cuts in supply and water full of chemicals.

I wouldn't rush to be reconnected to the mains in a million years.
Exactly the same setup as the house we’re in the process of buying in Devon.

Think it was about £15K all inc for the borehole, pump, treatment, but I guess depth plays a part in cost.

snowandrocks

1,054 posts

159 months

Friday 7th May 2021
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I second the idea of a private supply if the quote is as ridiculous as it sounds like it might be.

Almost everyone here in rural Aberdeenshire have there own supply. Most are spring or stream fed but boreholes are quite popular too.

How much filtration you need depends on what the water's like, but the running costs involved for us are noticeably less than what we would pay for a mains supply.

Pete Franklin

849 posts

198 months

Friday 7th May 2021
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I would assume £60-80 per m in carriageway so more like 50k + also dependant on traffic management.

anonymous-user

71 months

Friday 7th May 2021
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Quoted 50k for gas at last house, 150ish metres from.the main.

Found out later the whole row was offered gas for 5k each but people nearer the main moaned the people furthest away were getting more for their 5k.....bunch of hamshankers

PushedDover

6,693 posts

70 months

Friday 7th May 2021
quotequote all
joshleb said:
If possible, avoid the road and try and go through the field with permission from the landowner.

Saved my parents thousands doing that.
The same experience here

eltax91

10,402 posts

223 months

Friday 7th May 2021
quotequote all
Did a self build in 2018. We dug our own trench, supplied our own 30mm mdpe blinded with sand etc and capped it off with a one way valve and temporary tap inside. We had to follow every guideline they gave us to the letter. Pipe depth, pipe type, colour and size and support (aforementioned sand)

Only then would they fit the meter and connect it. Services were on my side of the road. They were here 2/3 of a day. Supplier is Severn Trent.

£3600

Edited by eltax91 on Friday 7th May 21:46

anonymous-user

71 months

Saturday 8th May 2021
quotequote all
Back in the 80s my parents were quoted £2.5k to run a power line underground for about 100m , so with that distance and inflation, I reckon you’re looking at tens of thousands.

normalbloke

8,175 posts

236 months

Saturday 8th May 2021
quotequote all
eltax91 said:
Did a self build in 2018. We dug our own trench, supplied our own 30mm mdpe blinded with sand etc and capped it off with a one way valve and temporary tap inside. We had to follow every guideline they gave us to the letter. Pipe depth, pipe type, colour and size and support (aforementioned sand)

Only then would they fit the meter and connect it. Services were on my side of the road. They were here 2/3 of a day. Supplier is Severn Trent.

£3600

Edited by eltax91 on Friday 7th May 21:46
You might want to quantify that with the length of the trench‘praps?

eltax91

10,402 posts

223 months

Saturday 8th May 2021
quotequote all
normalbloke said:
eltax91 said:
Did a self build in 2018. We dug our own trench, supplied our own 30mm mdpe blinded with sand etc and capped it off with a one way valve and temporary tap inside. We had to follow every guideline they gave us to the letter. Pipe depth, pipe type, colour and size and support (aforementioned sand)

Only then would they fit the meter and connect it. Services were on my side of the road. They were here 2/3 of a day. Supplier is Severn Trent.

£3600

Edited by eltax91 on Friday 7th May 21:46
You might want to quantify that with the length of the trench‘praps?
Sorry, good point. It was 26m. But as I said, we were responsible for digging the trench and providing the pipe. Including following every guideline to the letter.

Severn Trent carried out two jobs: inspection to ensure we had followed the standards and install the meter and make the connection.

So, whilst it was useful the length of the trench seems irrelevant. Could have been 26m, 260m or 2.6m, I supplied everything and still paid £3600 to get inspected/ connected.

ATG

22,413 posts

289 months

Saturday 8th May 2021
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We're on a borehole. Submerged pump about 50m down, ion exchange wotsit, couple of filters, UV chamber to sterilise any bugs, then a pressure regulator tank. UV bulbs, as said above, need changing once a year. The filters need changing periodically, but how often that is depends on your water. In our case once a year is fine. The system really just works. It's been extremely reliable. Haven't had to use it yet, but we did get a generator so we could run fridges and the borehole during a power cut. Went for a diesel generator so that it can be run on heating oil (with a dash of engine oil) should a power outage last for any length of time. We're off the grid, man. Except for the fibre interweb connection, 4G etc.

IanA2

2,894 posts

179 months

Sunday 9th May 2021
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ATG said:
We're on a borehole. Submerged pump about 50m down, ion exchange wotsit, couple of filters, UV chamber to sterilise any bugs, then a pressure regulator tank. UV bulbs, as said above, need changing once a year. The filters need changing periodically, but how often that is depends on your water. In our case once a year is fine. The system really just works. It's been extremely reliable. Haven't had to use it yet, but we did get a generator so we could run fridges and the borehole during a power cut. Went for a diesel generator so that it can be run on heating oil (with a dash of engine oil) should a power outage last for any length of time. We're off the grid, man. Except for the fibre interweb connection, 4G etc.
May I ask if you commisioned the borehole and if so what the outlay was. Thanks.