Cost to replace water supply pipe

[IntegraTypeR]

Hi all,

We have a leak under the driveway of our 1980s detached house in Hampshire. One option is for us to replace the entire supply pipe (which may be sensible as we're planning to stay here for a long time), but we're being quoted in the region of £1700 to do this. My understanding is that they can feed the new pipe in via some existing conduit/ducting. Has anyone had similar work done recently? if so, what did it cost?

Thanks

Ian

[Big Al.]

Friends of mine had a similar problem, they had all the steel replaced back to the meter in plastic. Not sure of the cost but they paid it, a month or so later speaking to Southern Water they said that they would foot the bill for the repair even though it was on their land, Somewhere in the region of £1000, worth a phone call to your provider, you've got nothing to lose!

[Laurel Green]

Yep, help may be on hand--> http://www.unitedutilities.com/pipes-what-am-i-res...

[Rickyy]

Water pipes are very rarely run in a ducting. You maybe lucky and find there is a duct where it passes through the footings into the house if it's a relatively new build.

It's a labour intensive job. The entire job doesn't have to be done by a utility company, you could get someone in to do the digging and just get them to do the final connections.

[Sir Bagalot]

The various methods I've seen....

Person A bought a homeserve policy. 18 months later they call them and say they might have a leak.... new water supply pipe put in FOC. Policy not renewed.

Person B done all the legwork themselves. Dug up driveway etc exposing current pipe so plumber came in replaced pipe and left, change out of £250

Person C got one of those companies in that burrow. Not much change out of £1K

[Basil Brush]

We had our original lead pipe replaced last year and the guys used a moler to get the plastic pipe up to the house, which was around 10m. It was 700 quid for the new pipe and connection to the 22mm copper feed. There would have been a charge for the connection to the main had it not been done under the lead replacement scheme.

[IntegraTypeR]

Thanks for the replies so far.

[megaphone]

As above. They don't always need to dig a tench, they can use a 'mole'. They dig a hole at each end and the compressed air driven mole punches a hole between them. Then drag a new plastic pipe through. Had mine done approx 20m for £400 cash.

New plastic gas pipes are often run through the old steel gas supply. But not water, most old supply pipes are lead and too thin.

Edited by megaphone on Saturday 27th August 19:57

[greg2k]

If you hire an approved plumber, they can use a mole, if not you'll have to dig a trench an leave it exposed so the waterboard can inspect it, approved plumbers don't need their work inspecting. Another thing to consider is whether you're on a shared supply; if that's the case, you'll have to dig up your old pipe to where it joins your neighbour's/s', cap it off there, THEN run your new pipe. Dead legs are verbotten, a monstrous pita if you live in a terrace and you have no idea where the supplies are located/tee off from each other.

Edit: "1980s detached house": you'll have your own supply.