Upgrading my Mains Connection

[maddernj]

I have just contacted Thames Water about upgrading my mains connection and have been pointed in the direction of there price plan leaflets.

I am looking to upgrade my 15mm mains feed to 22mm (Think this is correct) so that in the future I can get rid of the expansion tank in the loft and fit a Megaflow cylinder.

Now My builder has said that he will dig the trench in the garden and we are already re-building the garage so the feed into the house is sorted but Thames Water are looking for almost £800+ to chop up about 8inch of pavement ? Is this correct ?

Anyone have any similar experiences ? (BTW we are metered if that makes a difference)

Ta

[mk1fan]

If the pavement needs to be altered then the works need to meet an agreed standard and be carried out by an approved contractor. This is [for all intents and purposes] because of the 'where there's blame' culture we live in.

Oh and I'd lay at least a 25mm plastic pipe main all the way into the property and have a 22mm stop-cock then step the pipe work down to connect to your current system.

I am assuming that you are wanting to install either a combi boiler or an unvented sytem in the future. Both are reliant on both minimum mains pressure and mains flow. People don't realise the two are very different - eg, a liquid can be at high pressure but not flowing. High pressure doesn't compensate for poor flow.

To be honest I'd be tempted to lay a 35mm plastic supply to a 28mm stop-cock. Then you'll have no issues with flow regardless of which system you install (combi or unvented).

Edited by mk1fan on Monday 6th December 17:27

[maddernj]

35mm to 28mm would be fine....I have no issues upgrading just the price that the council want to charge. I would like to get it sorted now as I am not going to want to go through this amount of work in the future.

So is £800 a reasonable charge to dig up the pavement to upgrade my mains ?

[hairyben]

Most utilities in the age of privatisation regard themselves as having a licence to charge what they like for stuff like this.

EDF are perhaps the worst, they cut the power off on new mains jobs, then snag the installation for the most anal of "faults", charge the customer £500 cancellation fee for "wasting their time" and leave them with no electric. I have to allow "electric board baby sitting time" on mains changeover jobs, ie waiting all day so when they turn up and start claiming things are wrong I can tell them to just get on with it as I know what I'm talking about.

[dave_s13]

Utility co's use a sliding scale of charges for stuff like this.

The explanation I got from Northern Gas Networks was that it allows for the jobs that require shutting down a busy road juction for 2 days and digging 200yds down the road and all the costs that attracts. Such jobs would still cost the same as a more simple move.

As it stands I only needed my gas meter moving 3m. It cost £750 quid. They were in and out in less than a day.

Tw@ts.

AFAIK they have you over a barrel, no other way arond it really.

[herewego]

Does the megaflow manufacturer, is that Sadia, say you have to increase the size of your supply?

The water company will have dig a hole big enough to increase the size of the connection in the main supply pipe. I don't know how they do this whether they can drill into it and attach a pipe or whether they have to dig a big hole and cut a piece of the mains off to fit a tee.

[maddernj]

No it was the plumber who suggested upgrading the supply to provision for any future works. I am trying to do everything to the place in one hit as when we move in I won't want to do any more works like this.

[mk1fan]

Should have been clearer. Yes, that price is 'ususal'. Indemnity of the works is greatly disproportionate to the work being done.

No doubt someone will post that they paid £200 but unless they live next door and had the same work done last week it's a pointless post/comment.

[andy43]

Google accumulators - we've a £2-300 250 litre jobbie that works great. Way cheaper than digging the road up.

[herewego]

I might be going out on a limb here but I don't understand why you think you want a larger pipe. The megaflow is just a stainless steel storage tank that achieves a greater flowrate to the taps simply because it's mains pressured rather than fed from a header tank, so it doesn't need a specially high input flow.