Tim Watts wrote:

Lobster wrote:

On 13/03/2012 12:06, geraldthehamster wrote:

When I redo my kitchen (again), I'm going to need to bring the mains
water in at a different point, from the outside. Obviously I'm keen
not to have to go under the foundations. Is there an approved way to
bring the mains above ground outside the house, and through the wall,
using insulation, and are there bits of kit made specifically for this
purpose? A desultory Google has brought nothing up.

Well, when I had to lay on mains water from scratch to a do-er upper a
few years ago, I had to jump through the water company's many hoops in
that regard. The pipe had to come in from the street through the wall
of the foundations at a minimum prescribed depth, and be sheathed in
insulation (the preferred way was to use a special purpose-made curved
plastic pipe about 4" diameter, filled with foam insulation). They were
really fussy and came to inspect, demanding further changes before
they'd approve the work. I can't imagine the rules being any different
for what you're proposing.

David

I'll just add that It's actually not that hard to get in under the
foundations. I would not run it up the outside wall.

I dug a 3' deep hole, 3x3' wide (looking for the original pipe) then used an
iron bar to dig out a small hole in the earth under the foundation strip.

Fron the inside, I used a 60mm (ish) TCT hole drill in an SDS to bore
vertically down through the concrete floor over the hole. Internal damage
was minimal.


I redid the mains where it entered my house and they did not care - I did
ring them, mostly to get an idenfication on the type of pipe I found
ouside (1/2" alkathene as it happens).

I went under the foundations 2' down (old house), fed MDPE through a 4"
drain rest bend which had a 50mm adaptor on top and a bit of 50mm drain
pipe coming up to floor level.

Put an MDPE universal coupling onto the alkathene pipe again 2' down,
built a little brick chamber around the joint for inspection reasons with
a lid on top and back filled the hole under the house with well rammed
concrete.

No insulation and no signs of freezing even last winter (2010-11).

The water company even offered to do a free reconnection to the main cock
(bang on my boundary) if I wished to run the MDPE out there.

For a new development, they are likely to be fussy - for a modification,
don't bother talking to them - just do it.

Insulation is a good idea if you can - but there's no point in being
paranoid - pipes round here that I've seen are no deeper than 2' under the
drives (stop cock position) and we don;t get problems.

--
Tim Watts