On Sun, 09 Nov 2003 09:17:28 GMT, "Mike Hibbert"
wrote:

Hello all,

Some of you will remember that I have a strange gushing water sound coming
from the pipes in the garage. They resonate upstairs too. Well, after
turning off the tap in the road the noise stopped. This meant that there was
a problem between the service pipe and the stopcock. I found an inspection
chanber in the garage and lifted that, it contained another stopcock
(presumable the old one for the house before the renovations). this was 18
inches deep in standing water! Bearing in mind that the water table is much
lower that that, I think I can safely say that this is not right!

We dug up a portion of the garage floor (5 inches of concrete with 1/4 inch
steel reinforcing mesh!) and have now found that the water pipe splits just
past the edge of the inspection chanber. It travels north (just pretend
bearings so you get the picture - not even I am sad enough to measure
that!!) and then veers off north west away from the house. The other one
goes east adn enters the house. This will be my rising main.

My sort of question is that why on earth would I have a split like this? I
can only assume that the house may have had an outside toilet at some time,
but would it get fed like this?
I'm also guessing that the leak is most likely at the end of the north west
branch whjere they have capped it off badly.

Does it sound like I am on the right track?

Cheers
Mike


Is the house of an age where the pipe is lead, or steel or ???

Could there have been another property or possibly a business of some
sort at some time? For example, many years ago my parents lived in
an Edwardian house with a similar house next door. However, at some
time in the past, the space behind the house had been a dairy and
although most of the buildings to do with it and long since gone there
was a remaining one which had probably been the stable. This had
services such as a separate water and electricity supply.

Alternatively, is it possible that the pipe you mention feeds another
property? One clue might be if surrounding properties are of a
different age.....

Certainly if the house had an outside toilet at some time, it's quite
possible that it would have been fed separately. When you are
digging, look out for old salt glazed drain pipes which may not be too
far away from the water services.......




..andy

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