Hi folks help me out here - the saga of the water leak.

Called insurance company , one leak found and fixed. I am advised that
there is a second leak ( cant be located though following a couple of drill
holes in drive.

So, plumber from insurance company says - renew water pipe. This could be
done on the insurance but I am worried!
Bloke says , put in new pipe from current location to front of house , dig
through the garden, take up curbing stones of garden and put under and
drill into house and come in under the walls and floors( I have a suspended
floor ) and totally re route the water. He says it would require a couple of
holes in the floor boards to bring this into the kitchen and re plumb
fixtures and fittings. he has recommended this route to insurance company.

He doesn't want to follow the current route because he cant put a mole
through easily.

I have reservations
a) taking up tongue and groove floors - he says in two places, I reckon,
having looked at plans of house in several. he has three solid walls to come
through, and he is going against the honeycombe floors and the joists in
the floor so each will have to be cut through somehow.

b) I will loose my outside loo and stand tap. Stand tap isn't a problem -
loo is. I use the loo when gardening.
He says dig up junction on back and re route water to loo ( not paid by
water company. I will have to have that done)

c) the air holes under the floor are north/ east side ( very cold in
winter) Pipe could freeze under floor?

Those are the problems I see.

He proposed other "possible route"as above but coming through the roof
Sorry but my roof is also cold in winter and given pressure of water ( rural
area) I worry about that too.
he said I was a silly woman who didn't understand. Further he will have to
drill through to come up the wall.

I asked if it would not be better to follow the existing route to the stop
cock outside the kitchen door instead.

He said that would not cure leak since there may be a leak in back ( under
concrete path where water travels in parallel to drains and comes in at
bathroom. Besides hard to cut through the drive - tarmac - he said.

I am just a silly woman and dont understand these things ( he implied!).

Anyway, he also told me insurance company may not pay for all this work and
I would likely have to contribute some £350+ vat to it - and extra again for
the loo.

Well I maybe a silly woman but I have a man who is an old ( over fifty)
apprenticed plumber - he always tells me he is a cr*p plumber so I dont
always trust him ( am I wrong to feel this?) besides he works hard and
doesnt have a mole to dig the pipe hole with - so he would have to do it
with a shovel and trench method. And I have insurance so I thought , get
them in. I could have been wrong.

Said plumber ( yes he is my other half) said - well I wont repeat it!

He said similarly to me (a) (b) and (c) above. Also reckons it will b*gger
up all my floor boards , they will have to take out a good number of
hatches - and they wont be able to crawl through ( as I was told by
insurance plumber) since hubby believes there wonjt be room) and leave me
with major re decoration ( I have just done out the rooms concerned and
carpeted./tiled) and well as creaking floors and large holes in the
foundation walls!

He also said he thought it would be just as easy ( or no harder) to bring
water pipe ( plastic of course now) down the garden edge, trenching through
the soil, ( following the route of the one in the drive but about four
feet away) , cut across the drive ( about 2ft ) at the bottom where the
garden and drive meet and then cut about seven feet through old crumbling
tarmac to meet my "kitchen garden" ( which is paved now - but the paviers
are only dropped on soil, not stuck in) where the pipe runs under at about
18inches deep ( we have escavated this so he knows where it is) and run to
the stop cock from there - about twelve feet. He also reckons he could cut
into the galvanised pipe there and pull it out and use the hole to run
through to the stop cock , without having to trench there.

He could not understand why they had not said this route.

He said that would cure the leak. ( leak is between mains intake and
kitchen stop cock - he assures me despite what I am being told by others)

I told him what was said about going round the back. He said B*llocks , we
dont need to touch it BUT even if the problem was there, he could from the
stop cock re route the water across the path into the kitchen via the pantry
.. That would mean digging up about 18 inches width of concrete and
drilling through the wall under the pantry in the corner of the kitchen. At
that point the floor boards are parallel to the pipe ( not in the opposite
direction as they would be coming through the house as proposed by the
insurance company plumber) and he says it would be simple to reconnect
everything three - and it wouldn't cut off my outside loo at all.

Right now I am waiting for the plumber to get back to me from the insurance
( its a been a week since the OK'd this work and their workmen were supposed
to call - they havent).

Who, in your various and humble opinions has the better option?

Would I be better letting the insurance do it ( no cost to me and no
hassle to my dearest one) or should I let my dearest beloved ( who works
ten hours a day , hard graft plumbing in other peoples houses) come home
and do it at night? Was I wrong to take the job from him and farm it out in
the first place?

If the latter how do I deal with the insurance company now?



Sounds complicated when written but