"Rick Dipper" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 9 Jul 2004 20:13:36 +0100, "mich" wrote:


"BillV" wrote in message
...

"mich" wrote in message
...

If the water company (no boards for a decade or so)

I am old! Hence water board, but I do know they are now companies.


discover you have a leak
on yr side of their stopcock then they are likely to inform you they
will
cut you off with x days if not fixed.
Get the company's stopcock for your house, normally in the street,
turned
off for a short while to see if the hissing stops; if it does then you
have
to pay for the fix on your side.
Friend had to dig 30' of front garden down 2' to expose pipe so it
could
be
replaced. Pipe is cheap but labour is not. Water Co connected new pipe
to
their stopcock for no charge. This was in Essex..

I have an added problem now.Since the morning I have dug down outside the
house where it comes into the stop cock and found it is iron pipe. This
must
be water pipe since I have no other mains coming in ( electric overhead
and
no gas at all) .

The main road stop cock is a very old one ( still has water board
written
on it). However, the break might be on my side ot it might be in the lane
and I cant tell. There are also three stop cocks before you get to the
house. One in the road, one in the lane and one outside my kitchen door.
There is a fourth that feeds the outside ( now ex) prep room and outside
loo.
Either way I guess I am going to have to renew the lot since I dont
think
you can repair or patch into iron pipe?

Anyone can give the definitive answer on this.

By the way my house is 1950's rural smallholding bungalow. I have the
plans
but I cant see water mains marked on it.


Sir

Its not too expensive, I put 180 metres in in 2 days, the digger
including driver cost 15 quid an hour. You don't have to put the pipe
in the drive, it might be much easier up the middle of the lawn ...

Rick


Just so you know, some water companies will fix leaks for free. Thames Water
for instance offer a service where they will test for leaks between the
stopcock and the wall of the house (and fix if found) for no charge. In my
case, the leak was so small they replaced the entire aging pipe run with
25mm MDPE for no charge, using a mole to pull the pipe through, meaning only
3 holes were needed for a 100ft pipe run.

Maybe worth checking?

Alex