Cadent - gas main/to house replacement

Just had a notice that our streets entire gas main is to be replaced. Along with individual pipes to each property.

Outfit called "Cadent".

Apparently each phase of the project is undertaken by a different unit of highly skilled operatives.

Putting aside my cynicism that the previous sentence sounds like preparing the ground for a job that is never finished, it seems they are going to want to rip up the old pipe under paths, lawns and drives to lay the new ones.

The accompanying leaflet had a series of before'n'after shots of different drives and paths they'd replaced.

Sadly at that point my cynicism kicks in, and I find myself not believing they will ever put anything back remotely satisfactorily.

Just wondered if anyone had any run ins like this previously ?

I'm mildly concerned as I put some decking over our path for SWMBO wheelchair, and I have zero faith they will dissemble it, do the job and restore it as before ... which is going to lead to an interesting stand off.

Of course they could use some sort of mole. However having seen and spoken to VM when laying a cable with a spade, I'm going to hazard a guess they won't risk it because they have no idea what's down there.

Our road was resurfaced perfectly 7 years ago - including pavements. I knew it was too good to last.

Reply to
Jethro_uk
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The gas pipes were replaced around here a few years ago and they did a very good job.

Reply to
Mr Pounder Esquire

Our gas main was ?replaced? a few years ago.

Basically they dig a hole in the pavement outside every property, and mole a new gas pipe to wherever they plan to take the gas supply in. In our case this was also combined with relocating the gas meter outside. They had to dig one intermediate hole in our garden to locate/redirect the mole as the mole direction isn?t particularly controllable.

The old gas main in the street is used as a conduit to feed a new plastic main through so a continuous trench isn?t required.

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

[Snip] We had our steel gas feeder pipe replaced witha plastic one when the they repalced the main in the road. The simply dug a hole close to tehnhouse and used a 'mole' to create a hole through which they pushed the new pipe,.

OTOH, when VM replaced the cable to my daughter's house they simply threw the cable into the boundary hedge.

Reply to
charles

Ah, they did mention this - currently our meter is in an externally accessible "room" (we call it our bin store). There's no external wall for a meter to go on - the door to the bin store is next to one of our front doors, and the side of the property is up to the boundary - an external meter would trespass onto next doors airspace.

Be interesting to see how they plan to tackle it ...

Reply to
Jethro_uk

That's slightly reassuring ....

Reply to
Jethro_uk

we got the letters about 3 years ago, with a specified week as the start date ... not seen or heard from them since (it wasn't cadent).

They do trace their roots back to sizeable chunks of the regional gas boards.

Reply to
Andy Burns

Much the same happened when I had my meter moved and the existing pipe was condemned - they moled most of the new pipe out to the main in the road, where they just dug a hole to make the final connection.

Reply to
Chris Hogg

*cough* [snip]

VM are arch bodgers for this kind of stuff!

They did this at my Mom's house. The repair of the drive afterwards was pretty OK, TBH. Main problem was they totally ignored my instructions to contact me before starting work and just did it. (Mom had dementia), oh, then the damned boiler was condemmed when they came to reconnect.

Overall, the actual driveway work could have been a lot worse.

Reply to
Chris Bartram

Without in anyway trying to be rude, you clearly have a special case due to your wife's wheelchair. I would suggest you contact them and ask how they plan to ensure that any disruption of her access etc is minimised. In the circumstances, it doesn't seem at all unreasonable they should visit beforehand and look at your property to check if there are any special problems which may impact the job (replacing the pipes).

Reply to
Brian Reay

At our previous house, all the water mains were replaced. OK, only as far as the wateermeter/stopcock, not all the way into the house. It was all done by pushing new plastic pipe inside the old steel pipes with minimal excavations required.

Reply to
Terry Casey

Whilst I hear what you are saying, if they are flummoxed by a householder in a wheelchair, then they aren't coming within 100 miles of our house. I could understand their being taken aback if I had a previously undiscovered genus of Homo lurking in the garden, or a well concealed nuclear bunker. But they should be well up on less able homeowners.

And if they aren't now, they will be when I have finished with them.

My main concern is with my "bodge it" hat on, I can see them ripping through the joists with a saw, and then shrugging when it all looks like a mini adventure playground when they've finished. Bearing in mind they've already laid the ground for leaving it like that forever while "the next crew" are supposed to fix it.

And I'm very nervous that the letter made specific reference to "different teams". Because that's just giving everyone a "not my job guv" excuse - before a spade has hit the ground ...

Reply to
Jethro_uk

Just to reassure everybody, when they replaced the water main in the street for our previous house they used a "mole".

Some time later the sewage backed up and couldn't be rodded out.

We called them in, and they were going to charge us for clearing the blockage until they discovered that the had "moled" a water pipe straight through our sewer connection.

Cheers

Dave R

Reply to
David

Funny that as round here they merely pushed yellow plastic up the existing pipes and connected that to their new main that went down the pavement. Also before the job started they asked about any disabled people and were very good at helping me not go tumbling down any holes left as they passed by. In the end I never opted for reconnection of gas. Its terminated in the road outside my house so if anyone wants gas they can always add a pipe. Looking at the piece of the old Gas pipe they pulled out from under my fence I could see why it was going to need the whole street doing it as wafer thin and mostly made of rust.

I see now the water lot want to replace their lead pipes so we shall see how they get on. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

At my parents, the new pipe could mainly run under the garden, but an

18" section of path between the garden and the house wall (that I'm sure they could have hand dug under) was cut out and replaced with very black tarmac - not a good look against a yellow concrete driveway and path!

Our whole road was done a couple of years ago.

The new plastic pipes from the new main to the houses were simply pushed through the existing metal pipes. I assume that to maintain flow, they increased the pressure in the new main. The regulator on the top of the meter of course reduces it back to the right level for the house.

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

The decommissioning of gasometers being proof they've upped pressure to linepack the gas ....

Reply to
Jethro_uk

You really need to talk with them. Is your meter getting relocated at the same time? If so, I?m sure they?ll accept suggestions of placements that minimise disruption. They won?t want to rip up decking any more than you do.

Even if your meter isn?t relocated, the new main doesn?t have to follow the route of the old.

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

They did some near me recently. Most of the house connections appeared to be run inside the existing pipes.

They seemed to have one team excavating and doing the piping, with a separate sub-contractor later making good, to an acceptable standard in my judgement.

I happened by on one occasion, and found a guy with a calibrated board dropped into the trench using his mobile to take a shot showing correct depth.

Chris

Reply to
Chris J Dixon

As I remember it. The guys dug a small hole on the footpath outside my house and one bloke came in and blanked the gas meter off. Another bloke came round and un-blanked the meter and reignited the boiler. This on the very same day. There was no new pipework to the meter.

Reply to
Mr Pounder Esquire

7 years! Yorkshire Water usually give it 7 days before they start replacing pipes on a newly surfaced road.
Reply to
ARW

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