I live i a recently acquired bungalow built in 1971. My plumber just revealed that the incoming water main is made of lead.
It runs in a straight line under a bedroom and a bathroom to a stop c*ck in the adjacent toilet.
He is hinting that it ought to be replaced.
If it does have to replaced can it be fed through relatively easily or does there have to be significant excavation?
On 28/06/2021 19:40, Steve Walker wrote:> people generally flush the toilet and wash their hands before taking a drink in the morning.
That way lies disaster. I generally try to leave it until noon at the earliest. Sometimes 12:05.
Hang on, I've lived in this ere house since 1957, and the lead pipe for the mains water is still all the way in to half way up a wall, where its jointed to copper. I was told that its long past shedding lead as it will be coated internally with gunk by long before we moved in. . Brian
:)
Hmm..I thought phosphates in domestic water supplies was a no-no these days, because it encourages algal blooms in waterways, eventually leading to oxygen depletion and dying fish. It's why laundry detergent mfrs removed the phosphate from powdered detergents a few decades ago. So OOI how did UU avoid the problem?
Not if you live in a soft water area.
Round here, the water is so soft that 10 year old kettle elements look new. Back in my school days, we titrated the water and found it was almost as soft as distilled water! Lead pipes simply never get coated - hence the water company adding phosphates for the last 18 or 19 years, to deliberately coat the pipes.
Dosing is ~1mg of orthophosphate / litre water.
I presume potentially leading to much higher levels?
If it's yellow, let it mellow...
Well, I guess that must be the answer, but I'd have thought that after it had been through the sewage treatment works, any phosphate from domestic sources would be pretty dilute. But I've no idea as to the numbers.
Phosphates are used all over the country, in soft water areas. The need to protect against lead (and copper leaching) to protect human health is greater than the need to reduce environmental phosphates. The level is quite low anyway, compared to the concentration in detergents.
Some level of phosphate removal at waste-water treatment plants is carried out. Apparently they do worry about how much phosphate is released through supply side leaks though.
pinnerite formulated the question :
I would very much doubt lead pipe was installed, in 1971, thought it was possible up to around 1970.
I did look, and I could only find a US number that did indicate a substantial drop:
I couldn't find any data in the UK, probably because the drop wasn't significant and so the authorities keep the data to themselves. I'm not sure with more digging I would find much useful published data.
I bought a 1962 bungalow, that had an iron(? certainly wasn't lead) water inlet pipe ?
The new house my parents had built on part of our bungalows big garden had a new iron water pipe supply under the concrete drive from the road.
Froze up solid during the Winter of 1962/63 and we had to use a hosepipe from the old (now sold) bungalow for 8 weeks. 'New' house was built in 1956.
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