Sleeved water main versus new pipe?

Question

Our neighbours have a leak somewhere under their house between the stopcock in the street and their internal stop tap.

Insurance company want to internally sleeve the main (which is black plastic) presumably with another plastic pipe, and hopefully join everything up at the internal stop-tap. A complication is that because of extensive modifications, this stop tap arises in the middle of the kitchen so a considerable amount of wooden flooring will have to be lifted.

Anyhow, I?m wondering (just as a nosy neighbour) how much this is going to harm their water flow. They?re talking about using a 20mm pipe as a sleeve but whether that?s internal or external I don?t know.

I must admit if it were my house I think I?d prefer a new main laid from the street than a sleeved down one, especially if my insurance was paying for it.

What do you think?

Tim

GB · Accepted Answer

For the little it's worth:

We run everything straight off the mains. There's no storage tank. So, I thought we should have a decent size mains pipe. The plastic pipe is around 22mm or so, and the connection off the water main is 3/4". I pay extra for that, rather than 1/2". We have a very good flow of water, but I resent paying the extra without knowing whether it's really necessary.

Conclusion, if any, is that a 20mm pipe is probably fine. Particularly if the mains connection is only 1/2", as seems likely.

Tim Lamb · Answer

In message  ,  Tim+  writes Pity it is not steel pipe. They could pull the new pipe in as they draw  the old one out.

Robin · Answer

Is this for non-household premises? If not then it must vary by area as I think Thames charge both metered and unmetered households the same whatever the pipe size. It's only non-household accounts who pay for the ability to take a bigger peak flow.

Brian Gaff · Answer

Are we sure its even possible to put a new one in if it has to connect to  pipework inside like the meter or is that in the street? Brian

Sleeved water main versus new pipe?

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