Water Leak...

Hmmm. Having had a puddle that didn't want to go away, we had been looking forward to a few dry (at least drier) days. But the puddle has actually got bigger.

It now looks like it is actually a water leak - probably from the water main to our house. It would be "their" side of the stopcock (which is well inside the property and close to the house) and, thankfully, we do not have a water meter.

I rushed out and bought a cheapo drill pump, attached to my cheapo SDS, which are now valliantly fighting and pumping at a surprisingly good rate. But the water level hardly drops - goes down a bit then sticks.

If I turn off the SDS (and with that noise, I certainly cannot leave it going all night), the water flows down the path - or over the lawn - towards the house. And makes a mini-moat there.

There is no possibility of diverting it usefully - any attempt to dig a trench away fills up instantly and seems not to contribute anything to lowering the level.

Called water people - they will come out next Monday.

I have a nasty feeling that:

We are going to have to manage the water ourselves until it gets fixed; We will end up paying through the nose to someone.

Any useful suggestions appreciated.

(I cannot at the moment think of any role for an angle grinder. Nor a Fein/Bosch/Aldidl oscillating thingummy.)

Reply to
polygonum
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Would one of these be a better pump?

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a hole as a sump and pump out from there.

Reply to
Andrew May

Yes - but none in stock near here!

Reply to
polygonum

Next monday? I thought water leaks were all important these days. after all we might have a drought..... erm, maybe not how soon they forget.

The problem is that these sort of leaks seldom surface where they are actually leaking do they, similarly, if you block things up to make it come up somewhere else it is never in the right other place.

What about some kind of cheap bilge pump for a second hand source, an electric one obviously.

I'm sure somone will come along with an idea soon.

How deep is the pipe? I remember someone digging a deepish trench and putting poly sheeting vertically so the easiest route was sideways, but of course if you have neighbours....

Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

In message , polygonum writes

Hmm.. I think if there is any risk of actual flood damage they ought to move a bit quicker than next Monday!

Local water company uses the same contractor as I do here.

I suppose you could expose the leak and try a temporary bodge.

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Reply to
Tim Lamb

Is there a suitable hill you could start a siphon on?

Philip

Reply to
philipuk

My mutterings as well.

Reply to
polygonum

Stick your ear on the rising main(*) as it enters the house, can you hear it "singing". Turn off the stopcock in your house so you aren't using any water, is it still "singing"? Then try the outside one. Will isolate where the leak is a little.

With the amount of rain recently the water table might be high but a trench or hole that has a stable water level in it with water entering it must be draining some where...

(*) Use something solid like a long screwdriver to connect you ear to the pipe. Rest the handle end firmly against that little flappy bit in fron of your ear chanel and put the point end on the pipe or pipe joint.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Not good, is it?

Trouble is actually identifying where the leak is. Sure I can see where the water is coming up, but...

Reply to
polygonum

Tried earlier but the possibility is by such a small height difference it was impossible to get it going. But I think it might work if I somehow exploit the fact that the pipe can be filled by the pump...

Off to try.

Reply to
polygonum

...

I had the same around 5 years ago, and was told it would be 7 days before anyone can come to look, maybe 14 days for a fix. Apparently, if it is on your property, it is your responsibility, but, they will do a free fix if you are prepared to wait, which is what I presume you have been told.

Anyway, I went and dug down, which is the worst thing to do, and rather than a trickle, there was suddenly a torrent of water coming out of the ground. Quickly infilled, I had a mostly sleepless night. Next morning, down to B+Q to buy a pump, which was £35ish. This was great, so I dug down again, got thoroughly soaked, but the pump allowed me to find the leak, which was a pinhole in the copper main. I used the old split hosepipe, with 2 clamps on it trick, clamped around the hole, and that lasted the 2 weeks until Severn Trent came to fix it properly. I dont think it could be done without the pump, as even bucketing the water out would not keep up with the leakage - surprising when I saw how small the hole in the pipe was.

Reply to
A.Lee

It is only stable when I am actively pumping.

The rest if the time it is rising - though it had been going up and down by only at most a few mm, today it was far worse.

The pipe inside the house is cut off more or less at floor level behind a boiler. Not easy to get anything in to listen with. And it is plastic. But will try later.

Have been out and decided to dig a bit more - see if I could achieve any diversion to slightly drier ground. After a while, the water in the "hole" (where we had seen water rising) stopped rising. Instead of changing from turbid to clear, which had been indicating water changeover, it stayed muddy. And I cannot see how that could have happened.

So hopefully OK for tonight.

Reply to
polygonum

The water company's website seems to say they will offer a subsidy - but that is all. Hence anticipating a bill.

No mention of cost in the call.

One problem is that the pipe might pass under a garage which is not ours. Another is that the one out-in-the-road stopcock seems to affect about seven houses.

Reply to
polygonum

Reply to
Mr Pounder

They usually take a sample of the water and compare it with your tap water to see if it is a mains leak or not.

The water often surfaces a long way from the leak (if any), It tends to follow the trench originally dug.

You may be able to detect the leak with a big screwdriver pressed against your ear. (Listening stick) You put the blade on ahard surface or ideally the pipe, You need to be NOT using any water when listening.

Reply to
harry

I thought it partly depended on whether the mains supplied only one property? But also in the hope that there might have been some reason for them to pick up the tab!

It was partly to provide additional information - otherwise I could turn our stopcock off and largely solve the problem in the very short term.

Reply to
polygonum

Why were you unable to turn off the external stop tap? Had to do this the other day to remove some obsolete plumbing for a mate in his new house, only to find that his stop tap was apparently siezed. (I was

*not* going to put a big spanner on that!). Biggest problem was to work out how it worked: some sort of all-plastic job presenting a hex head to the house side, and what turned out to be the tap which was a plastic cylinder with the opposite of a screwdriver slot on the top.
Reply to
newshound

I'm confused as you said its their side of the stop c*ck so surely the WB must fix it at their cost. I had one similar before xmas, a leak (in lead) in a house on WB side of house SC so I tried to turn off shared WB SC stop c*ck in neighbors porch which broke handle. Phoned Affinity water (used to be Three Valleys Water) and said it was emergency and they were excellent, came and had a look within 2 hours then Balfours came back at dawn, blitzed out the old valve (through concrete) and fitted a new new nylon one, all free. I could not thanks them enough superb. Maybe being shared affects it but might help if you report it as an emergency ;)

As an aside I also turned off WB SC in front of other neighbors house (to identify which one served customers house) which amusingly resulted in large lady appearing at front door in towel wanting to know what the F*** I was playing at turning off water whilst madame was mid-shower, at about 4PM FFS! Wimin, no sense of adventure...

Reply to
Mitch

The demarcation point is the external stopcock. This should be at the property boundary but frequently isn't. Ours is a good number of yards down the road I wonder if they'd come a shift it to the property boundary if I complained? Probably would but also insist on a meter being fitted as well... It's black alkathene pipe under a verge and a good couple of feet down, I'd be very surprised if it ever fails.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

There wasnt one, or it had been lost under the tarmac. Severn Trent had to do the repair 'live'.

Reply to
A.Lee

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