Lead Water Pipe

[tumbledown]

I have discovered that some of the pipe work that carries my water supply is made of lead. Actually, I discovered it when I was breaking up the concrete floor - by putting the breaker through it!

I have been told that I should replace any old lead pipe, but is there really a need or requirement to do this if it is not causing a problem? Are there any health issues with drinking water carried by lead pipes? I assume that when my lead pipe disappears under my wall into the street it continues until it reaches the stop-cock where my water meter resides.

 

[Lime]

If you only replace part of your lead piping the lead poisoning risk remains.
My house has a lead service pipe and every morning I run the tap to flush the lead pipe of the water that has remained in contact with the lead over night.
In days gone by it was thought that lead pipe in hard water areas was perfectly safe. Soft water absorbs lead readily but hard water not so. It is only the result of very sensitive modern test equipment, which is almost universal today, that very low levels of lead have been detected.

It is a bit like mercury was treated just a few decades ago. Then no one was particularly bothered by it if it was found on the floor after a thermometer had been dropped and broken.
Now some people seem to expect the house to be demolished and street evacuated if mercury is found.
many of us are walking around with mercury amalgam fillings in our teeth. A closer contact with mercury would be difficult to find but we are not all dropping dead from mercury poisoning.

I think you need to keep a sense of proportion about this. If you have children in the house I would try to replace the pipe completely if you can.
They are particularly vulnerable.

Then you can start to worry more about the plasticisers leaching out of the plastic pipe!

 

[Lynn]

If you are concerned have a test done and it will show if you have high enough levels to pose a health hazard. Ordinarily in old houses the calcification on the inner lining of the pipes isolates the water away from any lead. If you broke a pipe and are mucking with it this might introduce a new variable. You won't know until you have the water tested.

When you test you can do worst case of sitting overnight then sample and a best case of flushing the line for a minute or so. Flushing on an ongoing basis is a big waste of water, but effective if there is a problem.

 

[biffvernon]

Using a jug water filter is said to remove about 90% of the lead.

 

[Schoolmarm]

When we replaced all our lead pipe from the house to the road our water pressure increased massively.

Well worth the effort as it transformed all sorts of things.
Washer was faster, shower was super, combi boiler fitted.

That was our last house, we are now on an underground spring/well thingy.

 

[Johneds]

Here's a link to a leaflet issued by the Drinking Water Inspectorate.

http://www.dwi.gov.uk/consumer/faq/lead.htm

Bottom line is that you won't know unless you have it tested. Your water authority will usually test for you free of charge.

 

[Peter]

We had our water tested FOC after the wife was concerned at the lead pipes. The levels were very, very low and the test was re-assuring. The water company were obliged to do so many tests per year and we volunteered to be one of them.

 

[mark_j_k]

A friend had a leak on their lead water pipe where it enters through the wall. They didn't want a new pipe installing as that would have ment digging up their newly installed patio. So the water board came and replaced the leaking part with plastic push-fit connectors. Only small slabs had to be removed. Problem sorted

 

[thiambal]

Been away for a week ad just read this post.

I am in the process of replacing sections of lead pipe. I did quite a bit of research into this when I started and apparently when used in conjunction with copper piping - which I guess is quite common - the leeching of lead into the water is increased - so you do need to replace all, not just some piping.

On the question of panicing or not - our local waterboard puts some inhibitor in the water to reducing the leeching of lead into the water

Mind you the inhibitor probably causes cancer!

 

[tumbledown]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I looked on the Anglian Water website and there was a number to ring to arrange a FOC water test. There is not an awful lot of lead pipe - maybe 15 feet or so, but it does then connect to copper pipe. I've dug down a little where the pipe comes up from the brick floor. It goes straight down for about 15 inches, then turns under the floor. I can only assume it runs right across the room and then dissappears under the wall out into the street (thats where my water metre is sited - in the pavement about one foot from my wall). I tried to see if the pipe connected to the metre was lead, but couldn't.

One further question - if I wish to replace the lead pipe, am I responsible for replacing it right back to the metre, or just to the point where it disappears under the wall? As I said, the length of pipe from my wall to the metre is not much more than one foot, but I can't see me being allowed to dig up the pavement and tamper with the connection to the metre.

 

[Penners]

Tumbledown - if your Suffolk water is like ours, then it's probably a bit hard, meaning the inner surface of your pipes probably have a protective layer of calcium, and the water will tend to be alkaline - all good news.

However, there's no avoiding the basic fact that lead is poisonous. What's more the body is unable to excrete it, so it is cumulative. I don't want to sound alarmist, but I can only say that, if it were my house, I would replace the pipe.

If you do decide to do this, I think the rule is that you are responsible for any pipework back to the boundary of your property. Outside the boundary, it's Anglian Water's responsibility.

 

[Lime]

I live in the Anglia Water region and my neighbour had his pipe changed 3 weeks ago.
The plastic (blue) pipe was laid and the end towards the street left sticking out of a hole on the boundary for Anglia Water to connect up. The workmen had to replace a section of pipe between their meter and the large main distribution pipe too.

As far as human excretion is concern vitamin C helps.

See link:-
http://tinyurl.com/ejx4j

 

[Penners]

Hmmm - the paper dated 1939.

Personally I still think I'd prefer to avoid lead as much as possible (except in my pencil).

 

[Lime]

Hmmm - the paper dated 1939.

Personally I still think I'd prefer to avoid lead as much as possible (except in my pencil).

Yes I quite agree.

 

[thiambal]

You are responsible for the bit up to the boundary of your property. You can get someone else to lay your pipe - but their work has to be inspected by the water board and the water board have to do the connection work.

In the end we found it cheapest to get the water board to do all the work. They had the moling equipment so they did not need to dig up our path - we paid for the bit on our property and they did their bit for free (which included connecting up to the water main which is on the other side of the road).

The whole think cost us £300. We then found a load of lead pipe under the floor in the house - yet another job eh!

 

[tumbledown]

Just wanted to say thanks for the advice received and to post an update.

I contacted Anglia Water who came around and took some samples (FOC). These did indeed contain more than the acceptable level of lead. So they have arranged for someone to come around and replace the lead pipe from the water meter on the pavement to main supply, and will connect up the new pipe from my house to the meter (once I get around to replacing it).

 

[Mark]

Personally I still think I'd prefer to avoid lead as much as possible (except in my pencil).

Are we talking carbon here or has your water board done a deal with Pfizer and the erectile dysfunction people ?

 

[thiambal]

and will connect up the new pipe from my house to the meter (once I get around to replacing it).

Depending on cost and time it may be worth asking them to do the whole job - at least up to your actual house. There are various regulations about depth of the pipe etc and I understand that you have to get someone to inspect the trench and pipe before it can be commissioned and you will have to pay the water board to connect it. It also means diggind a damned big trench.

Our water company laid a new pipe directly from the main into the house (under floorboards) using a moling machine. There was no digging on our property, it was done in a couple of hours all connected up, and only cost £300.

 

[Paul Hopper]

We had the same problem, lead pipes connected to copper, when we opened it all up to put the kitchen back to sort of 1800's period Deep sink, teak drainer, purpose made cupboards to match and an Aga cos Mrs H wanted it!.
The floor was solid but we lifted the pamments and dug out the lead pipe as best we could .I doubt we got it all as it ran through several rooms (we are converted from 5 cottages dating from 1470 to 1820) and I was unwilling to destroy a mastic asphalt floor covering in the back half of the house as it is so effective against damp. Water Board jumped when I asked for a meter and willingly took over the actual removal of the lead for a very reasonable price, They removed what we had exposed and put in the the new pretty blue plastic stuff an plumbed it up to a new rising main stopcock. It cost me £230.00 and I am well pleased. As for the rest .. out of sight, out of mind. !

paul

 

[tumbledown]

thiambal, I'm not sure there would be much of a job for them to do. The pipe in out house runs under a concrete floor, which we are digging up anyway (thats how I discovered the lead pipe - I put the breaker through it!) and disappears under the wall out into the street. The meter is only about 6 inches to a foot the other side of our wall. The chap who called to take the water samples said that if we (or our plumber) poked the end of the new pipe through the existing hole where the lead one is, they would connect it up.

When Anglia Water phoned me, they said they would wait until I was ready to change my pipework and do their bit at the same time. Actually, I got the impression that if I didn't do my bit, they were not going to bother with theirs either.

However, the other day my wife said a guy from Anglia Water called around. There is now a big blue line running from our meter across the pavement and road, so it sound like they are going to do their bit anyway.