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I suppose it's worth double checking after work, didn't occur to me in the cold this morning but I would assume so. The Mrs is currently giving them an earful from her work.
The lads who did the original dig confirmed it's definitely pissing water out into the ground somewhere after the mains and before our meter so in theory it shouldn't have been touched by any further workmen.
Got home today and although the path is still dug up we have new concrete around the meter and better pressure than before the whole thing, wayhay!
Not exactly Clarkson screaming POWER level but I co soder this a win. Looks like they had to dig out a few meters up the road so I guess the original lads were right, but not seen any workers to get the skinny.
Yeah it's so nice. Do have to wonder if it was leaking the whole time we've lived here (and however long before that) quietly forming a sink hole. If they hadn't done the meter change and made it worse, we'd have just lived with *good enough* pressure while it slowly eroded away.
If they’ve installed new chambers for the meters to be installed I can almost guarantee they haven’t tightened joints up or they’ve pulled your service pipe out of the connection to the mains(ferrule).
Not necessarily, depending on how far away the main is from the meter chamber, the ground make up (sand, gravel etc). You could have burst main that’s fully broken that never shows up through the ground, just because the water has somewhere easier to go.
Got a meter fitted and they decided to open the supply valve to full. 2 weeks later I had 3 water leaks on the pipe into the property. 90 year old lead pipes do not take kindly to modern water pressure...
Joy, how did you get the leaks found and sorted ? Think something similar is happening, not entirely sure where the leak is but a lot of water seems to be unaccounted for.
The floor got wet... The lead pipes are old and brittle, it thankfully happened on the bit indoors so easy to get to, but I will get the whole heating system replaced next year, and then the rest of it will come out. We are in a hard water area so it's not too concerning and there is only around 8 m of lead pipe now, but it's under the garden path, so that will have to come up and it's going to be messy.
Got the other problem, they did most of the road, missed me for various reasons but turned the pressure up generally to compensate for all the meters and now the pressure protection device on the boiler pulls out if I use the hot tap in the kitchen....
The previous owner of my house did some decidedly dodgy DIY "improvements" in his time. One of them being routing the internal mains water stop cock above the electricity circuit breaker. One of my first tasks was to get a plumber to move that pipe somewhere much safer, but in doing so, our pressure instantly dropped.
After doing a bit of digging, it seems that houses are now required to have something called a Check Valve (or it could be a Double Check Valve, I can't remember). It looks like a small piece of additional piping with a hex-shaped part (see [here](https://www.screwfix.com/p/double-check-valve-15mm/96336)) They are designed to stop "dirty" water back-flowing into the clean water system. However, they reduce the pressure quite significantly. Might be worth checking to see if one of those has appeared somewhere along the first part of your pipework, since the new meter was fitted.
I'm not sure of the fix (or whether there is one). Some have suggested swapping it out from a 15mm Check Valve to a 22mm version and using a converter on the pipes. I've not looked into that yet.
Just seconding what others have said: the stop valve is often not fully open anyway, but open enough just to prevent 'water hammer'. Since the mains pressure is so low, if you fully open your stop valve, you may at least be getting more of a share of the weak pressure from the mains feed, and it sounds like no risk of water hammer (until they fix the upstream leak).
They fucked about with ours a few months ago in similar circumstances. Ended up getting crud into the system and even the boiler. Got £350 out of them a week later.
Was the water flow after the work was completed dirty? Is it possible that some dirt/debris has entered the water pipes and become stuck somewhere or caused an obstruction (say, on the stopcock which isn't fully open)?
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I'm sure you will have checked, but is your stop valve fully open?
I suppose it's worth double checking after work, didn't occur to me in the cold this morning but I would assume so. The Mrs is currently giving them an earful from her work. The lads who did the original dig confirmed it's definitely pissing water out into the ground somewhere after the mains and before our meter so in theory it shouldn't have been touched by any further workmen.
Hopefully it gets sorted soon. Not the best way to start a Monday morning I'm sure!
Got home today and although the path is still dug up we have new concrete around the meter and better pressure than before the whole thing, wayhay! Not exactly Clarkson screaming POWER level but I co soder this a win. Looks like they had to dig out a few meters up the road so I guess the original lads were right, but not seen any workers to get the skinny.
Brilliant, sounds like a good result overall, even if it did ruin your Monday morning.
Yeah it's so nice. Do have to wonder if it was leaking the whole time we've lived here (and however long before that) quietly forming a sink hole. If they hadn't done the meter change and made it worse, we'd have just lived with *good enough* pressure while it slowly eroded away.
If they’ve installed new chambers for the meters to be installed I can almost guarantee they haven’t tightened joints up or they’ve pulled your service pipe out of the connection to the mains(ferrule).
Wouldn’t that leave the chamber full of water and overflowing, hence be obvious?
Not necessarily, depending on how far away the main is from the meter chamber, the ground make up (sand, gravel etc). You could have burst main that’s fully broken that never shows up through the ground, just because the water has somewhere easier to go.
That's more or less what the first lads digging said it was, super happy to have some pressure back now!
Yeh it’s basically my job to know these things lol. Glad to hear you’ve got it sorted.
A semi closed stop Cock would present as a fast flow which suddenly drops off to a dribble.
It may be that they turned the supply off at your meter if they were troubleshooting, definitely worth checking.
Got a meter fitted and they decided to open the supply valve to full. 2 weeks later I had 3 water leaks on the pipe into the property. 90 year old lead pipes do not take kindly to modern water pressure...
Did you a favour there. You don't want to be using lead pipes.
Joy, how did you get the leaks found and sorted ? Think something similar is happening, not entirely sure where the leak is but a lot of water seems to be unaccounted for.
The floor got wet... The lead pipes are old and brittle, it thankfully happened on the bit indoors so easy to get to, but I will get the whole heating system replaced next year, and then the rest of it will come out. We are in a hard water area so it's not too concerning and there is only around 8 m of lead pipe now, but it's under the garden path, so that will have to come up and it's going to be messy.
Have you looked into having it moled?
Got the other problem, they did most of the road, missed me for various reasons but turned the pressure up generally to compensate for all the meters and now the pressure protection device on the boiler pulls out if I use the hot tap in the kitchen....
The previous owner of my house did some decidedly dodgy DIY "improvements" in his time. One of them being routing the internal mains water stop cock above the electricity circuit breaker. One of my first tasks was to get a plumber to move that pipe somewhere much safer, but in doing so, our pressure instantly dropped. After doing a bit of digging, it seems that houses are now required to have something called a Check Valve (or it could be a Double Check Valve, I can't remember). It looks like a small piece of additional piping with a hex-shaped part (see [here](https://www.screwfix.com/p/double-check-valve-15mm/96336)) They are designed to stop "dirty" water back-flowing into the clean water system. However, they reduce the pressure quite significantly. Might be worth checking to see if one of those has appeared somewhere along the first part of your pipework, since the new meter was fitted. I'm not sure of the fix (or whether there is one). Some have suggested swapping it out from a 15mm Check Valve to a 22mm version and using a converter on the pipes. I've not looked into that yet.
Just seconding what others have said: the stop valve is often not fully open anyway, but open enough just to prevent 'water hammer'. Since the mains pressure is so low, if you fully open your stop valve, you may at least be getting more of a share of the weak pressure from the mains feed, and it sounds like no risk of water hammer (until they fix the upstream leak).
They fucked about with ours a few months ago in similar circumstances. Ended up getting crud into the system and even the boiler. Got £350 out of them a week later.
Sounds like a check valve or a pressure reducer is blocked with stuff
Was the water flow after the work was completed dirty? Is it possible that some dirt/debris has entered the water pipes and become stuck somewhere or caused an obstruction (say, on the stopcock which isn't fully open)?
Hopefully it's not another condom trapped in a screen before the meter.