Lead to mdpe pipe worth it?

Rageyboy91

Rageyboy91

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Hey guys,


Ive got a dilemma, the lead stop cock is leaking and I just want to replace it, but I thought I might aswell take the opportunity to replace the length of lead pipe. I can only replace the section from the front of the house as the drive is concrete printed and cant afford the work.

Is it worth replacing the length of lead under floorboards with 25mm mdpe? (I would like 32mm not sure if this is possible) The 25mm could be as long as 6m or 9m if I more the new stop cock into the kitchen. Would I notice a highier flow rate replacing that section of pipe? The water pressure here is horrendous lol.

Thanks for any help.
 

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To be clear upgrading your water service to a larger size won't improve pressure. It should improve volume though.
There is absolutely no need to bring a water service in at same place as existing if your thinking about total renewal.
Any chance of re routing avoiding your drive?
 
Rageyboy91 said:
The water pressure here is horrendous lol
Click to expand...

Pressure is not the same as flow, but flow is usually higher with a higher static pressure, unless their is a restriction. Check the pressure with no water being drawn, then separately check the flow from a wide open tap in litres per minute.
 
Hey guys,

Any chance of re routing avoiding:

Unfortunately not :(, in the future I might break out the drive on one side , put the pipe there and have decorative stones, so I'm thinking if I did the pipe to the front of house I can connect the new mdpe pipe in the future, or a new full length pipe tbh. It's just is it worth all the bother of doing the half work now if it would change anything.

I tried to get quotes for moling but no one got back to me, so right now I'm going to leave it.

Thanks for the replies. Sorry I did mean flow not pressure, I wondered if water worked the same as a gas run for example by increasing the length of wider pipe from the boiler you increase the flow unit of gas. I recently had this done as my boiler needed 18 units.

I was wondering if it was similar to water. Would I see improved performance with about 6m/9m of 25mm mdpe over lead?

For example right now I cant run a tap downstairs and operate the shower etc.

Cheers guys I hope I made sense.
 
Rageyboy91 said:
Hey guys,


Ive got a dilemma, the lead stop cock is leaking and I just want to replace it, but I thought I might aswell take the opportunity to replace the length of lead pipe. I can only replace the section from the front of the house as the drive is concrete printed and cant afford the work.

Is it worth replacing the length of lead under floorboards with 25mm mdpe? (I would like 32mm not sure if this is possible) The 25mm could be as long as 6m or 9m if I more the new stop cock into the kitchen. Would I notice a highier flow rate replacing that section of pipe? The water pressure here is horrendous lol.

Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...

You need to take some measurements with a pressure guage and a weir gauge (or a calibrated bucket with stopwatch). Measure your static pressure and then measure the dynamic pressure with an open tap, whilst also measuring the flow rate.

If you are getting a massive pressure drop, then upgrading the pipe size will reduce that pressure drop. This can result in a higher flow rate than if you had undersized pipework. However, you'd always be limited by whatever your incoming flow rate at the boundary is - you can speak to your water company about measuring this at the boundary, to try and establish if the upgrade would be worth it.
 
Rageyboy91 said:
Is it worth replacing the length of lead under floorboards with 25mm mdpe? (I would like 32mm not sure if this is possible)
Click to expand...

This seems your only option for now. Use 32mm, it won't do any harm and will cost pennies more than 25mm.
 
Cheers for those detailed responses, I've got my plumber comming to look at it so hopfully we can do some tests, I'm just imagining push back with a 32mm mdpe pipe, I'm sure hes going to say I dont need one and recommend a 25mm, but bigger is better right :p haha.
 
Hey guys thought I'd report back, had the work done today, had 25mm fitted to the end of the lounge about 6 meters, was a nightmare thames water had to come out and replace the outside stop cock, but flow is alot better noticable improvement can now have tap and shower on also the old connector was a push fit in the road the workers said these are prone to fail and replaced them all I think there was a slight leak before maybe. Anyway that's all. :)
 
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