Leak in cellar-leave a bucket underneath it or get it fixed?

[schroeder]

The local water company is going to replace the pipe in the next month or so as it is lead.

But I have a leak and it's been getting worse, currently we have a bucket, but the leak is in a weird place, so that if it gets worse I cannot turn the water off without turning it off in the street (and my nieghbours too).

We are skint.

wwyd?

I am a great believer in not doing anything till it turns into a crisis. However, this often isn't the sensible option.

Well yes that's the usual plan.

How long do ya reckon it will take for a bit of a trickle to turn to a full on flood?

I would be really inclined to find where the leak is coming from and fix it. Depends on how skint you are of course. However, something like that is almost guaranteed to turn into a disaster on Christmas Day.

I left a slow running kitchen sink, bath/shower for a few weeks up to Christmas a year or two after moving into my old house, followed my usual not too sensible way of dealing with plumbing details, and ended up calling out a plumber on Christmas Eve when everything stopped dead and nothing would flow at all. The plumber and his wife (his men were off) ended up rebuilding the outside drain for me. The brickwork at the bottom near the outlet pipe had collapsed, probably over the course of a few years and hence the backup. I felt terrible to have dragged them out, but they were the only ones who even answered my call that day. I brought them out some hot cocoa. It was a really cold, raw day and I'm sure they were famished. I was very lucky they had come, and they only charged me ordinary day rates too.

This is what's concerning me; all those bank holiday weekends and the fact it would effect next door aswell.

Yeah I think I' will at least have to get it patched.