Lead pipe, panicking a bit, please talk me down

[nomorespaghetti]

Hello, I know there's another thread running about lead pipes - it's not me!

Just found a lead pipe in our property (1910 build), it's the pipe that has the stopcock on it. Similarly to the other thread, the surveyor missed it (although I've no idea how, quite frankly, since he noted where the stopcock was, and if you can see the stopcock you can see the pipe).

We've been here 2.5 years. I have a two year old and I'm currently 20 weeks pregnant. It's a soft water area. So I'm freaking out a bit. We run the tap (shower) first thing in the morning, so at least the water has not been sitting in the pipes all night before we drink it.

We've got United Utilities coming round on Tuesday to do a water quality check, I've got the details for their lead pipe replacement service that can replace the public pipes, and I'm calling round plumbers for quotes to do the internal work.

But how worried should I be? I'm quite upset thinking about my daughter and obviously being pregnant.

Thank you!

You've taken steps now to try to resolve this. You can't change what has gone before and you'll have to come to terms with this, which I appreciate is probably not going to be easy. Look into filtering your drinking water - we're in a very soft water area and the mains pipe into our house is lead. We have a fridge freezer with water dispenser and built in filter and I always run the tap before filling the kettle or putting water in a pan for cooking.

Have a chat with your GP and see what they say about lead levels and any tests that can be carried out if that will give you peace of mind.

Thanks @wowfudge. Got a Brita filter on the way, and looking into possibly getting a filter fitted onto the sink, if we can't replace the pipe work. May i ask why you didn't decide to replace the pipe? We may well not do this, as we can't find an external stopcock for our house, and it looks like replacing the pipes would involve a fair amount of smashing up the house/exploration!

I'm calmer than this morning, and hoping that the quality check of the water will be processed quickly and help us make a decision.

If anyone reading this knows, will this affect resale of a property? We're in Manchester and from a bit of googling it looks not too uncommon.

I haven’t changed the lead pipes in our house. We had a lead check done 18 years ago when we bought the house and the levels were fine. The guy from the water company seemed very unbothered by lead pipes and said it wouldn’t put him off buying a house.

We have replaced a fair amount of the pipework inside the house, but it's an Edwardian house and replacing the supply pipe is likely to be a palaver. We mitigate the risks of lead in the water instead. They are relatively small risks.

We're near New Mills OP. Lead pipes are common, especially with older houses.

A lot of water companies treat the water with phosphate in high lead risk areas, and this makes an insoluble coating on the inside of any lead pipes and stops the lead leaching out into the water. Are you in an area with lots of older properties? If so you may be in a treated area. The main risk is stagnation, which is when the lead leaches out when water is sitting in the pipework for a time, for example overnight. If you were to have a shower in the morning before using the water for drinking, then any water you would then drink would be unlikely to be high in lead. it is best to get into the habit of running the cold tap for a couple of minutes in the morning before using the water for drinking. Water companies are very used to dealing with these kind of concerns and should get test results to you pretty quickly (can you tell this is part of my job? Not at UU though)

I have lead pipes in my Victorian house. It came up on the survey as needing urgent replacement when I bought it. The water company advised that we are still on a lead main (big pipe under the street which serves the property). So that would also need replacing, whole road digging up and so on. They would replace it, if I replaced my indoor plumbing. It then became apparent that I'd also need to replace a piece of piping which leads from the main and up to the property itself, which would need a trench digging at my expense. I had so many tradespeople out to quote for it - none of them interested in doing it as it was a fairly small job! So infuriating but no one was interested.

Now I can't afford to get everywhere replumbed yet, so it's been on hold for 10 years. I just use a water filter jug and make sure I run the taps for a couple of minutes first when it hasn't been run for a few hours (overnight/when we've been out all day). I've had two children while here and we're all absolutely fine - my kids are in very rude health generally and doing well academically, so I;m not overly worried about it for now tbh. Loads of old houses still have lead pipes - it's not great, no - but if it was that dangerous everyone would be dropping like flies and it would be a national scandal. Get the levels checked and see what they say.

Ah, thanks TheBitterBoy - that explains why I was told to run the taps when not in use for a few hours. I suspect we are in a treated area as most properties here are pre 1900 and that tallies with what the water guy told me but I didn't fully take in at the time!

Roomba, have you been back to your water company recently? Up until 2013 The legal limit for lead in drinking water was 25 micrograms per litre, now it is 10. The water company is legally responsible to ensure that water supplies to your property is below 10, so if they test your water and it is consistently above 10 after flushing they are obliged to take action. I'm surprised the actual main is lead, that would be very unusual unless you live somewhere like Bath. The water company is responsible for the pipe from the main to the boundary of your property, and then you are responsible for the rest, but most companies operated a lead pipe replacement scheme where they will replace their side and help you with the costs of replacing yours. However if they are dosing to keep the levels below 10 then they are meeting their obligations and the pipework is low risk.

You are all incredibly helpful, thank you so much.

not all brita filters remove lead, says their website. dont waste.cash

Do you have a link @specialsubject? I couldn't find much on their website. The ones that I ordered on Amazon did say they remove lead. I think these are some new ones they recently brought out. But i must admit i am a bit sceptical.

cant link on tablet but go to the brita site, there is a table showing what each does and doesnt remove.

The external stop tap is the water company's responsibility. With an older house it is quite likely that you share a stop tap with 1 or more properties. Given that the supply is made of lead and you can't find it, then it's a possibility. Usually most noticeable if you suffer from fluctuations in water pressure (due to neighbours using the water).
The advice that we used to give when I worked in the water industry was that if you have lead pipes then run a litre of water for each metre that is the distance from your kitchen tap to the road eg 15 litres for 15 metres.
Most water companies have either replaced the public lead pipes or lined them with a coating to prevent the transfer of lead into the supply so only the private supply is left to replace.

Thanks Moasty. We think we might share one with the other semi we are attached to, there's one outside their property. Some of the other semis on the street do seem to have their own, though. We never really notice a drop in water pressure unless we are using two things in the house (e.g. washing machine and shower). I guess the only way to check would be to turn it off and see if the water to ours stops? I will aldi chat to the neighbours (although i don't think they'll know tbh).

Does anyone know anything about the osmotic filters you can fit to your kitchen sink?

We had our supply pipe replaced from street to back of property and drain replaced. It was very easy using a moling service and about £1200 for 15m.. it involves a hole being dug from street every 10m, so having an old crazy paving driveway the stones just got lifted and out back so we didn't notice. Took a few hours work. We were getting internal plumbing replaced anyway as part of new boiler kitchen replacement. Good luck, I can understand your stress.

Lol. Surely there are lots of lead pipes along the supply route? Well, this is what I was told by my plumber.

My mains come in on an iron pipe! Talk about daft. Of course it gets rusted up etc.

I wouldn't be panicking.

Don't worry about it.

The water company puts some kind of chemical in then water as part of the treatment process that inhibits the lead from leaching into the supply, I believe.

Aside from that, once the pipe had been in situ for a few years calcium forms a lovely layer inside the pipe and also prevents leaching into the supply.

I replaced the lead pipes in my house when I moved in, but the pipe from water meter to the house is still lead, and there's been no I'll effects.

Nothing to even think about, lead pipes have been used for a very long time, you can buy a self test kit but lead breaks down quicker on the outside than on the inside so it would have to be leaking everywhere to pose a risk, no water company puts anything in the water to preserve lead pipes. Just drink it, it's fine, you grew up on it!

I dunno. Not to alarm you but the girl who lived in my house beforehand moved here at 18 months old. In her mid 40s now, and having grown up on lead water, she has a neurological condition and has to live with her parents forever. Not sure it's related but better to be safe.

Russgas everything you have said is wrong. I work in the water industry and know for a fact that my and most other water companies dose the water in high risk areas with a low level of phosphoric acid, which reacts with the lead pipes to form a layer of lead phosphate inside the pipes. This is insoluble in water, whereas metallic lead is soluble in water and can leave into the drinking water, particularly in soft water areas. The OP and others are right to be concerned, particularly if they have small children, but their first port of call should be their water company, who are obliged to test the water free of charge and advise them once the results are back. I have nearly twenty years experience in the industry and your kind of I'll informed nonsense can cause real harm. By the way the use of lead for new water pipes was banned in the 1970s but a lot of them are still out there from before then.

@TheBitterBoy - just out of interest are there any stats available on the number of tests carried out which come back with a finding over the safe limit?

We were only insured for pipes to our property, so even though we replaced the lead pipe here, it still travelled through lead piping it's what was used in those days.
United Utilities weren't going to replace the whole pipework to all the streets round here, so we bought a filter and fitted under the sink, took about 30 mins including getting it out of the daft packaging
It won't kill you.

You do need to supplement with the lost minerals though, I take a tablet every day.

Hello, another one with water industry background - I work in a lab testing samples for a number of major water companies. It's unusual for us to get samples breaching the lead limit- the water companies are taking hundreds per day. Those that do breach the limits are typically the unflushed samples submitted. When the tap has been flushed (2mins) they are normally well within the maximum limits set by the DWI. As far as I know most water companies dose the water with phosphate to inhibit the uptake of lead.

In short, talk to your water company ( which you already have) they should have results back to you in a couple of weeks, and run your tap for a couple of minutes if it's been stood for a while.