How much would you worry about lead water supply pipe to a house

[Zapzep]

I am thinking about putting an offer in on a house, unfortunately the mains stop tap is completely hidden. I have had a couple of viewings and can’t locate the stop tap, it appears that it has been completely boxed in and made inaccessible by an island in the the kitchen. I have made inquiries with a surveyor and they said that they can’t help as the rising main is inaccessible, I have also made inquires with one or two other companies in the hope that someone can either locate the external l stop tap and establish that the supply pipe isn’t lead or test the water, but neither could provide any help.

The vendor is asking for more than the asking price and I can’t really afford to buy the house then find that item it’s going to cost thousands to replace the water main. So if I buy the house and it does in fact have lead pipes I will be stuck with them.

Short of potentially spending months looking for another property does anyone have any suggestions as to a way forward, I already have heath problems that I don’t need to exposed to lead water. Does anyone know of a company that can potential trace and locate the supply pipe to see if it is lead or test water in someway?

How old is the house? Also, could you do a home test kit or arrange to send a sample of pf for testing before you procedure?
^Lead pipes – is my property affected?In the UK the government banned the use of lead in a whole range of products as far back as 1970, and since then lead has not been used for water pipes or water tanks in homes or in commercial properties for drinking water distribution.
Mains pipes were generally never made from lead as they were ceramic or iron, but lead was very popular for domestic use as it is relatively soft and was easily moulded into shape.^
If your home or commercial property was built after 1970, there should be no lead plumbing or lead pipes to worry about. If your property pre-dates 1970, and has had the kitchen or plumbing system renovated since then, the chances are that pipes will have been ripped out and replaced with copper or plastic but it’s always worth checking. However, older, un-renovated properties might still have sections of lead piping, including the pipe which runs from the water mains in the street into your home stop cock.
https://watertreatmentservices.co.uk/testing-water-lead/#:~:text=Lead%20testing%20kits%20are%20available,analysis%20in%20the%20laboratory%20instead.

The property is very old definitely before 1970

When we bought an older house we phoned the water company and someone came out and tested the water. He said that in hard water areas such as ours even if there is lead piping the limescale covers it all up anyway (or something to that effect).

I bought an older house a few years ago and had the water tested. Had high levels of lead. I had the lead pipes changed to modern pipes as I was pregnant and freaking out

This isn’t a hard water area, did they come and test after you had brought or before

Evening, @Zapzep. As requested, we've moved this over to our Property and DIY topic now and we hope that helps.

It was after, I didn't think of it before we bought. They just came round, took some water from the kitchen tap to test and I got the results by post.

The problematic pipes will be between the water main on the road and your internal pipes.

I live in a 1930s house and assume we have lead pipes. We run the taps for 2 minutes every morning and when we come home from work in order to flush through the water that has been sitting in the pipes under the driveway.

It was 1966 that lead became illegal to use for plumbing (but regulations weren't applied retrospectively).
If you do find some pipe work, give it a scratch. Lead is usually dull, but shiny when scratched (it's softer than most metals).

We have lead and I was also panicking. We had ours tested. Legal consumption is around 9 something from vague memory and ours was 3 or reduced to 1 if tap blasted on full first. So we just run taps first and use a brita filter. I'm not worried anymore at all

I had the lead pipe replaced with plastic on two houses. It wasn’t expensive just got a builder to do it.

I'd be more concerned at not being able to turn the water off if there was a leak.

Id only be worried if i started growing an extra finger after drinking the water ☝🏼

We had this.
As others have said, you can have a test performed for free by the water company to check for lead levels. But even if they're low, the water company has to replace any pipework that is lead and is owned by them (e.g. from the mains water to your house). This should also be free although did require a long argument over several phone calls. But it's all resolved now and isn't a concern. It wouldn't put me off buying a property

We had lead pipes from the water meter to the house. The house (1930s) had been extended and renovated and the internal pipes changed in that process but they didn't bother to do the pipe under the driveway. We had no idea.
In the process of getting it replaced the company turned the water off at the water meter. Put in new pipes and gave us a new stop cock in the garage where the new pipe met the slightly less new internal pipes.
If the internal pipes are lead that's a whole other issue and much more disruptive.
It was covered by our home insurance. And we didn't check before we moved in.
I would as the vendors to get the water tested before progressing..

This. Our Victorian house has a lead pipe where it enters the house through the coal cellar. We run the taps through first thing (something my mother and grandmother always did anyway, presumably because that was just what you did if you lived in older houses).

I have been meaning to get Thames Water in to test it, but haven't managed to get round to it and I'm not especially worried about it.

And since we had it done I think the rules have changed and now your water company is responsible for water pipes up toupur actual house (rather than your property boundary)

One other thing to consider is that if the stop tap is boxed in you may not be able to have a water meter installed.

We have a 1950s house and the main pipe entering the house, before the stopcock, is lead.
My friend in a 1930s house has the same situation. She spoke to someone about getting it replaced but was told it wasn’t worth worrying about.
We are in a hard water area though.

I run the tap. (And use the water in the flower planters or lawn)

Medium hard water area and there will be a limescale build up after all these years. But in an area where almost every house is Victorian of older the population shows no greater health issues than anywhere else and is not full of gibbering lead poisoned citizens.

Get the water tested to put your mind at rest.

I don’t care about having a water meter installed. Not having access to the stop tap incase of a leak is another issue.

Our stopcock was boxed in by the previous owners but we were able to turn it off at the street as we are not on a shared supply - that might be worth checking. However when we had the kitchen done we had a new, accessible stopcock put in. Some years after we moved in we were compulsorily water-metered and they found a leak and replaced the pipe from the street under our drive and kitchen for free, it was surprisingly quick and easy as they used a tunnelling mole thing. Not sure how much it would have cost if we had been paying (although we have paid indirectly as our water bills doubled after getting the meter).

When my stopcock broke the plumber pointed out that I could have just turned it off at the water meter outside. So if you’re on a meter there’s always that option, assuming you can access the meter.

Our surveyor noted lead water pipe coming into the house. We budgeted for replacing it because we have a longish drive, and at that time I reckoned it would cost about 1k then (just before covid).
It may not go as far as you think, though. We ran the water every morning to clear the system, and when we finally got round to moving the main for the kitchen work, it turned out that it had already been replaced with plastic all the way up the drive, the only lead bit was about the last two feet of pipe into the house- so we got rid of that during moving the main to under the new sink. Our plumber was glum about drilling a new inlet ( we have very hard brick) so I asked if he though we could just leave it, but he said, No, apparently very old lead pipes like ours (100yrs) can get thin and suddenly develop pinholes. So he had to drill the new inlet anyway. We dug the trench for him. So it cost no more than moving the inlet, which we'd have been doing in any case.

We replaced lead with plastic. It wasn't a problem.