How to start going about getting a new water supply and busy road!

[BudsBeginingSpringinSight]

Any ideas Shere to start please, are there specialist plumbers who do this sort of thing!

Project manage and liase with water company etc?

What do you mean? Presumably if you have no water you will have to contact the water company in your area.

I have a property that needs a separate water supply.

The water company. They have a list of approved contractors

@Autumn1990.
And they will manage the whole thing?

Does the current property have a non-mains supply and you want to connect to the mains, or is it a new build which now needs connecting, which if it does seems a bit strange it hasn't already been done.

What difference does it make, I'm totally new to this and trying to find out how the process works
One building has one supply and needs another.

Could you get the busy road by inviting your mates to drive up and down the road continuously on a shift basis ?

I think the op means it’s on a busy road.

Speak to your water company first to establish where they will be siting the external stop tap.
You or your contractor need to lay the pipe from inside the house to the boundary, but you need to leave enough pipe for them to connect.
It needs to be the blue pipe available from plumbers merchants and laid 2ft 6 deep, laid on a base of sand or soft material to prevent the pipe getting pierced by stones etc.
The water company will do an inspection after which you can backfill the trench. They will then arrange connection. Sometimes it's quite quick but if it's in the highway they will have to get the go ahead from the council and possibly arrange traffic lights.
We did ours ourselves with the help of a plumber friend to do the internal connection. I suggest looking at hiring a mini digger to dig up your drive or garden.

OP, look on your water company's website to see whether they have information there.

For example, this is the relevant page for Welsh Water.
https://developers.dwrcymru.com/en/applications/water-connections/new-water-connections-standard-size

@GasPanic 🤣

@MrsMoastyToasty thank you, how much did it cost and how long did it last?

Get a water company approved contractor to do the lot
the only thing they might not be able to do is the final connection
I wouldn’t be tempted to hire mini diggers and start banging trenches in
if you don’t know what’s under the ground it can be wildly expensive if you hit anything

@Chersfrozenface

That's a fabulous link thank you.At the top end those are eye watering costs!
One off application fee 100 +, then one of off payment fee 500 + then actual charges from the 400 to 4000+ then a 500+ connection fee 😱

If you’re separating an existing supply
i.e. one pipe feeding two existing houses they may give a discount

The difference it makes is supplying information so I may be able to help. Not all properties have mains water supplies, not all properties can be connected to mains water, even if close by so there are other options.

Connecting to mains can need access and permission across other peoples land, mains connections may need splitting. I could go on - so it does make a difference.

Either way it will cost a fair chunk of money - be prepared for that and do not be as vague with contractors and water companies as you are being on here!

As an answer has given you above, the water companies will usually publish the costs. Thames water who we are with have a document with prices so you can cost it up. You mention that one building has a supply and the other needs one, so do they need to be on separate meters? If not, you can tee off the existing supply and hook up the other building.

If you need two meters and two bills then yes you’ll need the water board to connect you. As others have said, you can lay your own pipe, and it is a reasonably straight forward process, albeit a physical one. Another option is to get the new pipe moled in which will be a lot less upheaval. There are plumbers who are watersafe accredited and who can do the whole job alongside sign off for regs / project manage the water board hook up, but they’ll charge more for the privilege imagine. The cost of the materials to do this job shouldn’t be more than £100 as long as you’re not running a pipe half a mile up a hill, but the labour is what will make it stack up, hence me suggesting that if you don’t mind getting your shovel out to dig a trench there is a huge amount of money to be saved. When I replaced my lead pipe last year I was quoted 5 grand upwards, and I did it for about £80 with Thames water connecting my supply and signing off my work for free.

@BudsBeginingSpringinSight I can't remember how much our side of things cost as it was 25 years ago. I think that Bristol Water did their side for free (but that might have been because it involved removing their lead pipes or because I was working in the water industry at the time).

@NonmagicMike thank you.. Yes ideally two separate bills, so I'm assuming that will mean a totally separate supply.
Extraordinary amount you saved! I wouldn't feel comfortable digging anything up unfortunately.

It makes a difference as to the freehold, and also if its flats or 2 houses, whilst for houses if you built a house side by side you would generally put in a supply from the street, for flats you may keep the existing single supply to the building but have two internal meters. Talk to your water company about the options open to you

A long time ago I tried to contact the company about something else, and it was an arduous, tortuous experience where I was bounced from a very basically knowledge call center operative to another.

Ideally or definitely? If there’s a way you can achieve what you want without needing a new mains supply then you’ll cut the cost by a fair amount - even if getting someone in to do the work. You’d also need to consider that I don’t think you can have two meters at a single address, so is what you are trying to do two distinct properties?