Lead piping/plumbing

[bullywee]

Considering purchasing a property but the survey has noted that it has lead pipework/plumbing which should be replaced.

Can someone advise just how big a job in terms of time, money and upheaval this would be?

We would be planning on replacing the kitchen and bathroom, and adding an en suite at the same time as the re plumbing.

https://www.thameswater.co.uk/help/water-and-waste-help/water-quality/lead

Is replacing the lead pipes necessary? If you're worried about lead in drinking water wouldn't you only have to replace the pipes from the main supply to the kitchen tap? Even then it might not be needed.

I got this done for free via the lead replacement scheme in my area, after they replaced the pipes in the road they offered it within the boundary too. It wasn’t much of an upheaval because it was all done outside. They had to dig right down the side of my property but it was filled straight in and took around one day.

We also had ours done through our water company’s lead replacement scheme. It cost just over £500 (I think £550) because that’s how much they reimbursed and it took half a day.

Where you are determines how important/urgent it is and if your water company will fund replacing your pipes. In hard water areas the limescale coats the pipe reducing the risk of lead in the water and in soft water areas it doesn’t so you’re more likely to need to replace.

Thanks all.

Within the property, would floor boards etc need to be taken up or is it all outside?

Depends where the survey said had lead pipes. Ours only had a lead pipe connection from the pavement to the property. The rest of the plumbing was "modern". The water company said they'd sort it for free (in theory) but I got so frustrated with navigating their system that I just paid £500 for someone to do it when I was pregnant. Of course if there are lead pipes within the property itself then floorboards would need to come up, but this wasn't the case for us.
The water company also did a free analysis of the water to determine the lead content. Might be worth investigating, as someone else said, it's only a concern in certain areas depending on hardness of water etc. I'd still get the pipes changed if the content was low, but it might help in determining whether it is a big priority or not

The main problem with lead pipes is that they tend to compress easily and reduce the flow. Lead poisoning was uncommon/rare despite everyones concern.

So, no need to be worried about lead pipes per se, but it’s something I’d want to replace sooner rather than later. Its likely it’ll be lead all the way to the stopcock and then copper / plastic off that.

In terms of the job, I replaced our mains water pipe into a new stopcock for about £70. However, this involved me digging a trench from pavement to property, lifting the floorboards in the front room and then running pipe through into the kitchen. In this sense, it was very disruptive but I’m damn glad I did do it as when I lifted the lead pipe to see where it was running it split and leaked. I reckon it was a ticking timebomb in terms of blowing and flooding the house. Anyway, all run in new mdpe 25mm pipe now and sorted for the next however many decades. I was quoted 5 grand by one company to do the work vs the £70 I spent. Not sure if they really wanted the work so could have been high but depending on what they have to lift to get access will depend on the price.

If you are handy it’s actually a very easy DIY job. Most of it is just manual labour digging a trench and lifting carpets and floorboards etc. Your water board will have the regs bit online and there are loads of YouTube videos talking you through the process. Other less disruptive option is to get someone in with a moling machine, and if you have a long run from the street then this might be preferable.

If the whole of your house is plumbed in lead then that’s going to be more of a faff of course. Again though, depending on how handy you are replacing pipes isn’t a hugely difficult job as you’re just running where existing ones are.

We costed for replacing lead here when we bought, as the surveyor found lead piping on the rising main. When it came to replacing it, we found it was only the last foot or two coming into the house that was lead, which was not too expensive to replace (rather than all the way up the drive).