I am hoping there might be someone on here who works in the water industry and/or plumbing who could help me find out if I am being fobbed off /gaslighted following an alteration made to our incoming water supply by a contractor hired by our local water company!
The water company informed us we had a leak many months ago as we have a water meter and it was registering a constant loss of about 30 litres an hour. After investigation from their people they confirmed that the leak wasnt coming from inside our house but outside to part of the pipework they were responsible for. Eventually, after a few months and some no-shows a contractor eventually arrived to fix the leak.
The contractor told me that the leak was coming from a joint to the water meter which hadnt been done well and that they replaced a short bit of pipe / a connector to the water metre and installed a new metre as well (no explanation why a new meter was installed).
We noticed straight away that the water flow seemed to have reduced in showers especially at times of high use and water flow seemed less out of the taps. Therefore we checked the water metre outside and noticed that the pipe inlet to it was quite narrow, definitely narrower than the supply pipework and coming from the middle of the road which I had seen when I spoke to them during their work.
We previously had our incoming supply pipe upgraded by the water company many years ago as we have a Victorian property which had the original lead pipe running from the road. A slighly larger diameter poly pipe was installed (32mm as opposed o the minimum standard of 25mm). I saw this at the time so I know it was definitely done and I saw part of this pipe when the workmen were ‘fixing the leak’ the other day. We had arranged for the upgraded supply pipe because we were installing a new megaflow pressurised water cylinder at the time and we were advised that flow rates are better with a slightly larger pipe size. We had the same larger feed installed all the way into our house and the 28mm copper pipe after that all the way to the megaflow. Therefore we have always had good water flow.
However, for some reason the contractor altered the connection to their new water metre, effectively putting a restriction in the pipework to reduce down the size with the narrow connection to the water meter that we can see.
The water company were puzzled when I reported our reduced flow to them and the narrow pipe connection to the meter as they said they had water metres that fit to the larger pipe size. They then sent someone out to inspect. However, this is where I am seeking some input from anyone knowledgeable as I think I may be being fobbed off!
Although the guy acted like he was an investigator the lady from the water company had told me they were sending someone from the contractor so I am doubleful about some of what he was saying!
I was told that all water meters have an internal bore of 25mm so even if they had attached the 32mm poly pipe to the meter instead of reducing the connection to 25mm it would not have made any difference. Is it really true that all water meters constrict the water flowing through them to a 25 mm size bore hole? If so, does that mean that anyone who had upgraded their supply pipe to 32mm would have wasted their time and they will have a reduction in water flow once a water meter is fitted?
I was told the contractors who did the work were supposed to have taken lots of photos as they did the stages of the work and supplied these to the water company. However, surprise, surprise they had hardly provided any photos. None showing the previous installation including the pipework and none showing the old water meter they took out. I am wondering if the old meter that they replaced could have had a wider internal bore and was a different type to what they have now installed. I was told they had changed the whole ‘box’ that the water meter sits in and I can see that has included a new hatch/cover on the pavement. The old one was the modern type too but slighly different. So the whole intallation has been changed.
To add to this, the guy who the water company sent to investigate was preoccupied with examining our internal pipework. It looked like he was hunting around to try and find something wrong thst he could blame the reduced flow on. He wasnt finding anything so eventually he found a small water drain point in our pipework and said he would do a pressure test. He then reported there was ‘good’ pressure although I reminded him the problem was the flow (volume of water)! He clearly thought he had got what he wanted to pack up and leave though. However, I am puzzled about this. He used a small drain outlet in a large 28 mm stretch of pipe to measure the pressure. The drain outlet is much narrower than any ordinary pipe (I would guess about 4mm in diameter) and is coming out of a mains pressured pipe that is 28 mm in diameter. Does taking the water pressure reading from a very narrow gauge drain point out of a larger pipe give a higher water pressure reading as the water is coming from a large main pressured pipe through a tiny hole?
The ‘investigator’ also told me that he had not found any grit in the water so didn’t think grit from the digging work had caused a partial blockage which was clearly something the water company had suggested might ge the problem so he sermed to be investigating this. However after he had left I picked up the bucket I had lent him for his water pressure test to put it away and saw there was grit in the remains of the water at the nottom if the bucket!
I am therefore wondering if I am being fobbed off / gaslighted about the contractor’s work! The investigator has told me he is sure the problem must in inside our house!
However, we had an obvious drop in water flow from straight after the work was done, it looks like they have let a bit of grit get into the pipework when they were digging too, they have reduced the size of the connector into the water meter to a smaller size than the supply pipework and, mysteriously, the contractor provided no photos of the previous installation or surrounding pipework to the water company when they were supposed to! Instead I am being told that a problem must have occurred coincidentally at the same time to our internal plumbing and we should get our megaflow serviced.
I would therefore be grateful for any thoughts from plumbers or anyone involved in water meter installation about what I have been told so I can find out if its likely I have been fobbed off. It doesnt seem right to me that they should constrict the supply piping to a narrower gauge than before when we deliberately had a slightly larger supply pipe installed many years before water meters became compulsory and our internal plumbing system is based on this!
Thank you for reading to the end!