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Original poster

Please help me understand lead pipes

12 replies

Ecrire · 10/04/2025 12:45

We are buying a beautiful 1920s house with lead pipes unfortunately. Why the current occupants - a doctor and her 2 year old and husband - have been happy to not replace it and simply have an under counter heavy metals filter I don’t know.

We plan to replace it and two moling companies have been and seen and quoted about £800-1000 for it.

fine.

the trouble is that the outside bit (the bit that’s under the Thames water jurisdiction and that they have a lead water replacement scheme for) involves a shared supply as the water supply is shared between us and a neighbour.

we are now completely confused as to what we should do. Ideally we want our own supply. And we want all lead gone. It looks like moling company can easily remove lead piping that’s within our boundaries but what happens to this shared supply that also has lead?

OP posts:
Feelingstrange2 · 10/04/2025 12:51

You ask Thames Water?

I'm a bit confused as you say that part is overdue by their lead replacement scheme.

Am I misunderstanding?

Original poster
Ecrire · 10/04/2025 12:57

Not "overdue". They say they would cover any part outside the boundaries of our property and asked us to to fill out a form, in response to which a lengthy PDF arrived saying things about our shared supply that we didnt fully understand. We wondered if anyone else has had experience replacing lead pipes in a property with a shared water supply?

OP posts:
whatdoidonowffs · 10/04/2025 12:58

ask Thames water for a separation of supply
you get the new one and your neighbours get the old one
depending on where the supply is split you may have to allow your neighbours access to the pipe for any maintenance works

Feelingstrange2 · 10/04/2025 13:00

Sorry predictive text!

I typed covered by .... not overdue!!

Feelingstrange2 · 10/04/2025 13:03

I don't have experience of lead pipes but we do have a shared supply. We cannot go on a meter and so we have left the (very expensive) rates system and been moved onto assessed charge. I understand that they work out a metered average for the number of residents we have and charge accordingly. It's much cheaper for us than rates, we dont have any restriction on use, but we do have to let them know about changes in the number of residents. This is with South West Water.

Just a heads up in case you end up remaining on a shared supply.

RareGoalsVerge · 10/04/2025 13:03

We have some lead piping between the water company's stopcock and a point under our hallway floor where it switches over to copper. It's in my plans to replace it some day, but it's not a priority because lead piping is only a hazard in the first few years after it is installed. Your 1920s piping stopped being a health hazard in the 1930s, because the inner surface of the pipe is now fully coated in a layer of insoluble oxide which cannot end up in your drinking water.

Sorry I can't help with the shared supply question - I guess it depends whether your neighbour wants their supply pipes to be replaced too?

MrsMoastyToasty · 10/04/2025 13:09

If you're in a hard water area then the limescale will have created a barrier between the lead and the water.
Separating the supply will mean that you will benefit from improved pressure and flow. It also means you can get a meter, which is usually cheaper.

GasPanic · 10/04/2025 13:34

Maybe the previous occupants had the water tested and found it was OK, or maybe they used largely bottled water for drinking.

Original poster
Ecrire · 10/04/2025 13:52

I mean, obviously we wouldn’t replace the pipes unless it was a health hazard but everywhere I look it says lead pipes are a health hazard and the surveyor has said that lead piping has been found and that would need to be replaced in the survey. And given that there are lead replacement schemes it is making us very anxious thinking that it absolutely does need to be replaced.We just don’t understand what the right thing to do is here! The property has been occupied by the current couple for about 10 years and their baby is currently I think two or three years old and they have a fancy filter fitted underneath the kitchen tap where a new cartridge is due every six months.

OP posts:
Feelingstrange2 · 10/04/2025 14:06

Ecrire · 10/04/2025 13:52

I mean, obviously we wouldn’t replace the pipes unless it was a health hazard but everywhere I look it says lead pipes are a health hazard and the surveyor has said that lead piping has been found and that would need to be replaced in the survey. And given that there are lead replacement schemes it is making us very anxious thinking that it absolutely does need to be replaced.We just don’t understand what the right thing to do is here! The property has been occupied by the current couple for about 10 years and their baby is currently I think two or three years old and they have a fancy filter fitted underneath the kitchen tap where a new cartridge is due every six months.

We have a fancy filter like that but ours is nothing to do with lead piping.

Our taps have blue for cold, red for hot and green for filtered water. Made by Franke. We bought it to save using our Britax filter jug when the kids were small.

IndieRocknRoll · 10/04/2025 21:44

MrsMoastyToasty · 10/04/2025 13:09

If you're in a hard water area then the limescale will have created a barrier between the lead and the water.
Separating the supply will mean that you will benefit from improved pressure and flow. It also means you can get a meter, which is usually cheaper.

This.
We have lived in a 1920s house with lead pipes for the last 8 years. It’s also a VERY hard water area. I’m fighting a constant battle against limescale!
I run the taps for a couple of minutes every morning. Use a Brita water filter and bottled water to drink but otherwise don’t give it a second thought to be quite honest.

MattSaracenQB1 · 11/04/2025 09:51

Ask Thames water to test your water for lead. I expect that’s what the previous owner did and that’s why they were fine not replacing it.

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