UTILITIES: water

One of the requirements for fitting the new boiler was to upgrade the water main. We intend to gradually replace all the rusty old pipes in the house so we were happy to start right back at the water meter with a new wide bore main and stopcock. The old stopcock needed to be moved anyway because it now sat in the middle of the enlarged kitchen. Any new water main needs to comply with a strict set of regulations and be installed by an approved plumber. The depth must be between 750 and 1350 mm and the pipe must be insulated where it rises to the stopcock. We used 32 mm medium density polyethylene (blue plastic pipe). 32 mm is probably overkill, but after two years of dribbling taps we'll finally get some kick ass water pressure.

June 2010: The old water main back at the water meter needed replacing with 32 mm MDPE (medium density polyethylene).

To avoid excess disruption your contractor can use a "mole" to run the pipes, but we got some very high quotes for this. In the end I just dug a trench to the correct depth and paid someone to make the connections. Half the drive had been dug up by Scotia Gas anyway and we plan to replace and widen all this at the end of project. I also wanted to put some ducting in for some future wiring at the front. Any cabling or other service needs to be 350 mm from the water pipe. To comply with current regulations electric cable also needs to be at a depth of 450 mm so there was just about enough depth for both. There also needs to be a yellow marker tape above the cable (£4.99 from Screwfix). All these rules are continually changing and updating but you will generally be using approved or certified engineers for gas, mains water and electrics.

June 2010: The depth needed to be between 750 and 1350 mm. Our MDPE pipe was at 750 mm whic h was dicatated by the existing depth of the water meter.

June 2010: The 32 mm MDPE in the 750mm trench. It will actually be a bit deeper once the final drive surface is finished.

June 2010: The pipe was insulated where it rises to the newstopcock with ducting for protection. Strictly speaking this ducting should actually be blue. Gas is yellow. Electric is red. I think orange might be for railway signalling.

June 2010: Any cabling or other service needs to be 350 mm from the water pipe. The warning tape for ectrical cable needs to be 150 mm below the suface.