New house problems

[monkeyA]

Hi

I'd be very grateful for advice here on what you would do here. All I want to do is get a good situation with regards to drinking and generally clean water while I live in it until proper renovation works can be done!

Current situation:
-Just bought an old (1900s) house thats been empty for three years
-Pipes from internal stopcock is lead
-Water comes out of the cold mains tap initially, then the flow dries up. it restarts if the tap is turned off and on again => so maybe its blocked or has air?
- The kitchen is upstairs and both hot and cold are connected to the tank in the loft
- The tank in the loft has been uncovered all this time. It is plastic and has a fair amount of scale around it. There is no lid

Thanks!!

Monkey

 

[stevetheplumber]

most likley problem is the stopcock is turned of but letting by a littlegiving you the small amount of water check theres not more than one stopcock
if mot that somethings blocked but doesnt often happen on mains

 

[Bernie2]

The water main doesn't usually get air in it. Possibly its not turned full on at the outside main stopcock. You would have to look at where the main water pipe comes in out of the street and its the first stopcock on that you want to check beside the one outside.

The sink unit upstairs sounds as though its been a bath or washbasin supplied off the store tank/cistern. I would not drink any water from it, its not potable.

As to the cistern/tank, well plastic tanks don't get scale, its probably some organism growth.

Once again you would have to drain tank, clean out and disinfect whole house water system. Might even mean a new cistern/tank and Bye law 30 kit.

And if your keeping the sink unit upstairs I would suggest taking the cold water supply off the potable/drinking water main to give drinking water to the sink unit.

Its a bit of a job you have got yourself. Go to Fernox site for info on disinfecting water systems.

Good Fortune

 

[justlead1]

Hi If you are getting good pressure for a second or two when you turn on tap and then it dies. It may be stopcock as mentioned or a gavlvanised main supply, which is corroded through out is length (just a pipn hole for water to pass through). Giving initial pressure but no volume. Goo Luck

 

[dave1]

hi all, sorry Bernie what do you mean by "plastic tanks dont get scale"?

 

[stevetheplumber]

ive taken sheets of limescale of the walls of plastic tanks

 

[Bernie2]

Monkey said, the tank had scale around it not inside it.

He also did not say it was a hard water area.

The fact that he said it had no lid, could mean an organism of some kind has got in.

Up here we live in a soft water area, with only a few pockets of local hard water in certain areas that are fed from different mains.

So lime scale problems are not so common, unless of course you live or work in one of the hard water areas.

What we do get in storage tanks/cisterns though, is not lime scale but all kinds of weed like growths.

Of course if he is in a hard water area he will get lime scale.

 

[monkeyA]

Thanks all for the helpful replies! You guys rock

- I will try the outside stopcock to see if that makes any difference
- I ordered some Ferox stuff to chlorinate the water tank and clean it
- I will get some wood to use as a lid (?)
- Sorry for not being clear - the stuff is inside the tank - around the edge and at the bottom, it is white and powdery/flakey
- Would be relatively ok to run a hose pipe from the internal stopcock to the water tank to bypass the old lead pipes?

Thanks! Monkey

 

[Plouasne]

Wood to make a lid for a CWST ?? moisture from the water in the tank getting on to the underside of the timber lid = rot = nice lot of rotten bit of timber in the tank in a few years

 

[danielp]

you could run a temporary hep 20 pipe connect to the ballvalve and maybe a tee off to the kitchen sink on the way for drinking water be care full when messing around with lead pipes they cant be repaired easily!

 

[monkeyA]

Wood to make a lid for a CWST ?? moisture from the water in the tank getting on to the underside of the timber lid = rot = nice lot of rotten bit of timber in the tank in a few years

hmm - what would you recommend and where can I buy from?

 

[david williams]

lead pipework should be removed ,but are quite easy to repair,this is another of these laws we must not repair them but custermer does not want to pay for a new system,what do you do leave them with no water??.if it went to court you would find you can not make them have the lead replaced

 

[monkeyA]

it WAS the outside stopcock that was not turned on fully and causing the problem with low presure

I've drained the tank and scrubbed all the crap from the sides and used a net to fish it out of the bottom
I have bought a plastic sheet from homebase and covered the top
Just need to chlorinate and I am done!

Thanks for the help everyone!