Anyone had this done over lead-in-water concerns for the little children’s developing brains?
We have a lead supply pipe, so would ideally like to get it switched. A (single) test of the water showed Pb levels below the minimum threshold set by the water company, though, so it doesn’t appear to be an active problem. Wondered what others think – just tell the bairns to stop drinking the bath water and leave it at that? Or better safe than sorry?

Can you replace pipes without digging them up these days? Wondered if there was a clever way of ripping it out and sending a new pipe through without digging up the driveway. Would probably make it a simple job in that case.

A High percentage of the country’s water supply is dosed with orthophosphoric acid, this is there to ensure the lead leaching into the water is reduced to or below OFWAT guidelines for the drinking water.

I may stand corrected but I think carbon filters do not remove lead, it is usually and ion exchage resin system, not sure if these are available for domestic use?

Don’t think there is a system around for the easy replacement of the supply pipe, most things are direct buried, especially guessing at the age of the lead piping you have there.

Probably worth trying to get them not to drink the bathwater, but at the end of the day that’s kids for you!

Yep had mine done. The water company are obliged to do it up to the boundary of your property, its your job to do the rest. In my case it involved the water co digging up the road (3 times), and there didn’t seem to be an easier way to do it.

Are you in a hard or soft water area? If in high area, the lead quickly gets a coating of scale, that sort of insulates the water from the lead. I’m in a hard area, and the lead pipe did indeed have this coating on the inside. I had it done as was doing other things to the house anyway, so seemed like a good idea.

I looked into this subject long and hard when I had it done, the best thing anyone said to me was…”if it was even a small problem you would hear about the health effects on people, the lead pips have been there for decades, and its only really recently that anyone has thought of drinking bottled water”.

You can get domestic filters, but they are expensive. I’m fairly sure you need a reverse osmosis one to deal with lead.

Yep what Crofts said, your pipes will probably need digging up and replacing.

Also the legal lead limit at the tap will be tightened up further in 2013 so its posible that your situation will improve.

I know that water companies are looking at ways of taking it down even further than orthophosphate can manage

We had ours replaced without any [much] digging
It’s called moleing or thrust-boring I believe

Just had ours done last week.

PITA of a job as we are raised up from the street and it was hard to find someone wanting to do the work.

It was a decent length of pipe replaced too. Just left the old one in the ground and popped a new one in a different track.

If you want to chat about it/reasons for doing it and quotes we got etc then just gie a buzz on the shoppe number.
Mark

I thought the insides of lead pipes fuzzed up(*), so the actual risks of lead poisoning were slim to none?

(* – apologies for the technical term there)

The ortho does the fuzzing.

I think the lead exposure would be extremely low, certainly – with the removal at source plus phosphate content to prevent further leaching.
Still something I’d like to replace, just depends on how easy / expensive a job it would be for my house.

What were the actual levels, and how did they compare with the statutory minimum? If it’s a long way down, why worry?
So long as they don’t suck on any lead paint they’ll be fine. That’s assuming you’re OK, having been brought up before the days of bottled water.

We had ours tested by the water company, for free. Traces of lead were a miniscule fraction of the legal limit, so we’ve left the pipe alone.

And……