Leak Detection and Supply Pipe Repairs in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire

West Bridgford grew up on the south bank of the Trent as Victorian terraces on a grid of tree-lined roads. That matters for leaks, because Severn Trent says Victorian terraces usually share one supply pipe. Instead of each house having its own pipe from the pavement, one pipe comes off the main and branches to several homes. A leak on the shared length is the joint responsibility of every house it serves. It can also show up as high usage on more than one bill, or on a meter that isn’t yours.

Age is the second issue. Severn Trent says homes built before 1970 may still have lead supply pipes, and that a supply pipe can be more than 100 years old. Under its Lead Replacement Scheme, once you replace the lead pipe inside your boundary, Severn Trent gives a free new connection and replaces its lead up to the boundary. On a shared supply the work must be done by a WaterSafe plumber, and the new connection can take up to 16 weeks. If we find the leak on an old lead pipe, the report says so, so you can weigh a one-off repair against a new pipe under the scheme.

The practical problem is access. Severn Trent is clear that the supply pipe is the homeowner’s even where it runs under someone else’s land, so on a terraced street the leak may be under next door’s path or garden. Tracing the route and marking the leak from the surface means you can talk to the neighbours with the leak already marked on the ground. Across Lady Bay, Adbolton, Wilford, Edwalton, Gamston and Tollerton the housing varies in age, so we check what the pipe is made of on the day rather than assume.