one mains supply for two houses

[arrownose]

Hi we live in an end terrace. we have one mains supply that comes from the stop tap on the road up our allyway to our back yard. there then is a junction into two pipes. (our supply and next door neighbours). The problem is that the neighbours supply then goes under our kitchen to there house. we have plastic pipe up to the junction and into our house. but after the junction to next doors supply it goes from plastic to copper to lead. this is happening in our back yard before it goes under our kitchen. our next door neighbours have there own allyway.

My question is should they have their own independant water supply?

if there is a leak on there lead pipe it will be leaking in our back yard or under our kitchen.

[obseen16]

hmm cant imagine it would go under your kitchen most properties i have seen only have the services going in through ducts at the side of the property not under it. but hey i could be wrong, its very possible that a leak could occur anywhere along the pipe for any reason. subsidance for example. my house has a shared external stop tap. it doesnt really bother me or my neighbours as we all get on but if your that bothered about it you could always contact your water supplier and see about having a new main put in with a seperate stop tap put in. or just let it be. :P

[arrownose]

yes strange but true. we have unearthed the pipe while our plumber had to put on a new internal stop tap. it definately goes under our kitchen after it comes in to our kitchen. our houses are just over a 100 years old so may be rules and regulations where different then

[2true]

i thought it was okay to join copper 2 lead only if the water passes throught the lead to the copper not vise versa

[arrownose]

my worry is if the lead pipe bursts. Ive spoken to a few plumbers and they say it is a good thing to change a lead pipe to plastic pipe as it has a tendancy to burst in latter years. when the pipe was unearthed it didnt look in perfect condition and looked as if some stones had been pushed in to it marking and indenting it somewhat. if the pipe bursts it will be in our back yard or under our kitchen it is a bit worrying as it isnt even our supply.

[bishbosh77]

My old house had a supply runing under kitchen floor (which was solid) and supplyied 5 houses after mine, only found out when i replaced stop tap as it woulden't close supply, i left it of all day for some jobs i was doing and nobody had any water on the rest of street.made me smile

[fuzzy]

can u cut it off and run two new plastic mains?