Lead pipes.

Do you have lead pipes in your home? If not you aren’t likely to be affected.
As long as they are sure it isn’t coming from the mains.

We had an extension put on our house. It was built in the 1930s. Builders had to reroute mains water and said we had lead pipes and advised to have water tested. Long story short had water tested and very high lead result. Water company paid for new pipes from main road and ended up replacing the whole street mains water but NOT to into each individual house.

Lead pipes should be replaced.

We have 1870s house.. I'm united utilities... I paid £400 and waterboard made up the rest and replaced all our pipes to the blue ones and hooked them up to the mains....they moled out the ground as well so very little disturbance to the ground and we got 2 new manhole cover thrown in
..... took a few weeks as they needed to close the road on a Saturday to do the work...but very glad we had it done

My dil is doing the test as she worries about these things and they have an older house.

I had some lead pipes a few years ago, It was the pipes into the house from the end of the drive. At first it was alarming.

We tested the water (nothing) and we took advice - we ran the cold water at the sink for 2/3 mins each morning to clear anything standing in the pipe overnight. If we were away overnight we did this when we got home.

We were advised by two different scientists in our "circle" not to panic and that the older pipes were likely to have a build up of calcium which would make them less likely to leach lead into the water.

Yes we could have changed them and could have had an electrician re-earth the property but as we used a water filter (which took out heavy metals) for all cooking/drinking we were comfortable enough with it.

We continued to test occasionally - there was never any raised levels detected in the water.

i have always run the mains in the morning before using it. when i was young all water pipes were lead. hence plumber.
this is what everyone did when i was young and i will continue to do so. i think most some of the pipes have been replaced but i don't want to ingest standing water anyway. i am on a meter before you all lambast me. probably will anyway.

Plenty of lead pipes between the mains and properties still in this country. We’ve just paid a lot of money to install a new pipe. Any supply pipe from your boundary onwards belongs to you and is not the responsibility of the water company even if it is lead and seeping into the water. Even though an old pipe will be lined with limescale, if the old pipe because damaged in anyway lead can seep into the water. Definitely be cautious if you have pregnant women or small children to visit, who may drink the water.

welbeck

i have always run the mains in the morning before using it. when i was young all water pipes were lead. hence plumber.
this is what everyone did when i was young and i will continue to do so. i think most some of the pipes have been replaced but i don't want to ingest standing water anyway. i am on a meter before you all lambast me. probably will anyway.

I suppose you could always run the water into a bucket or bowl, and use it for watering plants - assuming that you have any, of course.