Water main: likely path from well to house

adocholiday

Hi all,

Hoping someone can help me with this one. I'm planning to put a greenhouse on a slab in the garden but the ideal location for it may possibly be above the mains line from my well to the house and I have no way to know without digging the place up. Looking at the crude drawing below, I was sure the main pipe went from the well (red circle) along the dashed line to where the kitchen sink is positioned (purple circle), and then into the rest of the house, however when I had a look today I saw that the water pipe goes from the well in the direction of the solid line but I can only see the first metre of it before it disappears into the ground.

In that direction there's a shed (grey box) that is plumbed and has a sink, toilet and outdoor tap (all green circles) that are all linked to this main. At the back of the house (blue boxes) is where the central heating lines come into the house and there is a hot and cold connection there too for a washing machine (orange circle), and just above that is the cold water tank in the attic and directly below it is the small room with the hot water cylinder and shower pump (yellow circle). I notice that in this room there's a pipe coming from the floor with a valve on it and up into the attic so I expect that's the main feed into the storage tank.

My question is: how likely is it that the main follows that line the whole way to the back of the house and comes in under the slab? It seems like the most likely scenario to me just given the initial direction of the pipe, but I have no way to know for certain. Would this be standard? I can't find any reliable way of finding the pipe without digging so I just need to make a best guess at this stage.

whizbang

Is the pipe in a duct ?

if so just work away with the slab, otherwise you should dig out the pipe where the slab will go, and duct it.

Theres no issue having the duct buried under slab as long as you are able to pull in a replacement.

There's probably electric cables running to the well also, it would be unusual to have the cable in a different run. Perhaps you can trace that ?

The Continental Op

I don't really see the issue? Just dig it up but have a couple of the Pilmac couplings of the right size just in case. Worst case scenario you hit the pipe and cut it. So turn off the power to the pump and fix it. Now a bigger problem may be that your power cable for the pump runs alongside the pipe. If you are worried about that hire a cable detector from a hire shop.

I'd be happy to find the water pipe while digging out for a greenhouse because you can cut into it to put a tap in or just outside the greenhouse. I'd probably move the pipe if I found it, lengthen it if necessary and lay it just outside the base of the slab.