— Tiger Utilities
Lead Pipe Replacement Experts
Tiger Utilities are approved installers on the United Utilities lead pipe replacement scheme and WIAPS-certified water industry plumbers. We replace lead supply pipes right across Liverpool.
Lead Pipe Replacement Liverpool
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IS YOUR PROPERTY ELIGIBLE FOR LEAD PIPE REPLACEMENT FUNDING?
Replace your old lead pipes
Lead Pipe Replacement Experts. Your Path to Safe, Clean Water. Experts You Can Rely On.
Liverpool has one of the oldest housing stocks in the North West, and lead was the standard material for water supply pipes across the city until the 1970s. If your home was built before then and the supply pipe has never been replaced, there is a fair chance your drinking water is still arriving through lead.
— Lead Pipe Replacement
Reasons to replace your lead water supply pipe:
Low Water Pressure
Property Built Pre-1970
New Driveway
Replace Harmful Lead
Cleaner Drinking Water
Multiple Pipe Bursts
Furred Up Existing Pipes
Home Renovation Work
Increased Water Flow
Insurance approved lead pipe replacement
As an approved United Utilities water mains installer, we can help with replacing your property’s lead pipes both professionally and cost effectively, on their approved water mains replacement scheme.
Why Choose
Tiger Utilities?
Based on the Wirral, we cover the Northwest of England, North Wales and the Midlands. We are a family run business which is friendly, reliable and Customer Service focused. We pride ourselves on the great Customer feedback, with all of our work being carried out to the highest of standards.
Water main and drainage specialists
Trenchless technology
Minimum disruption to paths and driveway
Garden drainage specialists
Drainage repairs and maintenance
Leak detection and repair
Aco drainage installation
Water Industry Approved Plumbers
(WIAPS certified)
INSURANCE APPROVED CONTRACTORS
How we replace lead pipes
Survey
We confirm the pipe is lead, establish whether the supply is single or shared, locate the main and agree the route.
Route & method
When the ground allows, we use trenchless moling, a pneumatic mole is driven underground from a small launch pit to the connection point.
Installation
A new 25mm MDPE pipe is laid at a minimum of 750mm, insulated where it enters the property and ducted through the wall.
Inspection & connection
The trench stays open for the United Utilities inspection, after which the new supply is connected and the old lead pipe disconnected.
Reinstatement
Flags are relaid, drives made good and the site cleared.
Step One
Flags before works commence.
Step Two
New water main installed using mole.
Step Three
Site restored by experienced technicians.
Mrs. C
- Problem : Lead Pipes
4.8
5/5
Very Good. The site was left tidy and Tiger Utilities were very polite and courteous.
What a Lead Pipe Replacement Costs in Liverpool
Lead pipe replacement starts from £550 + VAT, with the final figure depending on the length of the run, the ground conditions and whether the pipe can be moled or needs excavating. As a rough guide for Liverpool properties:
Short run through a front garden or drive: Typically at the lower end of the range, moled with minimal disruption
Terrace with footway excavation: Higher, reflecting the open-cut work, licensing and reinstatement
Splitting a shared supply: Quoted individually, and often more economical where neighbours co-ordinate
Remember that the connection from your boundary to the main is funded by United Utilities, so the quote covers only the private side.
Our guide to how much a lead pipe replacement costs breaks the figures down further. Landlords should note their own position differs from an owner-occupier’s. We cover this in do landlords have to replace lead pipes.
The United Utilities lead pipe replacement scheme in Liverpool
United Utilities supplies water to the whole of Liverpool, and as approved installers on their scheme we can guide you through the application rather than leaving you to work it out alone.
Here is how the funding splits:
- United Utilities provides a free 25mm connection from your property boundary to the water main in the road or footpath.
- You are responsible for the pipework inside your boundary, from the connection point up to your first cold water tap. That is the part we quote for.
To qualify, you will need a lead supply pipe (single or common), to own the property, to use the water domestically, and to hold an active United Utilities billing account. Properties that have been demolished or converted into multiple dwellings are not eligible.
Your application is processed within around 10 working days, after which a case manager confirms where the new connection will be made. We then install the private pipework and leave the trench open for inspection; United Utilities will not connect a pipe they have not seen.
The inspection is pass or fail against nine conditions, including a minimum depth of 750mm, a metre of clearance from any tree, correct insulation and properly sealed ducting. Failed re-inspections are chargeable, which is one very practical reason to use a WIAPS-registered installer who builds to the standard first time. Connection is then normally made within six weeks.
There is more detail on eligibility in our overview of lead pipe replacement schemes and who qualifies, and you can read about the value of using a WIAPS-registered plumber for water industry work.
Areas we cover
We work across L1–L19 and out through L24–L28 to Speke, Halewood and Belle Vale, including Anfield, Everton, Kirkdale, Walton, Kensington, Fairfield, Tuebrook, Old Swan, Wavertree, Toxteth, Dingle, Aigburth, Allerton, Mossley Hill, Woolton, Childwall, West Derby, Norris Green, Garston and the city centre.
We also cover the wider Merseyside area, including Bootle, Litherland, Waterloo and Crosby (L20–L23) and Huyton, Prescot, Whiston and Kirkby (L32–L36).
FAQs
United Utilities funds the connection from your property boundary to the water main free of charge under its Lead and Common Supply Pipe Scheme. You pay for the pipework inside your boundary, from that connection up to your first cold water tap. We are approved installers on the scheme and can take you through the application.
Yes. Shared runs, known as common supply pipes, are very common in Liverpool’s Victorian terraces and are covered by the United Utilities scheme. Your property is given its own connection to the main rather than a branch off the shared lead pipe. Where several neighbours want the work done together, we can co-ordinate it.
Where private pipework beneath the public footway has to be opened up, a Section 50 street works licence is required from Liverpool City Council, with a month’s notice. United Utilities makes its own connection in the highway under statutory rights. We confirm which applies to your property at survey stage.
Most are completed within a day once United Utilities has approved the application and confirmed the connection point. Allow around 10 working days for the application to be processed and up to six weeks for United Utilities to make the connection.
Why so many Liverpool homes still have lead supply pipes
What sets Liverpool apart from much of the North West is not only the age of the housing but its layout. A large proportion of the city’s terraces open directly onto the pavement with no front garden at all. The private supply pipe therefore does not cross your own land before it reaches the water main, it runs beneath the public footway. That single detail changes how the work is planned, whose permission is needed and how the ground is made good afterwards.
Properties in the interwar and post-war suburbs (Norris Green, Childwall, Mossley Hill and Woolton) usually have a garden or driveway for the pipe to run through, and a clean mole run is normally possible with no excavation of the highway at all.
If you are not sure what you have, our guide to identifying lead pipes in your home runs through the checks you can make at the kitchen stop tap in a couple of minutes.
Shared lead supply pipes in Liverpool’s terraced streets
This is the issue we meet most often in Liverpool, and it catches a lot of homeowners out. In many Victorian terraces, a single lead pipe was laid to serve four, six or even more houses on the same row, with short branches running off it into each property. These are known as common supply pipes. You can replace the section of pipe inside your own boundary, spend the money, and still be drawing water through a shared lead run under the street.
United Utilities recognises this, which is why their funded programme is formally called the Lead and Common Supply Pipe Scheme, it covers shared supplies as well as individual ones.
When we survey a Liverpool terrace, establishing whether the supply is single or common is the first thing we do, because it determines everything that follows. Where a common supply is found, the property needs its own separate connection to the main rather than a branch off the shared pipe. That is a different piece of work, it sometimes needs co-operation from neighbours, and it is worth knowing about before you start rather than halfway through.
Where several neighbours want the work doing at the same time, we can co-ordinate the replacements street by street, which usually works out cheaper and less disruptive for everyone involved.
— Blog
