— Tiger Utilities
Lead Pipe Replacement Experts
Chester has one of the oldest continuously occupied housing stocks in England, and in the streets inside and immediately around the walls, lead water pipes are still common.
Lead Pipe Replacement Chester
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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.
We are WIAPS registered, which makes us WaterSafe approved, a condition Severn Trent applies to shared supply pipes.
We replace lead supply pipes across Chester and the surrounding villages from £550 + VAT. Get a free quote or call 0151 559 0787.
— 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 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 Chester
Lead pipe replacement starts from £550 + VAT. Severn Trent funds the connection from the highway boundary to the main, so our quote covers the private side only.
City-centre terrace, short run: Generally the lower end of the range, though congested services can add time
Suburban property with a garden or drive: Moled in a day where the ground allows
Village property with a long boundary run Quoted individually on the length of the run
Historic surface reinstatement: Setts, stone flags and original paving are itemised separately, as they are hand-laid
Our guide to how much a lead pipe replacement costs breaks the figures down further, and landlords should read do landlords have to replace lead pipes before booking.
Where lead turns up in Chester properties
Lead was standard for water supply pipes until the 1970s, and Chester has an unusual concentration of housing that predates that by a very long way.
Inside and around the walls, the Georgian and early Victorian stock of the city centre, Abbey Square and the streets off Northgate and Watergate is the oldest. The Victorian terraces of Handbridge, Boughton, Hoole and Newton are the largest group, and the substantial villas of Curzon Park and Queen’s Park sit in the same period.
Further out, Blacon, Lache, Upton-by-Chester and Vicars Cross are largely twentieth century and less likely to have lead, though properties that predate the estates around them often still do.
The surrounding villages are worth checking carefully. Christleton, Tarvin, Waverton, Tattenhall, Saighton, Huntington, Farndon and Mickle Trafford all contain older cottages and farmhouses where the supply run from the boundary is long, the pipe is old and nobody has ever had cause to look at it.
If you are not sure what you have, our guide to identifying lead pipes in your home covers the checks you can make at the internal stop tap in a couple of minutes.
Areas we cover
We cover CH1 to CH4 across the city and its suburbs, including the city centre, Handbridge, Boughton, Great Boughton, Hoole, Newton, Upton-by-Chester, Blacon, Lache, Curzon Park, Vicars Cross, Huntington and Saighton.
We also work across the surrounding villages: Christleton, Tarvin, Waverton, Tattenhall, Farndon, Mickle Trafford, Mouldsworth and Elton and Neston (CH64 to CH66).
Across the border into Flintshire, including Saltney, Broughton, Penyffordd and the CH5 Deeside area, the water supplier is Hafren Dyfrdwy rather than Severn Trent. We still cover these properties; the funding route simply differs.
FAQs
Severn Trent. Chester was historically served by the Chester Waterworks Company and later Dee Valley Water, whose English operations transferred to Severn Trent in July 2018. United Utilities supplies most of the surrounding North West but not Chester, so guidance written for the United Utilities scheme does not apply to your property.
Severn Trent owns the pipe up to the highway boundary and will replace its section and make the new connection free of charge, once you have replaced the section inside your boundary. You pay for the private works, which is the part we quote for.
Saltney sits in Flintshire despite carrying a CH4 Chester postcode, so it is supplied by Hafren Dyfrdwy rather than Severn Trent. The same applies to Broughton, Penyffordd and the whole CH5 Deeside area. We cover these properties; the funding application simply goes to a different company.
On a shared supply pipe, yes. Severn Trent requires the work to be carried out by a WaterSafe registered plumber who submits a work certificate within five days. On a single supply any suitably qualified plumber is acceptable. We are WIAPS registered, which is one of the four schemes making up the WaterSafe register, so we satisfy the requirement either way.
Working in a conservation area or on a listed building
Chester has one of the largest and most closely managed conservation areas in the North West, and a very high concentration of listed buildings within it.
An underground water supply pipe does not normally require listed building consent in its own right, because it is not an alteration to the fabric of the building. What does need care is everything around it: the point where the new pipe enters a historic wall, and the reinstatement of any historic surface it crosses. Setts, stone flags, cobbles and original paving cannot simply be patched with tarmac, and replacing them badly is both conspicuous and, in a conservation area, potentially a breach.
Where private works need to open up the highway, a Section 50 street works licence from Cheshire West and Chester Council applies. The council requires at least 28 days’ notice, fees start at £558 for works of up to 21 days and rise with duration, and the application must be made by the property owner rather than a subcontractor. Note that Severn Trent obtains its own permits for the connection it makes, so this applies to the private side only.
We establish at survey stage whether your property sits within the conservation area, whether it is listed, what the surfaces are, and what permissions are needed, before you commit to anything.
— Blog
