An emergency call-out for a leak between the meter and the house in Saint-Médard-en-Jalles, followed by full replacement of 10 m of PE pipe inside ducting, with the joint made up in an inspection chamber and a new outside tap.
Two symptoms put the customer on the right track: water in the buried water meter chamber, and persistent damp along the block-paved drive. Together they left little doubt — the leak was on the supply pipe, somewhere between the meter and the foot of the house.
We first came out as an emergency call-out to stop the leak, then replaced the whole section rather than patching one point. The trench ran 10 m from the meter to the house, under a block-paved drive.
What we did
- Emergency call-out and isolation of the supply to stop the leak
- Tracing the run of the supply pipe between the meter and the foot of the house
- Careful lifting of the drive pavers, kept aside for reinstatement
- Excavation of a 10 m trench
- Installation of a new PE (polyethylene) pipe inside ducting
- Blue warning tape laid over the ducting
- An inspection chamber set in place, with the joint made up inside it
- New outside tap fitted
- Backfilling, compacting and relaying of the pavers
Repair or replace?
On a buried supply pipe that has already failed, a spot repair treats the symptom, not the cause. The rest of the run is the same age, has taken the same ground movement, and nothing says the point that gave way was the weakest one. Once the trench is open and the pavers are up — in other words, once you have paid for the bulk of the work — replacing the full 10 m costs only a little more, and it spares you a second visit to the same spot in two years' time.
Three details that matter on a buried supply
The ducting protects the PE pipe from the ground and from soil movement, and means it can be drawn out and replaced later without reopening the trench.
The blue warning tape, laid over the ducting, flags a drinking water supply to anyone who digs there in future. It is what saves a stray spade during the next bit of landscaping.
The inspection chamber keeps the joint accessible. A connection buried in backfill is one you can neither check nor rework without digging everything up again. Here the joint was made up inside a chamber we set ourselves: it stays reachable without touching the drive.
Water leak, visible damage or an unexplained jump in your bill? See our plumbing services and our emergency call-out service.
