Leaking water pipe- likely mains

Hi all! Was hoping to get some advice re a leaking water pipe.

Recently moved into a house who's previous occupants seemed fond of concrete! They had a small retaining wall (40cm ish high) with a raised grassed area. The wall was concrete and had been pushed out by a now cut down tree. Surrounding the wall is more concrete right up to the house.

Since we moved in there has always been a trickle of water coming through the cracked wall- presumed this just to be water coming down from the higher up garden (this is the lowermost point before the house).

Decided to remove the stump, break up and remove the wall as well as the underneath hardcore in an attempt to rebuild a sleeper wall with the lowermost sleeper partly set below the edge of the surrounding concrete (cut straight).

Asked the previous owners about the presence of pipes under this area and he said no.

Anyway whilst digging down at one end of the old wall where the leak was the soil is pretty much just slop. Kept going down and have come to a jet of water that constantly refills the hole about 40-50cm beneath the concrete. you can stick your finger in and occlude the jet. Am pretty sure it is a water pipe and the pressure suggests it is the mains. Definitely not a waste pipe and not the sewer!

This area is on the opposite side of the house (1900's) to where our water comes in and the street stop cock is, lying between our house and the neighbours. can't see an obvious stop cock on the street for next door. Can't quite get a bearing on the orientation of the pipe as the hole is filled with muddy water and have yet to attempt to turn water off at the street. We have not noticed dirty water or obvious drop in pressure although the pressure will have been down since we moved.

My real question is as I do not know what this pipe is what should I do? Do I turn water off at the street and potentially take out the water to several houses in order to better assess the pipe and see if it is a feeding branch from our setup going to next door? If it is not our pipe who and it is supplying next door would they be responsible? Finally given that I have removed a large area of soil and surrounding stone could they not just say I have burst this pipe even though it is surrounded by roots and has been leaking for months?

Thanks in advance!

 

It is an old house so suspect that I will be dealing with dreaded lead.

As I say I have yet to turn off the water at the street but I suspect that it is a feed from our supply to the neighbours!

Its a pity I can't just ram it full of plumbers mate as it is block-able with your finger and tip a load of concrete over the top!

Are you allowed to fix these issues your self or is that frowned upon by the water board?

 

We are not metered. Water is included in council tax. We live in Scotland so I don't think even the water companies have the cheek to ask us to pay for the stuff!

 

Out of interest how many turns "should" it take to turn the stop cock off at yue Street?

I was at 40 when I stopped, well beyond what I already thought was ridiculous. At 40 although still freely turning, the water in the house and the pipe was off. As an experiment I only turned it back on with 30 turns and the flow seems the same as before.

 

It's the water boards stop cock in the street.

We do not appear to have a stop cock at the rising mains in the house. There are isolating valves to the upstairs and downstairs. Neither of which turn off the leaking pipe in the garden which I cannot figure where it goes or what it is connected to. It does go off with the dodgy Street stop cock so must be a branch of our supply.

 

Had the water board- we have a really old street stop cock. Some brass device that free turns to infinity. Each half turn turns on and subsequently off again so just randomly i turned it off and then on again with my turning. Its certainly very different to all stop cocks I have previously seen!

I am not entirely sure where the water comes into the house as it has been subdivided and then split again. We have a mains pipe coming into the front of the house through the floor then up inside the wall of the downstairs toilet up to the first floor where there is a stop cock in the upstairs bathroom to shut off water to the upstairs. At the back of the house in the kitchen there is a lead pipe that comes out of the concrete floor and then a stopcock which isolates downstairs.

I can only assume that at some point our mains supply splits and goes to the opposite side of the house and it is this pipe that has the leak. I am unsure of the exact route it takes from the street to the house or which side it goes to first.

Water pressure in the house is fine.

Difficult to occlude the water from the cold tap with your finger.

Not had much chance to look at the leaking pipe as it is under water and mud and is ******* it down here at the moment. It feels like probably a 22mm or there about pipe. Looks like lead (lead pipes certainly come into both sides of the house). The hole is probably 2-3mm on the top surface.