If your house was built before 1970, there’s a reasonable chance the pipe bringing water into it’s made of lead. Cardiff has a lot of housing from that era, particularly the Victorian and Edwardian terraces across Pontcanna, Roath, Cathays, Canton and Grangetown, and in plenty of those properties the original supply pipe is still in the ground doing its job.
When speaking with most of our customers, they have no idea either way. It’s not something that comes up in a survey with any prominence, and a lead pipe doesn’t leak or fail in an obvious way, so it can sit there unnoticed for decades.
If you would like to know what pipework you have, here’s how to work out what you’ve got, and what your options are if it turns out to be lead.
Why It Matters
If you didn’t already know, lead pipes were banned from use in drinking water supplies in 1970. The reason is that lead can dissolve into the water sitting in the pipe, particularly if the water has been standing for a while overnight or while you’re away.
It’s a slow, low-level thing rather than a dramatic one, but it’s the reason the material was phased out and the reason it’s worth knowing whether you have it.
The risk is higher for young children and during pregnancy, which is why families with babies or toddlers in older properties tend to be the ones who look into it. If that’s you and you’re unsure, the practical steps below are the ones worth taking.
How To Check For Lead Pipes Yourself
If you are unsure but now want to find out, you can do a decent first check in about 5 minutes. The place to look is where the water enters your property, usually near your stopcock, which in most homes is under the kitchen sink or in a nearby cupboard.
You’ll want to find the pipe running into the stopcock and look at the section before it.
Then check three things:
- Colour: Lead is a dull grey. Copper is the obvious reddish brown, and modern plastic supply pipes are usually blue or black. If the pipe has been painted over, gently scratch a small area with a coin to see what’s underneath.
- Shape: Lead pipes tend to look slightly swollen or uneven rather than perfectly round and straight. The joints are often bulbous lumps rather than the neat fittings you’d see on copper.
- Sound: Tap it with a metal object, as lead produces a dull thud with no ring. Copper gives a clear metallic note. It’s a crude test but a surprisingly reliable one.
If you’re seeing a dull grey, slightly lumpy pipe that thuds when you tap it, that’s likely lead.
The Bit Most People Don’t Know
Your water supply pipe is split in two, and you’re only responsible for one half.
The section from the water main in the street up to your property boundary belongs to Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water. The section of the supply pipe from the boundary into your house is yours as the homeowner. That division matters, because it changes who pays for what.
Welsh Water will replace their side of a lead supply free of charge. They also offer free water testing if you want to know what lead levels are actually coming out of your tap, which is worth doing before you make any decisions. If the test comes back showing lead, that’s your evidence base for what to do next rather than guesswork.
So the honest first step isn’t to call your local plumber.
It’s to contact Welsh Water, get the free test, and find out whether their side needs replacing. A good number of people find that dealing with the water company’s half improves things considerably, and some find their own supply pipe was replaced at some point in the past and only the communication pipe was still lead.
What You Can Do In The Meantime
If you know or suspect you have lead, and you’re waiting on testing, there’s one simple habit that helps. Run the cold kitchen tap for a minute or two first thing in the morning before using any water for drinking or cooking. That clears the water that has been standing in the pipe overnight, the water most likely to have picked up lead. Use the cold tap for drinking and cooking rather than the hot, since hot water dissolves lead more readily.
A standard jug filter won’t reliably remove lead, so don’t rely on one as a solution. It’s a stopgap habit, not a fix, and the fix is replacing the pipe.
Replacing A Lead Supply Pipe
Replacing your side of the supply means running a new pipe, normally modern blue MDPE, from the boundary into the property. It involves excavation, so how straightforward it is depends entirely on what’s between your boundary and your house.
A short front garden is simple enough, but a long driveway, mature landscaping or a paved forecourt makes it a bigger job.
It’s worth noting that this isn’t a small piece of work, and it isn’t usually as urgent as a burst pipe. If your testing comes back clear, or if Welsh Water replaces their section, you may not need to do anything at all. Anyone telling you a lead supply must be replaced immediately, before you’ve had it tested, is getting ahead of the evidence.
If You Want A Second Opinion
We come across lead supply pipes fairly regularly across the older parts of Cardiff, usually while we’re doing something else entirely, and we’re happy to tell you what you’ve got if you’re unsure. Often that’s a two-minute answer while we’re already at the property for other work.
Where lead pipework inside a property needs dealing with, that falls under general pipework repairs and replacement, and it’s something we can look at alongside other work.
Not sure what your supply pipe is made of? Start with Welsh Water for free testing. If you’d like a plumber’s view on what you’re looking at, get in touch, and we’ll point you in the right direction.
