Substruck Ltd. was contacted by a homeowner though a referral to investigate and repair a water supply leak at her private property in Co. Cork. Most of our work is acquired by word of mouth.
On arrival to site, there was obvious damage to the footpath at the front corner of the house. A significant void could be seen beneath the slab and a large hissing sound emanating from the area.
On opening up the local access junction, we found that the leak was infiltrating the drain though an opening in the riser formed for a free drop. We checked the water meter and recorded a loss rate of 17.5 litres a minute!!!!!
The leak was caused by failure of a brass fitting on a polyethylene supply pipe. Brass fittings are not recommended for underground applications due to the risk of corrosion. Modern day polypropylene fittings are more commonly used and are fairly close to fool proof. However, they are much more expensive than brass.
After repair, we tested the supply to ensure that our repair was satisfactory. The standing pressure was about 2.5 bar so we tested it to just below 5 for a period of 20 minutes. The area was then backfilled and tidied up.
We estimate that about 5000m3 of water was lost during the period of leakage.