Ah blunt, I grew up in your area. I now live in Kenridge. 2adults, 2 kids, pool, largish garden @ about 1.2 KL/day
-
Join the MyBroadband community
South Africa’s biggest forum. Discuss, discover, and connect with thousands of members.
-
Question of the Day: What's the most interesting small town you've visited in South Africa?
Water usage
- Thread starter blunt
- Start date
Ah blunt, I grew up in your area. I now live in Kenridge. 2adults, 2 kids, pool, largish garden @ about 1.2 KL/day
Does your supply pipe have a tap on it where it enters the house? If not get the plumber to install one. Then it's just a matter of turning off that tap and using a decent flashlight to check if the meter is still moving which will tell you if the underground pipe between the meter and the house is leaking.
Problem is that the meter is so old and scratched you can only see the kilolitre measurement not the smaller numbers
wetkit
Expert Member
So far I know, if the meter is older than 8 years, you can ask the Muni to replaced for free.
Already paid for a new WDM meter (they don't give new regular meters) in order to get a rebate from them... told me to call back in a month.
Leak people come today so we'll see how that goes.
So they found one leak, said they can't guarantee its the only one but would need to repair it first to check if there are any more.
Piping quality is poor (as other plumber told me) so they need to replace that stretch at the very least and cant gaurantee it'll last.. R8k. Recommend repiping from meter to all 21 points.. R37k.
Opened a claim with outsurance to see what they will cover.
Bleak-street.
Piping quality is poor (as other plumber told me) so they need to replace that stretch at the very least and cant gaurantee it'll last.. R8k. Recommend repiping from meter to all 21 points.. R37k.
Opened a claim with outsurance to see what they will cover.
Bleak-street.
furpile
Expert Member
That is bad news. How long is the total length of piping they need to replace? And is it under driveways or anything? Is your water connected to your house in 21 places? Or is that including the piping inside the house?
Still waiting on their report that's supposed to come along with their invoice & quotes.... Cape Town on a Friday afternoon.
Our plot is very big for a suburban plot and there is a lot of distance to cover for all the pipes. I'm not sure where the number 21 came from, but I highly doubt it's including the piping in the walls to the taps etc - we just renovated the entire house so all the inside plumbing is new.
MickeyD
RIP
Also had two leaks...
First one was just inside my boundary wall - the pipe from the meter ran under the wall foundation and then up the wall on the inside. Dug a trench about 6 foot away from the wall and about 4 foot deep to trace the pipe.
There was no way we would be able to dig down another 4 or so feet to replace the original pipe in its old position. The plumber then chased up the outside of the boundary wall and drill through the wall for a new pipe.
Linked it to the old pipe and switched on the mains...
This happened:
So they extended the trench and found the source... a t-piece to the garden tap!!
Re-positioned the garden tap to above the new mains inlet, cut off this t-piece and joined the new pipe directly into the old pipe.
No more leaks!
First one was just inside my boundary wall - the pipe from the meter ran under the wall foundation and then up the wall on the inside. Dug a trench about 6 foot away from the wall and about 4 foot deep to trace the pipe.
There was no way we would be able to dig down another 4 or so feet to replace the original pipe in its old position. The plumber then chased up the outside of the boundary wall and drill through the wall for a new pipe.
Linked it to the old pipe and switched on the mains...
This happened:
So they extended the trench and found the source... a t-piece to the garden tap!!
Re-positioned the garden tap to above the new mains inlet, cut off this t-piece and joined the new pipe directly into the old pipe.
No more leaks!
MickeyD
RIP
Nice, hope mine gets sorted so "easily"
What are your pipes made out of?
All the old pipes are copper. Replacement pipe was the Cobra poly flex.
Outsurance as expected didn't pay for the whole lot, just the quote to fix the leak.. minus excess, so getting around R6800 from them.
Better than nothing.
Called the plumber who did our plumbing for renovation to see what he'll charge to re-pipe. I assume the other people quoted me on re-piping the whole inside too (hence the '21 points'), but that's just been redone - so hoping repiping from the mains to the house points won't be that much.
Better than nothing.
Called the plumber who did our plumbing for renovation to see what he'll charge to re-pipe. I assume the other people quoted me on re-piping the whole inside too (hence the '21 points'), but that's just been redone - so hoping repiping from the mains to the house points won't be that much.
MickeyD
RIP
Have just submitted my claim. Total cost was R3876. (R500 excess)
Not bad. I can't imagine ours will be the 37k that <removed> quoted
Last edited:
So I decided to call back the plumber who did our renovations and ask him to quote on re-laying the piping. He told me that the crappy plastic piping was only from about 4 meters into my property and had 2 lengths of about 30m all together, one running down the side of the house and the other split off from that and went into the courtyard (under the house). To replace all of that and labour he quoted R4300 (company that originally came wanted R6800 just to patch the hole -- rip).
They put in new pipe, routed it around the house into the courtyard instead of underneath (no chopping up floors, just left the old pipe in the ground).
I've been watching my meter since they finished and it's barely moved... finally.
Now to deal with 2x COCT bills of R8-R10k just for water. I have been told under ground leaks are worthy of rebates.
They put in new pipe, routed it around the house into the courtyard instead of underneath (no chopping up floors, just left the old pipe in the ground).
I've been watching my meter since they finished and it's barely moved... finally.
Now to deal with 2x COCT bills of R8-R10k just for water. I have been told under ground leaks are worthy of rebates.
MickeyD
RIP
We can claim one water leak rebate per year.
In PE you need an affidavit from your plumber giving all details and that the leak was not visible on the surface. This must go to the metro ASAP. They will do the next reading and then re-calculate your account by leaving out the "usage spikes" and using the average for those "spiked" periods.
I have submitted mine and must return on 9 April to receive my adjusted account.
My average is just under 20Kl per month. Dec and Jan was 74 and 96. So I should receive a rebate based on a credit of 130Kl plus the associated sewage charge (based on about 60% of water charge). So my rebate will be around R3500.
Yeah I have already claimed against the first leak which is pending; waiting on plumbers report for the second leak.
I haven't been able to find much on this for COCT other than:
https://www.capetown.gov.za/en/Water/Documents/FAQIssue1_17May2010.pdf
Quite an old document, but I see the by-law is dated 2010.