We bought a "Pavillion" style house/bungalow in the Lot 10yrs ago, the bungalow was built in 1985 but we discovered after buying that it was of pre cast concrete construction.
Over the past 18mnths we have started having water leaks under the tiled floors and our plumber tells us that this is because the pipes are being eaten away by the cement/concrete, as the pipes are layed down in a plastic gange but this has holes in it therefore the cement is allowed to get at the pipes....the plumber has also said that eventually all the pipes will have to be renewed.....eventhough the house is only 28yrs old.
Has anyone out there any experience of this happening ? Are repairs likely to be covered by household insurance?......any advice would be appreciated
that is the point David all pipes are underground including the hot wayer system, my husband is an ex gas fitter but at 77 is unable to get under the house to do the work ......we have a very small space under the house for acess for maintenance and even tthe plumbers find it difficult.....all repairs are being done in plastic I believe....but thanks for your comments
thanks James we have had 3 leaks repaired so far and as we have additional insurance with "Domeo " part of Generale des Eaux Services, they have paid up but as to how long they will carry on paying is the question.
i think it's fairly well known thet leach from concrete, where the concrete is damp from ground moisture will attack metal pipes. The leachate creates an electrolytic medium and electrolysis does the rest. Large sections of the elevated section of the M6 round Birmingham had to be strengthened because of saline water from road salt penetrating the concrete and corroding the rebar.The corroding rebar expanded and blew off the concrete. Pipes buried in concrete are ideally supposed to be sheathed in plastic Simplest and cheapest route is to resupply the house from the incoming main with PVC pipe to the main stop valve. The distibution system within the house should be unaffected as it is normally mounted on the internal walls rather than buried in the concrete and in any case should be dry and not affected by soil moisture.
i have a much older house with pipes under concrete paths / buried inground and even under the tiles in the house buried in concrete and had a leak a few years ago which was detected using a "gas tracer" in under an hour - turned out to be under a bathroom floor on the corner of the property where a junction was capped off about 25 years ago and had failed.
have never heard anything like concrete eating away at pipes before - i would advise ringing around / page jaunes etc and ask a plumbing company to detect the leak , only a reasonable size firm will be expected to have the equipment for this , so your local one man band is probably not much use.sometimes covered by insurance and sometimes not - read the tiny print !
i was happy to pay a few hundred euro to detect / fix my leak as it was costing a fortune in lost water.
This doesn't sound good, if you have a leak you must repair asap, even a tiny pinhole in a pipe is going to cause a lot of damage and cost you a fortune in water consumption. I would, however, get a second opinion before committing to any remedial work. There are companies that can detect the source of a leak with accuracy, which may mean that the repair won't cost the earth. If the pipes are encased in conduits then for the most part at least they should still be in serviceable condition.
Hopefully someone more knowledgable the I can suggest a better course of action.