Question 1

Do I have lead water pipes in my Macclesfield home?

Accepted Answer

If your house was built after 1970, no — United Utilities are clear that homes from then on don't have lead. If it was built before 1970, it might, and in Macclesfield's Victorian streets it's a genuine possibility. Find the pipe where it comes into the house, usually by the stopcock: lead is dull grey, soft enough to mark with a coin, and makes a dull thud rather than a ring when you tap it. The test takes a minute. Look at the incoming supply pipe where it enters the house, normally under the kitchen sink near the stopcock. Copper is the colour of a penny and rings when tapped. Modern plastic is blue or black. Lead is dull grey, has a rounded, slightly swollen look at the joints, and if you scrape it gently with a coin it goes shiny silver underneath — and it's soft, so it thuds rather than rings. Whether it's likely comes down to when your house was built, and in Macclesfield that varies enormously by street. Over half the houses in the town centre pre-date 1919, so if you're in one of the old silk-weavers' terraces, or the streets around Hurdsfield, this is a question worth actually checking. If you're on Weston — where eight houses in ten went up between the war and the early eighties — or in Tytherington, where almost nothing is pre-1919, it's very unlikely you have any lead at all. It matters more here than it would in a hard-water town, and this is the part people don't know. Hard water lays down a scale coating inside pipes that partly seals the lead in. Macclesfield's water is soft, and soft water is mildly more aggressive at dissolving lead into whatever passes through. So a lead pipe in this town is doing less to protect itself than the same pipe would in Kent. The good news is that United Utilities will help pay for it. Under their lead and common supply pipe scheme they'll provide a new connection from your boundary to the main free of charge — you cover the work inside your own boundary, from the boundary to the first cold tap. It's not a whole free pipe, but it's a meaningful chunk of the cost, and it's a scheme very few people know exists. If you'd rather find out for certain than squint at a pipe, United Utilities will test your water for lead. And in the meantime, the sensible habit in any house with lead is to run the cold kitchen tap for a moment before you fill a kettle or a glass — you want water that's been moving, not water that's been standing in the pipe all night.

Question 2

How do I check for a lead water pipe?

Accepted Answer

If your house was built after 1970, no — United Utilities are clear that homes from then on don't have lead. If it was built before 1970, it might, and in Macclesfield's Victorian streets it's a genuine possibility. Find the pipe where it comes into the house, usually by the stopcock: lead is dull grey, soft enough to mark with a coin, and makes a dull thud rather than a ring when you tap it. The test takes a minute. Look at the incoming supply pipe where it enters the house, normally under the kitchen sink near the stopcock. Copper is the colour of a penny and rings when tapped. Modern plastic is blue or black. Lead is dull grey, has a rounded, slightly swollen look at the joints, and if you scrape it gently with a coin it goes shiny silver underneath — and it's soft, so it thuds rather than rings. Whether it's likely comes down to when your house was built, and in Macclesfield that varies enormously by street. Over half the houses in the town centre pre-date 1919, so if you're in one of the old silk-weavers' terraces, or the streets around Hurdsfield, this is a question worth actually checking. If you're on Weston — where eight houses in ten went up between the war and the early eighties — or in Tytherington, where almost nothing is pre-1919, it's very unlikely you have any lead at all. It matters more here than it would in a hard-water town, and this is the part people don't know. Hard water lays down a scale coating inside pipes that partly seals the lead in. Macclesfield's water is soft, and soft water is mildly more aggressive at dissolving lead into whatever passes through. So a lead pipe in this town is doing less to protect itself than the same pipe would in Kent. The good news is that United Utilities will help pay for it. Under their lead and common supply pipe scheme they'll provide a new connection from your boundary to the main free of charge — you cover the work inside your own boundary, from the boundary to the first cold tap. It's not a whole free pipe, but it's a meaningful chunk of the cost, and it's a scheme very few people know exists. If you'd rather find out for certain than squint at a pipe, United Utilities will test your water for lead. And in the meantime, the sensible habit in any house with lead is to run the cold kitchen tap for a moment before you fill a kettle or a glass — you want water that's been moving, not water that's been standing in the pipe all night.

Question 3

Should I replace my lead supply pipe?

Accepted Answer

If your house was built after 1970, no — United Utilities are clear that homes from then on don't have lead. If it was built before 1970, it might, and in Macclesfield's Victorian streets it's a genuine possibility. Find the pipe where it comes into the house, usually by the stopcock: lead is dull grey, soft enough to mark with a coin, and makes a dull thud rather than a ring when you tap it. The test takes a minute. Look at the incoming supply pipe where it enters the house, normally under the kitchen sink near the stopcock. Copper is the colour of a penny and rings when tapped. Modern plastic is blue or black. Lead is dull grey, has a rounded, slightly swollen look at the joints, and if you scrape it gently with a coin it goes shiny silver underneath — and it's soft, so it thuds rather than rings. Whether it's likely comes down to when your house was built, and in Macclesfield that varies enormously by street. Over half the houses in the town centre pre-date 1919, so if you're in one of the old silk-weavers' terraces, or the streets around Hurdsfield, this is a question worth actually checking. If you're on Weston — where eight houses in ten went up between the war and the early eighties — or in Tytherington, where almost nothing is pre-1919, it's very unlikely you have any lead at all. It matters more here than it would in a hard-water town, and this is the part people don't know. Hard water lays down a scale coating inside pipes that partly seals the lead in. Macclesfield's water is soft, and soft water is mildly more aggressive at dissolving lead into whatever passes through. So a lead pipe in this town is doing less to protect itself than the same pipe would in Kent. The good news is that United Utilities will help pay for it. Under their lead and common supply pipe scheme they'll provide a new connection from your boundary to the main free of charge — you cover the work inside your own boundary, from the boundary to the first cold tap. It's not a whole free pipe, but it's a meaningful chunk of the cost, and it's a scheme very few people know exists. If you'd rather find out for certain than squint at a pipe, United Utilities will test your water for lead. And in the meantime, the sensible habit in any house with lead is to run the cold kitchen tap for a moment before you fill a kettle or a glass — you want water that's been moving, not water that's been standing in the pipe all night.

Do I have lead water pipes in my Macclesfield home?

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