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Do I need to re-earth a partly-removed lead pipe?

Posted by Mick , on Tue 02 Apr 2019 10:01pm

I had some lead water supply pipes replaced with plastic ones, but some of the lead pipes remain in my cellar and has an earth clamp. The lead pipe goes into the earth but it was disconnected from the water supply so it's essentially an empty unused pipe. Is it safe for this to have an earth clamp on it? Should the wire and earth clamp be moved onto something else?

David Ahmed

Sat 06 Apr 2019 06:54am

Yes you will need to continue your continuity of your main water earth bonding from the main income to the electric mains supply and the gas needs to be earth bonded also.

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Alfie Jenks

Tue 02 Apr 2019 10:18pm

The new 18th edition regs state that a gas supply coming into a building does not need earth bonding if the incomer is plastic. If its lead it still needs to be connected to the main earth. As the lead pipe is still accessible to you. Meaning you can touch it, I would recommend leaving the earth bonding connected. All metallic pipework, frame works etc that has some kind of link to earth needs to be bonded to the main earth terminal so everything is at the same potential. If your old lead pipe was not bonded to the main earth. There could be a potential difference between the met and the lead pipe causing a voltage between the two. This could be a shock risk. Hope that helps.

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