You're responsible for laying the underground service pipe to the agreed location on your quotation visit. 

You should hire an approved plumber or contractor to lay the pipes. 

If you use a Watermark approved plumber to install your service pipe and your internal plumbing, they may be able to self-certify the work. This means we may not need to come out and inspect the work before we complete the connection.

We will carry out audit checks on a random selection of these jobs to make sure standards are being met.

A home is normally connected to our water network by a 25mm or 32mm pipe. 

This provides a flow rate of up to 1 litre per second and a minimum of 1.5 bar pressure at the boundary stop tap which is sufficient to supply a two-storey house. 

You’ll need to tell us what size pipe you plan to use. We’ll check the pipe will be suitable for the connection you need and agree this with you.

If you’re not sure where your nearest water main is, you should download a water network map to find where you can connect you home. 

We'll need you to supply a plan showing where you hope to lay the new service pipe. If you don't know the exact position, we can discuss it with you during our site visit.

Make sure you check maps of our water network to find out if any of our pipes or assets might need to be moved.

You may need to apply to have pipes and assets diverted, or you may need to apply for a build over if there are any public sewers on site.

We can’t give permission for you or your contractor to enter or carry out work on private land. 

You’re responsible for arranging permission to work on land owned by a third party.

We can't begin work on any connection until you have shown proof that you have the relevant and required permissions.

You will need to submit a soil or ground investigation report with your application if the site has previously been used for anything other than greenfield land.

A site is considered greenfield if it’s:

• Undeveloped land in a city or rural area
• Used for agriculture
• Used for landscape design 
• Left to evolve naturally

If you can’t submit a soil report, we’ll ask you to use protective pipe work instead of medium density polyethylene (MDPE) to make sure your new water supply and our network are protected from contamination.

If you have laid MDPE pipe without a soil report on a non-greenfield site, you must replace it with barrier pipe before we can connect you. This is in order to protect water quality.

If you know of any previous water supplies to the site and can provide details to us, you could reduce the cost of the infrastructure charges.