New Water Connections £5k cost - Any Wisdom Pls ?

[DRD]

I need 5x new water connections for my site. 2x resi, 3x small commercial



The water main runs across my land (grass verge alongside public highway, no pavement) and there is no need to dig up a road/ pavement/ or go across anyone else's ground. Traffic lights will probably be required.

I have dug trenches bought and laid the relevant pipes, leaving long "tails" vertically above the water main. All that needs to be done is to dig up the water main, add a 63mm connection, put a manifold on this, connect 5x meters, then connect my pipes.

I would estimate 1 day of work max. 1x digger guy - say £200, 1x spade guy - say £100, 1x qualified techie - say £200. Digger hire - say £100. Water fittings £500 max. Traffic light hire- say £200 ? Grand total, my guess, £1,300.

Anglian Water must perform some of the work, this is called "non contestable". Other parts can be done by any licensed contractor, this is called "contestable".

Anglia has given me a quote of £5,000 just to do these 5x connections. FIVE GRAND !!!!!!! Of this, £500 is non contestable admin type stuff, so I am stuck with it. The actual digging and plumbing is contestable and priced at a staggering £4,500.

Does anyone know of contractors who could do this work ? Does anyone have suggestions how I can save money ?

Thank you

 

[kevlar]

I have a spade you can borrow Dave?

 

[Paul]

EDIT - Ignore me. Didnt read the OP properly!

 

[DRD]

I have done all the digging I can. It is about minimizing the costs of the connections to the water main, it simply cannot be a 4.5k job

 

[Paul]

could they just do one connection and you sort the others from that? Almost like a star network?

 

[M4carp]

Shame you don’t know someone who works for Anglian who wants a cash job, I did this with Western Power where I needed a cable moved from the overhead pole to another point.
They came in their work vans and looked above board at a much cheaper rate

 

[DRD]

I need individual water meters unfortunately. I want the properties to be responsible to the water board for their consumption.

Folk have abused sub metered water supplies in the past

 

[Jmac]

No offence but the figures you have listed are pretty undervalued when you got to £1300. For example the materials for 500 max - it will cost 500 alone for the 5 water meters and BS enclosures. That’s before the manifold and fittings. I would estimate materials being a grand min. Also 200 for traffic lights. In my experience just the fee to the council highways dept just to process the application for work on the road will be 700+. I would estimate the total unit cost to a business is about 3k so they are putting a 50% margin on top. Trying to find a small local utility (one man band) company will be your best bet but I would still expect to pay north of 3k

I’ve done many new build developments and yes utilities connections feel like a rip off but I always estimate them at an average of 1k per basic connection (when it is more than 3 properties) when working out cost viability prior to even purchasing the site.

 

[domlouis]

Is part of the cost the need to partly close the road? Hence the need for traffic lights? I thought this would bring the cost up. And delays.

 

[russdx1]

Does not surprise me, costing me £950 just to have a new service line power cable extended 2.5 meters into a new box and that does not include any digging! Literally just laying down a new cable and poking into the new meter box and capping it off the old cable.