DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hello, I'd be grateful for anyone's thoughts on the following situation, please (a bit complicated):
We moved into a Victorian cottage 6 months ago, with a shared water supply (shared with 3 other houses). Using the electric shower that was previously in the bathroom was completely out of the question - didn't work at all - it was either too hot or too cold and it changed in an instant... We got someone in and he suggested trying a new shower, so we did that. It's marginally better but hardly at all. You can often wait 10 mins for the shower to get warm again, due to someone in another house using water.
Basically, because of the shared water supply, as soon as anyone in the connected houses turns on the tap or a washing machine, etc, we can't use our shower, which seems to be quite a lot of the time! The pressure frequently drops below 0.7 bar, which is what the electric shower requires to 'work'. Although this is what the water company must legally provide, they only have to provide this once it splits off to a separate supply. There was a leak from another house, with water flowing down the road, and they fixed this piece of piping, but it's still very low pressure (presumably) when anyone else uses water.

For getting our shower to work, is there any alternative to getting our own supply (which they'll charge £1,500 for, I think)?

You first option is to check the cost of a separate supply with the local water company. The cost you mention is for a new supply which is not exactly what you are after. It is against regulation to have shared supplies now so, if a water company knows you intend to replace a main, they will want you to have a dedicated main.

This was certainly the case up to a few years ago, (I haven't requested one more recently than that) and the great thing is, they would fit you a new main to your boundary FOC.

This means that if you are prepared to pick up a shovel, the cost could be no more than the materials.

Now the second option is to increase the storage of water in the loft. You probably only have one tank up there. This could be increased to two, three or more.

You could then use this store by either pumping the water to the shower with a separate pump or by buying an electric shower with one inbuilt.
The tanks could then re-fill at leisure!