Installing Outside Tap to Existing Pipework

[Ric2013]

Your post made me panic until i realised that my boiler is in the bathroom but it is fitted in the airing cupboard complete with a door so in effect a separate room. Im assuming your quote relates to mounting switches on the wall in the actual bathroom, not a cupboard within it?

I'm assuming that either you are certified as a competent person to be carrying out electrics in special locations such as bathrooms and kitchens, and adding new circuits, or that you notified this work to your town building control officer and have had it tested and signed off? Otherwise what you did is illegal whether your work is technically correct or not, though you won't be the first, nor the last. I think the question is more an electrical one than a plumbing one however, so this forum may not be the best place for an answer.
With regard to your airing cupboard technicality and putting aside regulations for the moment (I'm sure others will be happy to lecture you on the potential dangers of DIY electrics but I can't be bothered myself), I would be inclined to consider whether the switch is likely to come into contact with a naked person who is covered in water, or not. Surely that is why in the UK we can't have switches in bathrooms (within 4m of a bath or shower IIRC) (though they do abroad and they seem to survive)?

 

[pyjamas27]

I'm assuming that either you are certified as a competent person to be carrying out electrics in special locations such as bathrooms and kitchens, and adding new circuits, or that you notified this work to your town building control officer and have had it tested and signed off? Otherwise what you did is illegal whether your work is technically correct or not, though you won't be the first, nor the last. I think the question is more an electrical one than a plumbing one however, so this forum may not be the best place for an answer.
With regard to your airing cupboard technicality and putting aside regulations for the moment (I'm sure others will be happy to lecture you on the potential dangers of DIY electrics but I can't be bothered myself), I would be inclined to consider whether the switch is likely to come into contact with a naked person who is covered in water, or not. Surely that is why in the UK we can't have switches in bathrooms (within 4m of a bath or shower IIRC) (though they do abroad and they seem to survive)?

You've lost me there. I'm assuming you refering to the post hijacker. I'm just trying to fit an outside tap, no boilers, electrics etc involved.

 

[Ric2013]

Can you point me to a
guide on the rules please? Thanks

https://www.southernwater.co.uk/Media/Default/PDFs/WaterSupplyRegs.pdf
Follow page 5 of this and you won't be far off. What I don't get is how you'll be able to put your double check valve and isolating valve inside if you can't find where this pipe comes from. A double check valve outside or incorporated into the tap isn't a very good solution as they tend to freeze and then you will experience poor flow and the double check valve probably isn't going to act as a check valve after this.

However, pragmatically, what you have is has probably been installed as a non-compliant outside tap in the past, so I'd be inclined to say that, as an amateur you are unlikely to have the skills to be able to trace this water pipe back to the origin and cut out and repipe from scratch.

As a replacement tap, you would be allowed to fit something like this as a replacement: Pegler HU Bib Tap with Check Valve ½. , but it needs to attach to a wallplate elbow, which you'll need to fit. The Water Regulations aren't retrospective, so you can work on existing systems provided your work makes them more, rather than less, compliant. If you have a look at that Screwfix link, check out DIYmaniac's review, as he summerises the relevent regulations and loopholes in some detail...

 

[pyjamas27]

https://www.southernwater.co.uk/Media/Default/PDFs/WaterSupplyRegs.pdf
Follow page 5 of this and you won't be far off. What I don't get is how you'll be able to put your double check valve and isolating valve inside if you can't find where this pipe comes from. A double check valve outside or incorporated into the tap isn't a very good solution as they tend to freeze and then you will experience poor flow and the double check valve probably isn't going to act as a check valve after this.

However, pragmatically, what you have is has probably been installed as a non-compliant outside tap in the past, so I'd be inclined to say that, as an amateur you are unlikely to have the skills to be able to trace this water pipe back to the origin and cut out and repipe from scratch.

As a replacement tap, you would be allowed to fit something like this as a replacement: Pegler HU Bib Tap with Check Valve ½. , but it needs to attach to a wallplate elbow, which you'll need to fit. The Water Regulations aren't retrospective, so you can work on existing systems provided your work makes them more, rather than less compliant.

Thanks!