How to tell if you have lead pipes

If your home in Bristol was built before the 1970s, there is a fair chance the water pipe coming in from the street is lead. Bristol Water says a large number of properties in its area built before the 1970s still have a lead supply. You can usually check in a few minutes with a coin and a fridge magnet.

Where to look

Start at your inside stop tap. This is the tap that shuts off water to the whole house. Common places in older Bristol homes:

• under the kitchen sink
• under the floorboards in the front room or hall
• in a cellar or under the stairs
• in a cupboard by the front door

In a typical Bedminster or Southville terrace, the supply often comes in under the front room floor and runs back to the kitchen in the rear wing. You may need to lift a board or a hatch. Look at the pipe just before it reaches the stop tap. That is the bit you want to test.

The four checks

Check	Lead pipe	Copper pipe	Plastic pipe
Colour	Dull grey	Orange brown, can go green	Blue, black or grey plastic
Scratch with a coin	Shiny silver shows	Bright copper shows	Soft plastic, no metal
Tap it with a key	Dull thud	Ringing note	Dull plastic sound
Magnet	Does not stick	Does not stick	Does not stick
Joints	Rounded swelling, called a wiped joint	Neat compression nuts or soldered joints	Push fit or compression fittings

The magnet test mainly rules out iron or galvanised steel, which a magnet will stick to. Some interwar homes in Bristol had iron pipes rather than lead.

Scratch gently. Lead is soft and you only need a light mark. Do not dig into it.

Check the whole run

A copper or plastic pipe at the stop tap does not prove the house is lead free. Plumbers often see these mixed set ups in Bristol:

• copper inside the house, with lead from the front wall to the pavement
• lead under the floor, joined to copper only at the kitchen sink
• an old lead branch still feeding an outside tap
• one lead pipe shared by two terraced houses, splitting under the front gardens

If you can see where the pipe enters the house through the front wall, check that point too. If the boundary stop tap cover in the pavement is easy to lift, you can sometimes see the pipe there, but leave the tap itself alone. That section is Bristol Water’s.

Why it matters

The Drinking Water Inspectorate says drinking water with small amounts of lead can let lead build up in the body. It is most harmful to pregnant women and young children.

There is a Bristol detail here too. Bristol Water says on its water hardness page that one reason it does not soften the supply is that soft water is more corrosive and could increase the risk of lead dissolving from old lead pipes. If you fit a water softener in a home that still has a lead supply, keep your drinking tap on unsoftened water, as Bristol Water advises, and plan to replace the lead.

What to do if you find lead

1. Contact Bristol Water. It can advise on a lead check of your water.
2. See if the free scheme covers you. Bristol Water’s LeadFreeBristol scheme is working in BS16 in October 2026. Our guide to the lead pipe replacement scheme has the details and conditions.
3. Until the pipe is replaced, run the cold kitchen tap for a short while before drinking first thing in the morning or after you have been away.
4. Always use the cold tap for drinking and cooking.
5. Get a quote to replace your section of pipe if the scheme does not reach you.

Bristol Water notes that replacing pipes on your property can cost upwards of £1,000, depending on the length and what has to be dug up. In a short Bedminster front garden that is often less work than a long drive in Henleaze, but the only way to know is a look at the job.

Bedminster and Southville homes

Most of Bedminster and Southville was built in the late Victorian period, long before plastic water pipe existed. Front gardens are short and many houses open straight onto the pavement, so the supply pipe is often only a few metres long. That makes a lead supply easier to spot. You can often see the pipe come through the front wall into the front room or hall. If your house has been modernised, look for a short length of grey pipe still sitting below a newer copper stop tap. Bedminster is also a ward with additional and selective landlord licensing, so landlords there may want lead checked as part of wider safety work.

What replacement involves

A plumber lays a new plastic supply pipe from the boundary to a new inside stop tap. Where the ground allows, the new pipe can be pulled through the line of the old one to reduce digging. Inside, any lead branches are cut out and replaced. An electrician may need to check the earth, because older homes often used the metal water pipe as part of the electrical earth.

Our leak detection page covers supply pipe work, including tracing old pipes that leak under paths and floors. A new pipe also tends to fix the weak pressure many older terraces have.