Specialist Moling & Water Main Replacement — East Grinstead & Sussex

Water mains, leaks and plumbing across Sussex and Surrey

Grange Plumbing is a small, owner-run plumbing business based in Crawley Down, West Sussex. Most of what we do falls into three areas: replacing failing underground water supply pipes using trenchless moling, tracing hidden water leaks without demolishing the property, and general domestic plumbing and bathroom work for customers across RH and CR postcodes.

Why underground supply pipes fail

The pipe carrying mains water from the boundary of your property into your home is your responsibility, not the water company's. In houses built before roughly 1970 that pipe is very often lead, galvanised iron, or early black alkathene. Lead and galvanised corrode internally, gradually narrowing the bore until the pressure at the tap is noticeably poor. Alkathene hardens and becomes brittle, then splits — usually at a joint, usually under whatever you least want to dig up.

The warning signs are consistent: a water bill that has crept up with no change in usage, pressure that drops when more than one outlet is running, discoloured or metallic-tasting water first thing in the morning, a patch of lawn that stays green through a dry spell, or the sound of running water when everything in the house is switched off.

How trenchless moling works

Moling replaces a supply pipe without digging a trench across the garden or driveway. We open two small access pits — one near the boundary stop tap, one where the pipe enters the house — and launch a pneumatic boring tool between them. The mole compacts the soil sideways as it travels, leaving a clean bore behind it, and the new 25mm or 32mm MDPE pipe is drawn through in the same pass.

Everything between the two pits stays exactly as it was: block paving, resin drives, lawns, mature planting, patios. That is where the real saving is. Reinstating a trench cut across a modern driveway routinely costs more than the plumbing work itself, and a patched surface rarely matches.

Finding a leak before digging anything

We do not start excavating to find out where the problem is. A survey starts with a meter test to confirm water is being lost and roughly how much, then acoustic listening and correlation along the run to pinpoint the escape, with thermal imaging or tracer gas where the leak is under a solid floor or inside the building fabric.

That matters for insurance too. Most home insurance policies include trace and access cover, which pays for locating and reaching a hidden leak. We provide a written report with the survey findings so the claim is straightforward to submit.

How we quote and what you pay

Every job starts with a free site visit and a fixed written quote. There is no call-out fee, no hourly meter running, and no change to the figure once work begins unless you ask for extra work. We are not an emergency call-out service — we book jobs in properly, usually within the same week — which is how we keep prices sensible.

Typical domestic supply pipe replacement by moling runs from around £1,200 for a short, straightforward run up to roughly £2,800 for long runs, difficult ground or awkward access. Leak detection surveys are priced separately and quoted before we attend.