Interesting, Bob says. He is however working on the first floor . He plumbed the laundry room downstairs when we came using some of the existing plumbing done by the previous french owner. Then he concreted the soil floor and tiled it before putting in fitted units ( from MFIs closing down sale) . The tank for the hot water is already in what was the grain store attached to the side of the house,(now my art room) thus he is coming through an exterior wall at the upper floor level, straight through what was the end wall of the house to the back of what is now the bedroom. He has drilled through the masonry and with Adams help when he was here, he has put a plastic pipe through to act as a conduit for the copper water pipes. Coming in from the bottom would have meant the now fully fitted and tiled laundry room would have been affected. Its interesting though and would have been useful if starting from scratchStanley wrote: ↑07 Aug 2019, 06:29 "Its not been an easy job getting pipes through 3 foot thick stone walls."
I came across the same problem Sue at Hey Farm but an old mason showed me the solution. It may be a bit late for Bob but what he showed me was that I was wrong in making the assumption that thick walls needed deep foundations. The opposite is true because they impose less load on the ground because of their area. The old builders had just laid down blue limestone stones (they are waterproof) and built on top. All I had to do was dig down a foot and burrow under the wall, install the pipe and fill the cavity with dry sand. I suspect your old masons may have done the same thing.
As I say, this is a bit late but show it to Bob, it might help him in future.
Mist gone, now glorious sunshine, loads of washing to do!
Just for reference what's the temperature?
Late Winter for you I suppose heading for Spring, wont be long before it will be too hot again. I have a ladies attachment for my bottle as well. I can see an attraction when we get the tent back out, we will be a two bottle couple, even less fun from a tent in the rain. 
