What is normal mains water pressure?

Hi all - just moved into a house in Dublin, from the 1940s. Water pressure from the mains seems low throughout the house - lowish on the ground floor, lower still upstairs, and lowest in the loft where the water tank for the house can take ages to fill when water is drawn from it.

The council insist everything is ok, and came by today. Measuring the pressure on the cold water tap on the ground floor, they give readings of 12psi for the pressure (which they say is normal?) - and 2 litres/minute for the flow (which they say is very low, and should be around 10 litres/minute).

What should the correct readings be? We're being told by the council that the correct thing to do is change our water mains pipe from the house out to the street, as it's old lead, and will have become corroded/coated internally, and it's this buildup of debris that will be restricting the flow.

Does this sound feasible? Very confused by the whole pressure vs. flow issue, and don't want to rip up the entire front garden and part of the front of the house replacing the main water feed to the house, if it's not going to solve anything... any advice greatfully received!

Pressue, flow, and pipe diameter are all related. With a constant pressure, if you increase the pipe diameter, you will get a higher flow.

The pressure from taps apart from cold in the kitchen should not be related to the mains pressure as these should be fed from the tank in the attic.

Talk to some of the neighbours and see what their pressure is like and if any of them have replaced the connection to the main.

Don't know about the pressure problem, but I would suggest that lead water pipes are not healthy especially for young children. My understanding is that the internal surface of the pipe leaches minute particles of lead which are then taken into the child's body and remain there.
I am fairly sure that most if not all lead supply pipes have been replaced by copper or pvc here in England.
The situation here in England is that the supplier is responsible for the pipe from the main to the external stop tap and the householder is respnsible for the rest.

Not a lot of help I'm afraid, but I would seriously suggest that you get back to the council and/or the Dept. of Health for advice.

Is it a council house or is the council just the water supplier?

As BillK said: change the pipes. From the meter/the road to the house incl. the internal pipes. This should help.

just be careful. I did this in a house i lived in in Harold's Cross. Replaced from the mains to the tank with PVC. Pressure improved no end but forgot to replace inlet valve to tank which failed due to the higher pressure. Overflow was blocked so tank overflowed for a while.....