Hi all,
I have recently moved into a new property and am struggling to figure out what to do with my drainage system and have recieved a lot of conflicting information from various people.
This photo attached shows the current situation:
For context, I live in a basement flat with 1 other flat living above me.
The large black pipe at the front of the picture is their soil pipe.
My washing machine and kitchen sink go into the gully(?) and relevant pipe however I have my own drain system at the front of the house for all other stuff.
As you can see the pipe connects to next door, which is a story in itself in that apparently whilst building an extention, the contractors jumped over the fence and connected the drains on our now property to theirs (when they were previously not). This was unauthorised and without building control approval etc. They then didn't fix it. The council at the time, after this happened, said the piping could no longer be buried as next door would have insufficient fall and the drainage would be poor.
I have contacted a few people to try and fix this as obviously it looks not visually appealing, and as far as I am aware may be against building regs too. Some have told me to try and bury the pipe again involving expensive damp proofing etc, others have told me to concrete over the top, others have told me to deck over it, and others have told me to rearrange piping so not as obtrusive.
I'd really appreciate any advice, particularly around the best ways to arrange the piping or if anyone knows anything regarding the regs about waste pipes being unprotected above ground etc.
Cheers