Maria

The usual - water, gas, electrics and BT. I know about the neighbours foundations, and I suspect they are deeper, than 800mm that we plan to excavate. But I can't verify for certain, and he gave me a copy of the planning application where it seems that the foundations are 600mm deep. (I measured the drawings and they appeared to be to scale) But there was a lot of negativity from the neighbours, so they will be difficult if they can.

That was a survey done by a specialist firm. There are details on the PDF. They marked the ground as well. But the contractor will do the trial digs anyway.

Retired surveyor 😁 If I could get away with it, I would. Unfortunately they will stop the works. They are concerned that I might be coming too close to their garage/studio foundations, which is a 2 storey building on the edge of the lane.

Copper cable serving 2 properties- mine and neighbour who doesn't live there. I don't think it how's to a pole anywhere near. I think it might be branched off a bigger cable in the main road (if that's what they do).

😅😅

What sort of money for the damages? It's a private lane with cable servicing 2 properties (mine and neighbours who currently don't live there). So not a huge issue for anyone really. I just found experience dealing with them incredibly frustrating. It took 2 months and £390 for them to come on site, and after all that I am none the wiser

I have scanned the lane. That's the survey results in the attached PDF.

I would, but they can stop the works if I don't get an OK from them. And knowing them, they will

I wasn't going to interfere until the neighbours started asking for plans and drawings of the works as it comes under party wall agreement. I have posted about it earlier this year. I did have to stall all the works then and get the surveys etc done . But I am really back to square one - the contractor says - they'll pick the best route, and the neighbours say they need to know exactly how far and how deep from their properties we are going to dig. That's why if we managed to get BT line out the way, it would give us a clear path fairly in the middle of the lane. And if something gets damaged, I figure the BT cable is the least of all evils.

Has anyone had any experience damaging a BT cable whilst doing excavation works? Or getting BT openreach to temporarily disconnect the cable to allow excavations? I have to bring the services though a shared drive with limited space. There are neighbors' outbuildings on both side of the drive, so I don't want to come too close to them. The middle of the drive has already gas, water, electrics and BT. I did get BT people come for a survey on site to see if they could disconnect the line temporarily, so we can roll up the cable and have a clear space for the trench. They were not conclusive whether it was possible. They didn't know if the cable was ducted or buried. The contractor said they'll just dig around existing utilities avoiding coming too close to the outbuildings, but if the cable gets damaged during works, what are the likely consequences (what sort of damage charges am I likely to face)? The line is copper. I attach the PDF with utility map Many thanks Utility Detection Survey.pdf

He also mentioned 45 degree rule, would this apply if the garage foundations are deeper than 750mm?

The property will be on private drainage. It's too far away from the main sewer. Would 650mm separation still apply? I thought it was less.

Yes, at the moment the plan is to excavate up to 750mm. I came across the drawing in this forum, and was thinking to do similar. The only exception is telecom, this will not have to be dragged through the lane. The connection point is near the boundry between A and C. BT will sort out a wayleave and connect. At the moment the owners of the lane aren't living in their property, so don't need a daily access. We have discussed that the lane will be out of action for a few days, they are fine with it.

"3m and deeper than the foundations of the garages" The deepest point of the trench will be 750mm. I am not sure whether the foundations of the garages are above or below this level. I suppose I can't make an assumption that the garage foundations are deeper than that? Moling is probably not an option provided there are existing services there. I have been told that the moles don't quite follow the straight line and I think it might have been used in the lane previously.

I did start first in 2018, then stopped and restarted in 2019 and laid foundations, and then stopped until early this year. We have removed about 500 tonnes of earth through this little lane and he certainly knew that the plan was to lay services there. I may be overthinking, but I do wonder whether he is just making it difficult by not mentioning this earlier. But I suppose he didn't have to mention at all and then could have stopped the works all together... Anyway, I was certainly going to do the trial pits before digging the whole trench up, but I was hoping I could do it at the same time. If I need to produce the drawings with exact location, it means I have to get a contractor to do the trial pits and then reinstate the lane, then (once the neighbours sign off) come back and dig up the trench to be inspected by the water board and backfill it, then come back and do the highways when the utilities are ready to connect. Finding a contractor was extremely difficult. They all seem to be super busy and pick and chose the works. All utilities suggested connecting at the highway, but then, they may not necessarily know that the new build is in my garden. We've split the deeds for mortgage purposes. I've attached the drawing with the route suggested by electricity board, the rest of them follow pretty much the same route. 4133632 PLANSB.pdf

Hello everyone and thanks for reading. I am in the middle of building a dormer bungalow (A) in my garden. Access to it as well as my current home (B) and one more bungalow (C) is via a private lane, between 2 properties (D) and (E). To make it clear properties A, B and C are located behind the front row of bungalows with no direct access to the highway except via the little private lane belonging to C . I have right of way. I initially started works a few years ago and stalled them a few times for various reasons. None of the neighbours ever mentioned anything to me, apart from the original objections at the planning stage. Now that I am well on the way the owners of D have told me that I need to serve them and the owners of E a party wall notice because I will be excavating the lane to lay services (roughly 2.5m wide) and both properties have garages sitting on each side of the lane right on the boundary. I am a novice and didn't know anything about it, but looked it up and submitted a notice. He came back, saying it's invalid because he needs the drawings detailing plans and sections of the proposed trench location in relation to the existing structures, diameter of the excavation, depth and a method statement. Do I have to comply with everything he asked for? I am concerned that he'll just keep asking for more information and details, potentially costing thousands and thousands. There are already services in the lane for the properties B and C, and since it's private land there's no way of knowing where they are without doing the pit trials (ar the least). Plus potentially lots of other extra works. He is an ex surveyor, so I assume he had known about the party wall notice all along and could have asked/mentioned it a few years back. Now it looks like I'm going to postpone my utilities connection dates and possibly start looking for another contractor, as the one I agreed with isn't going to keep coming back for one little job at a time. As an alternative solution, could I potentially T off the existing supplies? My property isn't on a water meter. I assume I could potentially stick a meter for each property at my plot boundary? Could I do the same for gas? I also have an electric pole in my garden, but for some reason the electricity board proposed to connect at highway in front of the property D. Hope this makes sense and thanks for helping,

Thanks again for your input... Herb, your garden looks amazing! I think we'll be planning to terrace the embankment. This way we might be able to avoid taking a lot of muck off site as well. The embankment is at the highest point behind the build and we can potentially redistribute the excavated earth to build up the levels further away. The architect confirmed that we don't have go through planning for this. We just need to see if we want to get an approval in order to claim VAT back as you, guys, suggested. Time might be an issue though, as we bought the plot with the planning permission already in place, and it runs out end of May, beginning of June.

I would prefer to have it terraced. This way, I think we'd get more use out of this bit of land. So will check with the builder. I assume we wouldn't need to get council approval for it? Thank you for the link and photos, Declan. Will give them a ring in a moment.

Hi all, Many thanks for your feedback, which is really appreciated. The land behind is ours and there will be nothing there. I suppose, we'd have to allow for occasional foot traffic by occupiers of the newly built house, as there is currently access to the top of the embankment ad we intend to keep it. I will try to try to contact a few engineers tomorrow, and hopefully can find someone for under £500. The total cost of £25-30K scares the hell out of me.

We are about to start a build of a dormer bungalow in the corner of our garden. The back of the build will be next to an embankment, that would need partial excavation to accommodate the patio. The finished height can be anything up to 3 m (I assume) and 17.5 m long . The embankment is various heights (the highest point is about 5 m) at different points and just a bit of empty land - about 10 m deep that doesn't have any traffic or neighboring properties, so we can excavate into it and grade it down to required height, I assume. I have attached the site section. Nothing was specified in the building regs and I understand that we can opt for pretty much anything as long as it's structurally safe. Our major issues are tight access and budget constraints. We won't be able to get any large machinery on site: the biggest lorry that can get in is 3, 4 tonne. The nearest parking point for cement mixer/larger machinery is about 40 meters away, so any concrete would have to be either pumped or brought in by dumber trucks. The cranes are probably out of question as well, so any large, heavy items like steel beams would be difficult and extremely expensive to get on site. What would be our best options? I was thinking along gabion baskets and perhaps recycling some of the excavated material, as it's quite rocky. Is this something that can be done ourselves to save costs? I've had a quick look and there are online calculators for required width and stone volume. Do we need SE report for this? Any other suggestions? We basically need something that's not too expensive and feasible. Retaining wall.pdf