Can you Help me Identify it!

[hmpmarketing]

Hi guys,

 

We started site clearing and upon removing a whole load of spoil/brambles we found this concrete box sitting to the south-east of our plot:

 

 

As you may know from a previous post, I was quoted a bit of cash to get connected to main sewer as we are going to have to run about 10m from boundary to the manhole. My groundworker believes this may be a previous sewer connection (we have no history of what was previously built on the plot, all we know it had some outbuildings where the elderly owner use to keep his plants/garden. We are having a CCTV survey done on Friday to see where the pipe leads, we are hoping for some good news as this would save us a new kitchen  

 

Would anyone be interested guess what this may be?

 

Thanks again!!!

 

 

Edited January 25, 2017 by hmpmarketing

[PeterW]

It's an interceptor running to a sewer, most likely the end house on the run. 

 

http://www.draindomain.com/interceptor traps.html

[hmpmarketing]

@PeterW

Is that good or bad news?

Just now, PeterW said:

It's an interceptor running to a sewer, most likely the end house on the run. 

[PeterW]

Well it depends ..!! 

 

That cast plug looks shot to bits so good luck getting it out ...

 

cctv is fairly pointless unless you know where it goes but what I would do is put a camera in it to start with - break out the plug if you have to as the drop bend will be full of #%€< and then get hold of a signal gennie ("mouse type") and use a CAT to follow it too. 

 

It could save you thousands but only if it's in the right place and only if your sewerage provider say you can connect ..!!

 

have you done a drainage survey of the area as part of the planning ..?? It should show up if it is still active.

 

(mouse gennie is also known as a sonde....)

[hmpmarketing]

Hi @PeterW

 

No drainage survey. We have made no application for sewer connection yet since we found this. I do have a sewer map from the authority responsible (Southern Water), here is the location of the box

 

 

Edited January 25, 2017 by hmpmarketing

[Triassic]

Put the hose pipe down it and leave it running, if the water runs away you might have a sewer connection! Maybe talk to the neighbour and ask if there's a manhole in their garden, of so take a look down it and see if you have water running, turn the hosepipe off and see if it stops.

 

Sewers tend to run  in straight lines, if I were a betting man I'd bet it the interceptor connects to the sewer to the left on the plan above.

 

If it's a working sewer connection you're quids in.

[Temp]

You do need to figure out where it goes, wouldn't do to find out later it that it's been blocked or it comes up in someone's garden. Lift some manholes and chuck some dyed water down the one you found and see if you can figure out where it's going that way. I'd still have the survey done as you need to know the condition of the pipe.   

[Jeremy Harris]

The  water company maps and plans are notoriously inaccurate we found.  We were repeatedly told by Wessex Water than there was no mains water near us,  When we came dig a drainage trench across the lane I had to ask every utility whether they had anything in the area we were going to dig, as a part of getting a Highways Licence.  Wessex Water confirmed they had no pipes in the area.  Luckily our digger chap knew how poor the info was from the utilities, so he very carefully scraped away the trench and lo and behold exposed a 1 1/2" cast iron water pipe running down the centre of the lane!

 

We followed the line of it and found a Wessex Water cast iron cap over a stop cock, in the grass verge of a house across the lane.  It turns out that this was their water main, put in in 1934, when the village first got mains water, but that had been changed in the past 20 years or so, as it had the Wessex Water logo cast into it, rather than the old water board logo.

 

Now here's the odd thing.  Wessex Water knew nothing of that water main, yet were charging the consumer at the end of it for water, and had, at some time not too long ago, replaced the stop cock!  How on earth they knew they were a consumer, when they didn't know about their own pipe is beyond me, but it does illustrate how little faith you should place in maps from utility companies.

 

As a final point, it's worth looking at where this runs, as it's old and it may be it runs to an old cess pit, rather than the main sewer.

[PeterW]

Ok ... if that is still live and connected then you may have another issue - but a smaller one ..!

 

Looking at that map if it goes anywhere then it is through the garden of No.14 and down the back of the houses.

 

If that is the case then SW would have had to adopt that sewer over the past couple of years under the private sewer scheme - notionally they could ask you for the full cost of connection to that point (it's their sewer now) but more likely they will roll over and just charge you the infrastructure charge for a connection and be done with it. 

 

I would still want a sonde and a Cat on it, followed by a proper survey if it seems to go onwards until the last red dot on that map. 

 

Any chance of  going to see the neighbours at the house where the sewer seems to end and looking down their manhole ..?

[hmpmarketing]

Hello everyone, thanks for all your thoughts.

 

I will investigate further and as @PeterW suggested, check the neighbours manhole for any clues. I think I will go ahead with the CCTV drainage survey to see where that pipe leads as others have suggested and then make the appropriate communication with Souther Water. Will keep you all updated.

 

Thanks for the feedback once again