Drains

[daiking]

Some drains were laid and they're certainly not to the drawing detail and I need to find out what I should do before we landscape over them

 

This drain leads to this manhole:

Turns through 90 degrees and leads up to this one:

 

 

and the original drain under the drive that has been replaced by this new concrete cover

 

Is my only option to dig them out and take a look?

[Crofter]

Seems a bit extreme. I would:

- rod them to check that they are clear and accessible (if they are not roddable between each access point, then you will have trouble later)

- check gradients by using a level or just pouring some water in

- do a pressure test to check for leaks

 

[ProDave]

The first question is has building conrtrol signed this off yet?  If not then if they haven't done so already, they will usually want to witness a drain pressure test. the answer to that question has a big bearing on what you do next.

It looks like they were running out of depth. Obviously the "end" point of the drain run is fixed at what it is, and drains have to be laid to a minimum fall. So the furthest end is breaking out of the ground. Not in itself a problem if you still have the landscaping to do and will be covering it. Just raising the ground level up to the grid of the hopper should be enough.

[Declan52]

Put a hose at the first drain where the white pipe is on the pic. Lift the cover of each drain and turn the hose on. Now the not nice bit. Put a spade down to restrict the flow at each manhole and any crap in the drain will stop at the spade. Fish it out and repeat until it runs clear.

The pipe that is barely under the topsoil would be a worry to me. Each run should have been laid in at least pea gravel so it doesn't sink and maintains its shape. Would raise the levels here first to stop the pipe getting damaged.

[daiking]

As I understand it, BC ok'd pictures of the drain trenches and probably a blagged pressure test.

Drawings showed an engineered trench with gravel and concrete protection over the top - clearly not present.

It does look bad at the furthest point but the ground level needs to come up a bit - the foundation blocks are exposed. (off topic but this is probably the shallowest point of the foundations but it was the correct depth and a shed load of concrete went in the trench so I'm not overly worried about the apparent lack of depth)

I have at least lifted the manhole cover to see that the kitchen waste water does make its way to the front drain so there is a fall and no catastrophic leaks. 

[mafaldina]

Here in Cornwall they never seem to pressure test. My  experience is a guy comes in with sunglasses on (bright day), falls into drain trench (thus disturbing) and says ok. 

Addendum  to this, if your BCO thinks you know what you are doing they tend to leave you alone,

[SteamyTea]

Is that why we have the most expensive water and sewage costs in the country, they need to buy a lot of sunglasses!

[daiking]

bump wrt my drains question

[PeterW]

Depends what you want to know..? 

 

They look as though when the levels are sorted the first ones should be fine - last pic is odd as it looks like the downpipe gully goes into the chamber.?? 

 

Easy test is to pour a bucket of water down the farthest one and watch the flow.

[daiking]

19 minutes ago, PeterW said:

Depends what you want to know..? 

 

They look as though when the levels are sorted the first ones should be fine - last pic is odd as it looks like the downpipe gully goes into the chamber.?? 

 

Easy test is to pour a bucket of water down the farthest one and watch the flow.

 

I'm not (too) concerned they work, the water does flow the right way but I wanted to put a patio/paving on top of them and use the driveway further back.

 

But now I'm realising that I probably can't hard cover them and build the necessary retaining wall and hand rail - as much for the cost as anything else. Decking (which I hate) will have to do instead so the drains might be ok.

 

But the most shallow run in the first picture, I can't see how I can get away without checking that out and potentially packing correctly. That shallow pipe run and the drain pipe gully go into the same inspection chamber and that runs up to the next plastic inspection chamber in the last picture.

[Onoff]

"The pipe that is barely under the topsoil"

 

Like a parallel life reading daiking's threads!

[daiking]

49 minutes ago, Onoff said:

"The pipe that is barely under the topsoil"

 

Like a parallel life reading daiking's threads!

 

I was expecting a minimal amount of ground work to back fill around the site after the building work was completed. There should be about 2 brick courses of cover there. And I don't know quite why it was taken to that corner. It could have gone the other way which would have made it easier to get the required fall and give it more cover.

[daiking]

Photobucket is being awkward nowadays and restricting all content I used to use.

 

Anyways, digging up the garden has revealed its as bad as I expected. Plastic pipe just put in the ground and back filled

 

Looks like the drain I originally posted is in the way now so I would be looking to move that further along the wall. No idea how that is done.

 

Plus my query about adding a new waste that will potentially just go to a random sot int he garden for quite a while.

[daiking]

So this is the back of the extension. Furthest input into the drains is on the left, the kitchen sink and dishwasher outlet. The pipe is so close to the current surface with just backfill around it. Nothing screened or sand or gravel.

 

Intending to put a path above this along the rear of the extension. With steps down on the left hand side which means this pipe will be in the way. Could easily move the outlet to the right hand side so there isn't so much badly installed pipe so close to the surface.

 

On the right hand side of the picture, there is a black plastic inspection chamber under the planks to the right of the down pipe

Edited July 27, 2017 by daiking

[daiking]

This is the side of the extension where the drain turns 90 degrees and heads toward the front of the house with another black plastic inspection chamber which is vaguely located near the base of those scrap doors leaning near the corner.

 

Over this area we intend to build a serious patio. I expect the pipe will again be just be covered by backfill, nothing graded. But will be a lot deeper than the first section. Wondering if this will need redoing before we build the patio.

 

Also, where I took the photo from is approximately where I might want a drain from a future garden building. The grass is approx 800mm below the level of the right hand inspection chamber and about 10m away. This is where I'm wondering if I can get enough fall for a new drain from the garden.cant remember how deep that chamber is and garden ground workers put some paving slabs over it to get the machines into the garden.

[daiking]

Hurrah, Lazarus, my Scouse plumber has come back from the dead. 

 

At the very least, he will be able to hook me up with someone able to do a passable job. And tell me not be daft with my garden building waste plan

[daiking]

The man from del Monte did not like what he saw.

 

So the question now is whether to take this last chance to dig it all up or check that it's not damaged now and cross fingers for a few decades.

[daiking]