Down the drain! - CCTV, Spurs and Mysteries

[Ian]

There's no restrictions in either the Building Regs or in the British Standards regarding how steep a fall you can lay a foul drain at (apart from the restrictions governing minimum gradients)

 

Some relevant extracts:

First extract is from BS8301:1985 Code of Practice for Building Drainage (now superceded)

Second extract is from BS EN 752:2008 Drain & Sewer Systems outside Buildings

 

 

Edited February 20, 2018 by Ian

[Ed_MK]

1 hour ago, Mr Punter said:

 

That is interesting.  I always followed the same reasoning about the liquid leaving solids stranded, but the system manufacturers and Building Regs make no mention of this being an issue.  How steep was your blocked drain, and did it block in the same part of the run?

 

hmmm..possible because many people dont' have the luxury or inclination to go deeper if they don't have to !

 

Well the verdict is is !

 

2 companies came today, poked a camera down various manholes, including neighbours while they were out (ssshh) and both came up with the same 

answers

 

1. Ask your neighbours to let you connect on their land

2. connect to the main sewer at 2.6m and don't expect any change from £10k+

3. you MAY have a spur,  (which will probably be in a buried manhole on your drive (thats news) but we cant see it, could be capped, benched over ... so our advice would be to

 

a) Wallop the ground with a 10ib Sledge and listen for sound variations and then start digging

b) Hope the lid is metal (as next doors is) and use a Metal Detector to find it

c) just hope its there regardless  and dig a 3ft trench across the driveway at the same place as the neighbours is

 

PS ..Over the last 40 years the driveway appears to have been resurfaced at least twice, possible 4 times

 

As i suspected I would be ...I am down £150 and still in the dark(ish)

 

 

 

[Declan52]

Make sure before you start digging a trench across the drive you trace any electric, gas and water services. 

How deep down is the neighbours pipe on their drive???

[Jeremy Harris]

2 hours ago, Mr Punter said:

 

That is interesting.  I always followed the same reasoning about the liquid leaving solids stranded, but the system manufacturers and Building Regs make no mention of this being an issue.  How steep was your blocked drain, and did it block in the same part of the run?

 

TBH, I don't know how steep it was or where the blockage was each time.  It was our first house and I wasn't at all clued up on stuff like this then, I just called a chap out to clear it whenever it blocked.  The drain ran from the back to the front of the house, under a gated path/tunnel that went through the house (it was an old Victorian terraced house).  All I remember is that it always blocked in the section from the rear side of that path, to the very front of the front garden, where it met the much deeper shared foul. drain that ran along all the front gardens of the terrace.

 

 

2 hours ago, Ian said:

There's no restrictions in either the Building Regs or in the British Standards regarding how steep a fall you can lay a foul drain at (apart from the restrictions governing minimum gradients)

 

Some relevant extracts:

First extract is from BS8301:1985 Code of Practice for Building Drainage (now superceded)

Second extract is from BS EN 752:2008 Drain & Sewer Systems outside Buildings

 

 

 

Thanks for that, so it seems that there has been a change of view on this over the past 35 years!  Makes me wonder what caused our old drain to block so often.  That was in pre-drain camera days, so the views of the guys clearing it was probably guesswork.  It was also clay pipe, so might have been a dislodged joint or similar.

[PeterW]

That’s music to my ears as I can now justifiably go down the drive to a reasonably low ie 1200mm chamber, and then drop into the sewer at 45 degrees with the last bit at 90 to the sewer ..! Result ..!!! 

[Ed_MK]

I will tell you what ...these dowsing rods i got off eBay for a fiver are a bit mysterious.

 

I went over a big rug downstairs 8ft x 6ft  and they did not "cross"

but i told my wife to put a coin under somewhere (a 2p) and the damn things found it.

Even though i didn't know where it was ....several times too ?!?

its all a bit Paranormal for me !  .....but i have no IDEA how it works ...they are 2 bent brass rods in copper tubes

I don't believe in all that normally, but there you go ...perhaps i should get the tarot cards out for my Building control

man

 

..I wonder CAN it detect an empty clay pipe a few feet down ??

 

 

[Triassic]

Do you have the drainage plans for the road next to your plot? Are there sewers in this road that might be more accessible?

[ProDave]

1 hour ago, Ed_MK said:

I will tell you what ...these dowsing rods i got off eBay for a fiver are a bit mysterious.

 

I went over a big rug downstairs 8ft x 6ft  and they did not "cross"

but i told my wife to put a coin under somewhere (a 2p) and the damn things found it.

Even though i didn't know where it was ....several times too ?!?

its all a bit Paranormal for me !  .....but i have no IDEA how it works ...they are 2 bent brass rods in copper tubes

I don't believe in all that normally, but there you go ...perhaps i should get the tarot cards out for my Building control

man

 

..I wonder CAN it detect an empty clay pipe a few feet down ??

 

 

I was skeptical until my BIL said here, hold these and walk slowly across the yard. When they swung together he said "that's the drain pipe you have just walked over"

 

I have been told, but not tried it, they can detect almost anything. The key I am told is to think about what you are looking for, in your case a drain pipe.

[Ed_MK]

On 2/27/2018 at 14:36, Triassic said:

Do you have the drainage plans for the road next to your plot? Are there sewers in this road that might be more accessible?

 

sadly I do!

there are drains right across the road ....but they are "unadopted" as are ALL the services there

 

What this means ...is that after making a dozen enquiries, sending letters and trying to get an answer about connecting to services that still belong to the developer..

...tumble weed !! nada! zip!

 

I am guessing that building hundreds of homes for circa 400k each means that I (with my little house) am completely INSIGNIFICANT and don't warrant a response.

I was told not to expect one , and they did not dissappoint

 

Sadly apart from across the road, the closest connection on OUR side is almost 100 metres on public rd (you don't want to HEAR the quote we got!)
...hence the trench via our parents land

[Mr Punter]

36 minutes ago, Ed_MK said:

there are drains right across the road ....but they are "unadopted" as are ALL the services there

 

I understand that all drains that serve more than one property were automatically "adopted" following a change in the law.  This would not give you the right to connect on someone else's land, however.

[Ed_MK]

On 2/28/2018 at 17:59, Mr Punter said:

 

I understand that all drains that serve more than one property were automatically "adopted" following a change in the law.  This would not give you the right to connect on someone else's land, however.

 

Which is where I currently stand.

 

the neighbours manhole is about 6 foot from our soil stack manhole.

It would be a simple matter of diverting the current config to run to theirs instead of down the garden ...

...but alas ...life is not that simple.

 

1. 1 am not sure if i would like someone to connect on my land, digging up my block paving etc, etc, but i could be "persuaded" i guess

2. However...Some people are very "private" and are not easily approachable and so a "sorry, but no" would be almost assured in this case

 

Its the way it is