Mains drainage - connecting to - cost and how?

wimbleQ

Hello

Please does anyone know approx. costs and how one goes about connecting to mains drainage?

Some friends are considering buying a property but have discovered it does not have mains drainage connected but has a septic tank.

The house is in a built up area and a Water Board search shows that the mains drains do run all along the road in front of the house.

Is it likely to be a hugely expensive and difficult thing does anyone know? Just wondering how much to allow for this when an offer is made?

Does the water board do this or must you employ your own contractor and have the connection checked/supervised by the water board?

Also would the existing septic tank need to be removed and what might be the costs of doing this?

Ta muchly for any advice on this.

david29dpo

My question is why they want mains drainage. My septic tank is emptied once a year costing £70.00 Mains will cost a LOT more than that!

macman

I think the cost will mainly relate to the distance to run. Pretty sure that they have to do the pipework (no way they'd let you cut into their own street network) but you can probably provide the trenching.
As advised already, can't see any possible reason for doing this if the septic tank is working properly-and their water rates will go up.

hethmar

Well, you need to ring your local water board about this - but you are talking thousands rather than hundreds I should think. Ditto the other guys, if your friend is just going to use this to knock down the house price then Id think the vendors will be a bit miffed as they have priced the house with the current septic system, not for improvements your friends may want to make in future.

lfc321

You need to talk to the Water Co. about whether they will allow it at all, and if so how much they would charge.

I know in my own village the sewer system is recognised as being over capcity. Therefore they don't allow new builds to connect in to it even if the pipe goes right past the front door. I believe they make this a requirement at the planning stage. Something like this might be the reason that the house isn't already connected. Basically you need much more info.

never_enough

Agree with the others, why would they want to? A properly managed septic tank is no hassle. It's worth finding out when it was last replaced though. A friend was quoted £14K to connect to the mains which ran along front of neighbouring property several years ago (in Oxfordshire village). Needless to say she didn't bother!

ormus

why would you bother?

27col

It's the excavation costs that push the price up.Also once you are on main drainage, you will get serious bills from the water company. My friends are on a septic tank and there would be no question of them wanting to go on mains drainage. As ormus says 'why would you bother?'