Underground Services Locator

markedgar

I am planning to carry out some work in my garden. The work involves sinking several steel supporting posts ('Met-Posts') about 750mm down into the earth.

Everywhere I read states 'Warning - check for underground services before siting this post' - or something similar. Obvious, really...

While there are many 'underground service location' organisations with fancy ground radar and the like, I am at a loss here:

When my wife and I (and most other Tom, !!!!!! and Harry's in the land) bought our house, we were given a copy of the house deeds. Nowhere do the deeds show where the underground services for our property are located.

If I (or any homeowner or tenant) is "responsible" for the disruption to a service/supply of a service through damage that they (I) have caused, do property sellers, developers, councils, utility providers, etc. have a duty to provide FREE information to those (me!) that ask for it in order to prevent damage by specifying the location of services unseen?

There are maps covering all the intricate detail of the UK and elsewhere available to all, but finding an map for underground services in the UK (preferably my garden) seems impossible. Strange that in 2005.

If I want the detail of where services are located, how do I do this? Local Council, Land Registry, Water/Electricity/Gas/Telephone provider? Who and how? - and how much?

Anybody any experience of this?

Where do I stand?

Thanks!

Mark E

plumb1_2

Local planning dept.

alanobrien

Plumb1 is absolutely right but you may have a struggle with them.

The local water company are responsible for public drains and sewars they do not hold records of the location of utilities on your property.

You can ask your local water company for a map of the above mentioned services around your property and they should supply it F.O.C. If your lucky it may give you some clue as to the location of your services.

The planning dept of your local council at some point approved the plans to build your house so this is where the "real" records are located. getting to them is something else, I have been trying to get ours for some time without much success. I guess if you can find someone helpful there you may be in luck.

I hope you have better luck than me !

LD

the fact is that your solicitor would/should have done a 'search' prior to your purchase, as what you ask is a standard part of it, if you can't get copies, you will have to redo all the searches and it involve 'fees' and you have BT, your local water company, Transco and the electric grid operator to ask

louisiana

Do you think that our solicitor's would still have copies of seaches 5 years later or is this the wrong place to start?

Boohbah

Services (water gas electric BT) are not general show on drawings, drainage is.
However, in my experience these often get moved about for one reason or the other.
So any drawing you do manage to get hold of, don't read them as gospel.

mutley74

either dig a hole down where the posts are to go carefully at the depth or hire a CAT scanner to do a ground survey...i suppose it depends on how many of these posts u are planning.

Dont assume that anything is ever done or readily available. I am doing some work for a major chemical site, and we cant get hold of any drawings for underground pipes at all.

Utilitech

The only real solutions to your problem are to either hand dig every hole and back filling with concrete, you could hire a CAT (cable avoidance tool) but they can be misleading and often give poor results, they also only detect metallic services missing out things like fibre optics, gas/water mains etc. By getting a survey carried out you can guarantee your not going to damage any services
(or yourself for that matter!) some companies offer low rates for smaller domestic projects and can be more cost effective in the long run.

utilitechsurvey.com

DVardysShadow

SpamMoron wrote: »

The only real solutions to your problem are to either hand dig every hole and back filling with concrete, you could hire a CAT (cable avoidance tool) but they can be misleading and often give poor results, they also only detect metallic services missing out things like fibre optics, gas/water mains etc. By getting a survey carried out you can guarantee your not going to damage any services
(or yourself for that matter!) some companies offer low rates for smaller domestic projects and can be more cost effective in the long run.

5 year old thread? Go away, spam moron