Garden digging and depth of utilities

Leif

I'm going to dig my front lawn with a rotavator, and I know the water, gas and electric come in from the main road under the lawn or drive. Am I right to assume all utilities will be deeper than 6" = 15cm? Regs suggest gas should be 37.5cm deep or more, but I'd rather play safe. I know some dranage pipes are only ~6" deep. I don't want to have to dig manually, as my soil is very hard to dig.

Furts

You cannot assume anything on depths. Nothing is supervised or checked so contractors have a free hand to cut corners. Depth of cover being just one of these.

I have seen electric cables with 40mm cover in adopted public footpaths. These then passed into private ground and became worse.

My cable TV was laid with the front lawn grass just covering the cables. This was then quality controlled and inspected as part of an audit. It was passed as satisfactory. Over time my petrol mower scalped the lawn along the line of the trench and the cable was then on the surface.

Leif

Thanks Furts, that was my worry, that regulations might not be followed. Would it be safe to use a rotavator on the front lawn? I assume there is some warning such as a layer of sand or pea shingle above pipes, and that they are armoured? Or is this me being naive?

ian103

Theres no guarantee that there will be sand / gravel or tape. The minimum that I would expect would be 450mm but as said before corners do get cut.

If you want to be totally safe you could sweep the area with a CAT and genny, or take the risk and proceed slowly and carefully (you could even dig trial holes by hand to locate / confirm the position of the services) - you should be able to work out where the water pipe, gas and the mains cable are, not so easy with BT and cable etc.

http://www.instruments4hire.co.uk/test-equipment/product-150-Cable-and-Pipe-Locators--/RADIODETECTION-CAT--amp--GENNY/

Leif

Thanks. It sounds like the only safe option is to hand dig a trench where services are likely to be. Better safe than gassed, electrocuted and wet.