Extending near man holes

selement

We have a new build property with 3 man holes in the garden. We are hoping one day to extend from our back doors perhaps with a conservatory. I think we could avoid covering man holes but can't realistically avoid being within 3 meters of one of them. In all honesty I think they are all within 3 meters of the house anyway!

Does anyone have experience of dealing with this? Is it just a case of asking water company for permission to build close? It would be very disappointing if there is no scope at all for extending our property which would be the case if we have to be 3 meters away.

Doozergirl

Who said you have to be more than three metres away?

You will have pipes as well as manholes. Providing that those pipes are a typical shared sewer between neighbours which run to the mains sewer, and not the mains sewer itself, the rule is that building within three metres of the pipes, or the inspection chambers that serve them, requires a Buildover Agreement with the water supplier. It will be checked as part of Building Control during the build.


Tried to make that sentence shorter but failed. In most cases being within three metres won't preclude you from building, you will simply require a buildover agreement. Bear in mind that the pipes are all part of that as well and they aren't seen.

Cakeguts

I think what this means is that you can't really do a DIY job because you don't want to find yourself digging through someone else's drain. So a proper conservatory built by a company.

Davesnave

So long as one knows exactly where they are, digging out close to drains is OK. I've done it and survived.

The water company may make conditions regarding the nature of the foundations though, and to be honest, the last people I'd get to do them would be a conservatory company, who are used to dropping in a quick 450mm job. I'd get a reputable builder to do those, especially if reinforcement and /or bridging is required.

Cakeguts

Davesnave wrote: »

So long as one knows exactly where they are, digging out close to drains is OK. I've done it and survived.

The water company may make conditions regarding the nature of the foundations though, and to be honest, the last people I'd get to do them would be a conservatory company, who are used to dropping in a quick 450mm job. I'd get a reputable builder to do those, especially if reinforcement and /or bridging is required.

It might depend on the company and how much you are prepared to pay?

Doozergirl

Cakeguts wrote: »

It might depend on the company and how much you are prepared to pay?

Conservatory companies build outside of Building Regulations.

I wouldn't trust them with anything official because they purposely avoid them and therefore either have very little knowledge or actual concern about what happens when they leave.

Davesnave

Cakeguts wrote: »

It might depend on the company and how much you are prepared to pay?

It would depend very much on the company, but how one selects....that is the question!

Let's say a 40 year history and 5* reviews on Trustpilot didn't help me much....and as we constructed the foundations, walls and re-laid the drains first, they only had to put the roof on and windows in. There was a 6 month Mexican stand-off till they finally agreed to re-do things the way the manufacturers specified.....and I had to supervise this work.

But I'm told this is what one must expect in an area of the building industry that is largely unregulated and, apparently, in bed with its consumer champion, the GGF.

selement

Thanks for the replies, so might be a case of saving for a proper extension instead of a conservatory? We haven't saved yet anyway so it'll be a while till taking action just was wondering really if it was likely to be allowed. I'm not really sure what's shared and where pipes are, hopefully in some of the house buying documentation somewhere....

Davesnave

An extension is usually better than a conservatory, as it will add much more value compared with what's seen as a temporary structure.


Our conservatory exists because we'd pretty much reached the limit of extension here, there were issues with losing light in the main living space and costs were a factor too. Ours is habitable all year round, barring the 24c days, when we wouldn't use any room on that side of the house, but making it comfortable for most of the year cost extra £££.


Go with the extension if you can.

Cakeguts

selement wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, so might be a case of saving for a proper extension instead of a conservatory? We haven't saved yet anyway so it'll be a while till taking action just was wondering really if it was likely to be allowed. I'm not really sure what's shared and where pipes are, hopefully in some of the house buying documentation somewhere....

The other thing you need to consider is how much of the garden you will have left after you have extended. People generally don't want a big house on a very small garden so if you finish up with a large house with a very small garden it may make the house more difficult to sell and it certainly won't sell for the same amount as a similar sized house with a bigger garden. New build properties tend to be on plots that are just big enough for the size of the house that is on them and if you extend they become too big for the plots. Recently the density of new build houses has had to increase so they put the biggest houses they can on really small plots.