Need to locate manhole - possibly under extension?!

laura.passo

Hi everyone - not sure what to do so thought I would try on here for any advice!
At Christmas we noticed water under the laminate flooring (floorboards were lifting slightly) and there was an awful smell. Contacted Yorkshire Water who came to look, said it was in a strange place as not near any pipes, sinks, appliances and they also couldn't find any drains for our house. Few more visits from YW and they have no idea where ours or next doors waste is going as they have checked the manholes surrounding the properties. They suspect that the extension - built around 1985 - has been built over the manhole, and as there are no pipes/drainage to the exterior of the property that all the waste is going under the house somewhere. YW have said they can do no more until we locate the manhole. My question is - how on earth do we find it?! When we bought the house 3 years ago we were told there was planning permission for the extension but no building regs, so we have a lack of regs indemnity insurance. We have had no issues until now, but I worry that this is turning into.a big and expensive issue! Any advice appreciated thanks.

Aylesbury_Duck

The only way to be sure is to dig up the floor of the extension and see what's underneath.

I have five manhole covers around the perimeter of my house and it's possible to work out which direction all the various pipes go. I presume YW have checked but it's worth checking again yourself. Open each manhole in turn and have someone run taps and flush toilets in turn so you can work out which waste is connected to each manhole. Write it all down and if you have a sink or toilet that doesn't produce water in any of the manholes, there's either another manhole or a blocked pipe.

My bet would be that under your extension is a manhole or a collapsed pipe, and waste is building up and emerging under your floor.

A rod ding kit can be bought for about £20 so it might be worth rodding each outlet in each manhole whilst you've got them open.

laura.passo

Thanks, I did worry that would be the only way to find it �� my other question is do we go through our house insurance? YW recommend doing that but when I spoke with our insurance -
Admiral multicover - they said until we know what the issue is we don't know if we are covered. So I could put in a claim, they send workers round who dig up my whole kitchen floor, then realise the problem isn't covered and we are left to sort it all out plus our house insurance goes up because we made a claim. Does it sound like it will be an expensive job to finance ourselves? I am just so lost with what is best to do, and we don't even know if the manhole is under there, it's just everyone guessing!!!

EachPenny

laura.passo wrote: »

YW have said they can do no more until we locate the manhole. My question is - how on earth do we find it?!

1) If you live on a development where all the houses are similar then one option is to ask friendly neighbours where their manholes are - if possible try and get measurements from the original external wall(s). Many estates (private or council) have manholes in roughly the same locations for each house.

2) Contact building control (but consider any indemnity issues) and ask if you can view the plans for your property. Many will have retained original 'as-built' drawings of the property which would usually include external drainage.

Both (1) and (2) would give an indication of where the manhole might have been originally, but there is no certainty it won't have been moved (or possibly partially filled in)

3) Before digging anything up, buy a cheap metal detector - one with a variable sensitivity control. If there is a useful manhole under the floor then it almost certainly will be metal or contain metal components. Adjusting the sensitivity control will allow you to ignore any small metal object like nails. But hope that the floor hasn't been constructed with steel reinforcing mesh though.

4) (Expensive!) Employ a drain tracing company. They can use a combination of electronic methods (a sonde) and CCTV to locate the pipes and manhole. If the pipe is blocked you might need to get it cleared first as CCTV is not much use in a full pipe. This becomes a 'chicken and egg' situation if finding the manhole is necessary to get the pipe cleared.

5) Try divining. Some people swear by it.

Aylesbury_Duck

laura.passo wrote: »

Thanks, I did worry that would be the only way to find it �� my other question is do we go through our house insurance? YW recommend doing that but when I spoke with our insurance -
Admiral multicover - they said until we know what the issue is we don't know if we are covered. So I could put in a claim, they send workers round who dig up my whole kitchen floor, then realise the problem isn't covered and we are left to sort it all out plus our house insurance goes up because we made a claim. Does it sound like it will be an expensive job to finance ourselves? I am just so lost with what is best to do, and we don't even know if the manhole is under there, it's just everyone guessing!!!

How much is your insurance and what would it go up by if you make a claim? Use dummy details to test it, then make the decision.

I'm sure it will be an expensive job I'm afraid, but if you have got sewerage coming up through your floor, you have to tackle it.