Obtaining drain plans

comeandgo

Grenage said:

Doozergirl said:

They're not that accurate.   They're unlikely to help with the exact positioning of a manhole.   

Even the water companies use dowsing rods to find the mains.  

Wait; dowsing rods aren't superstitious nonsense!?

Our farmer friends use dowsing rods and it seems to work.

Grenage

I never imagined that such things were used by professionals.  Every day is a school day.

d0nkeyk0ng

Thanks all. Trying to multi-quote posts is difficult with the new forum software.

rob7475 said:

Your water company will be able to supply them for a small fee.

Do you own the house? A drainage search will have been carried out when it was bought.

Yes it's our own house. I'll see if I have the paperwork from the solicitors. I tried looking on the severn trent website. The only thing I found were the location of manholes which were on the road itself. I'm after the pipework from our foul waste to the manholes/main sewers.

Doozergirl said:

You can trace much of your route by lifting any manhole covers and observing where the inlets are running from, or running water from your house and seeing where they come out. 

Failing that, you can commission a CCTV survey from any local drainage company.  

The only manhole on our property I can see is a storm drain on the driveway. I've poured water down the drains from the gutters and they run here. But toilet and kitchen waste do not go down this route. I hadn't thought of a CCTV survey.

Section62 said:

If the house was built post-2000 there might be enough information on planning application drawings available for free download online.

Until you know otherwise, work on the basis you had inspection chambers but they are now buried somewhere under the extension.

1950s house but utility room extension was built some time in 2004-9 as far as I can tell. They may well have built over the manhole. It was built under permitted development rights as it meets all the criteria.

FreeBear said:

d0nkeyk0ng said: Is this such a thing? The gutter and garden drains run into a storm drain down the side of the house.

Are you sure it is a storm drain connected to the main sewer ?

Depending on the age of the property, the down pipes could (should) go off to a soakaway located withing your boundary. If they do, make sure you are getting a discount on your water bill.

The inspection panel for the storm drain is on the driveway. No idea where it goes off to.

Thanks all. I think CCTV survey is the way to go.

Section62

d0nkeyk0ng said:

Thanks all. I think CCTV survey is the way to go.

It is possible you don't have a foul manhole on your property at all... not just that it is hidden under the extension.

Either way, the problem with having a CCTV survey done is they will need an access point - usually a manhole - in order to get the camera into the pipe(s).

If you don't have an (accessible) manhole then it is unlikely they will be able to carry out a worthwhile CCTV survey.


The starting point in this case has to be checking the plans, and/or using one or more of the tracing techniques to find where the pipe runs go.  If there is no suitable access point then one might need to be made by locating the pipe and breaking into it (and ideally building a manhole there).

CCTV surveyors will usually only survey what they can access (without risk of damage or loss to their equipment) - so unless you are clear with the company what you need them to do, you could end up paying for a CCTV survey which doesn't actually show very much, if anything.