Manhole in back garden

Woolsery

Slinky said:

Heres_the_deal said:

If you're planning an extension later on then it 'may' be an issue. You cannot build within 3 metres of a public sewer.

Yes you can with permission from the sewer owner. We built an extension within inches of the main sewer in our street, which ran at a 45 degree angle to the corner of the extension. It was done under the agreement of building control who inspected before it was covered up. In theory if Anglian Water need to access their sewer they could knock the extension about a bit, in practice there's plenty of clearance to allow any repairs required without resorting to that.

Sounds like ours at the last house. Needed a reinforced concrete underground bridge 14' long cast in situ at a depth of 2m, plus a smaller one. Lucklily, we had a tame digger driver and a SE to call upon.

akorn77

The house I'm buying has a manhole cover on the patio. I might be doing an extension so I called Thames Water and asked them about it. They said I need to pop in an application form to Thames Water and you pay £200-300. They said its a formality and that 99.9% of applications are approved. After they've signed it off your builders have permission to relocate the manhole cover to somewhere else in the garden. Its very common, so wouldnt worry about it at all. 

Section62

akorn77 said:

The house I'm buying has a manhole cover on the patio. I might be doing an extension so I called Thames Water and asked them about it. They said I need to pop in an application form to Thames Water and you pay £200-300. They said its a formality and that 99.9% of applications are approved. After they've signed it off your builders have permission to relocate the manhole cover to somewhere else in the garden. Its very common, so wouldnt worry about it at all. 

Whether or not it is a formality depends on the type of sewer, depth, condition and construction materials.

Most cases people deal with when extending a property are shallow shared drains serving a handful of houses, these are usually fairly easy to divert.

But overall I'd put the percentage at something closer to 90 to 95%.

Heres_the_deal

I stand corrected

Sapindus

I have an inspection cover right outside my french windows.  I bought a recessed cover to blend it in with the slate chippings.

MrsPorridge

I have 5 - 3 at the front and 2 at the back - I call it "manhole city"

Woolsery

MrsPorridge said:

I have 5 - 3 at the front and 2 at the back - I call it "manhole city"

I'd suggest a subtle name change if you ever decide to sell. Perhaps 'The Roddings' would do nicely.

Floss

I've got one in my front garden, never a problem for me.