4ft drain cover hinders my moat build
Discussion
Be bloody careful when you lift the lid. The triangles are usually bolted together but if the bolts have rusted then the two lid halves will separate and you may drop one half down the chamber. And they are bloody heavy to lift out on your own... Trust me, I've done it a few times! If you can break the mortar bond (or however it's fixed), slide the cover and frame off sideways, altogether.
It it's connected to just your house for either surface water or foul waste, you are liable. If it's connected to your house but takes neighbouring waste/water, it could be the local water authorities (depending on whether it is connected to the mains) otherwise if non-mains (shared soakaway) maintenance/upkeep divided between the two of you.
It looks pretty tasty though - if it's just taking surface water from the area (may be an old culvert that's had manhole covers fitted), it will likely be riparian ownership, so you have to look after it boundary to boundary.
If it's near a road, may even be serving the highways or similar. It needs further investigating!!
It looks pretty tasty though - if it's just taking surface water from the area (may be an old culvert that's had manhole covers fitted), it will likely be riparian ownership, so you have to look after it boundary to boundary.
If it's near a road, may even be serving the highways or similar. It needs further investigating!!
You don't need to apologise, you just most likely deal further down the chain and handle the smaller ones more often. They might even be more common overall.
When we had them ordered through EH Smiths or Burdens or where ever, they'd often get delivered straight from Stanton Bonna so some of the bigger stuff might never reach even the bigger merchant yards.
When we had them ordered through EH Smiths or Burdens or where ever, they'd often get delivered straight from Stanton Bonna so some of the bigger stuff might never reach even the bigger merchant yards.
TheEnd said:
You don't need to apologise, you just most likely deal further down the chain and handle the smaller ones more often. They might even be more common overall.
When we had them ordered through EH Smiths or Burdens or where ever, they'd often get delivered straight from Stanton Bonna so some of the bigger stuff might never reach even the bigger merchant yards.
some weeks I seem to spend half my life at Stanton bonna or up at McCanns at ellistownWhen we had them ordered through EH Smiths or Burdens or where ever, they'd often get delivered straight from Stanton Bonna so some of the bigger stuff might never reach even the bigger merchant yards.
It’s a D400 spec carriageway cover for sure. Someone mentioned it being a BT cover, it could be as BT do have a cover (CW1) of that type but I’m sure it is smaller than the one you have. It is definitely not a BT chamber though as they do not use ring sections.
First off I'd see if the complete frame shifts from its current position as it mounting as it doesn’t look bedded or haunched. If it will move I'd carefully shunt it across the top slab to have a look inside. Do not let it fall in the hole!! It will have to be re-bedded and haunched later. If it won't move and the covers need lifting you will need to give the frame a few taps with a hammer (don't go too mental- it is cast iron and explode into shrapnel) and try to lever at the triangle points with the edge of an old shovel or such like. You will need the correct lifting keys (check with HSS or similar hire shops), get two sets and a mate on hand as both triangle sections could be pinned together underneath and then be bloody heavy and awkward. If you are lucky it will not be pinned and both sections will come out separately.
It will either be an access chamber, in which case in the bottom will be a half section channel and concrete benching. Foul water (sewer) will smell appropriately, surface water may also pong a bit (nowhere near as bad), but won’t have the give-away ‘through traffic’
– assuming it is live of course. Or it could be a soakaway, in which case the concrete rings will have holes, or the chamber will be full of gravel or brick rubble.
First off I'd see if the complete frame shifts from its current position as it mounting as it doesn’t look bedded or haunched. If it will move I'd carefully shunt it across the top slab to have a look inside. Do not let it fall in the hole!! It will have to be re-bedded and haunched later. If it won't move and the covers need lifting you will need to give the frame a few taps with a hammer (don't go too mental- it is cast iron and explode into shrapnel) and try to lever at the triangle points with the edge of an old shovel or such like. You will need the correct lifting keys (check with HSS or similar hire shops), get two sets and a mate on hand as both triangle sections could be pinned together underneath and then be bloody heavy and awkward. If you are lucky it will not be pinned and both sections will come out separately.
It will either be an access chamber, in which case in the bottom will be a half section channel and concrete benching. Foul water (sewer) will smell appropriately, surface water may also pong a bit (nowhere near as bad), but won’t have the give-away ‘through traffic’
– assuming it is live of course. Or it could be a soakaway, in which case the concrete rings will have holes, or the chamber will be full of gravel or brick rubble. 
I uncovered one of those in an old house, when marking out for a swimming pool of all things
Took me all morning to get the cover off, what i found was a 12ft deep hole with a river of sewage running through the bottom of it.
Clearly a main sewer from a couple of apartment blocks behind our house - didn't appear on any searches etc when i bought the place. Hammered the cover back on and buried it again, i couldn't have the pool.
That same house now has a giant extension right over where that pipe ran. Can't have been cheap to bridge that.
Took me all morning to get the cover off, what i found was a 12ft deep hole with a river of sewage running through the bottom of it.
Clearly a main sewer from a couple of apartment blocks behind our house - didn't appear on any searches etc when i bought the place. Hammered the cover back on and buried it again, i couldn't have the pool.
That same house now has a giant extension right over where that pipe ran. Can't have been cheap to bridge that.
It's fine. You won't attract any unwanted attention if you pop the lid and have a look, no licenses or special training are required - but don't go down in to it. I've got no special rights and I lift lids all the time in the course of my work. There is nothing wrong with having a look. Surveyors and engineers do it all the time. If it's on your land then it's more than reasonable that you would want to see\know what's down there. The trickiest part is finding manhole keys and physically lifting the lid. If you drop the lid down there, then it's (probably) classed as a confined space so retrieval would be best left to the experts but that's an H+S thing, so cross that bridge when you come to it. The manhole belongs to the water authority but lifting a lid is AOK.
HRL said:
Well he's been quiet for more than 24hrs, think he fell down it?
Whilst out walking my dog and going past the local swings and slides (not a euphemism!) I thought I heard a quiet 'Help! ... is anybody there?'I put it down to kids messing about - but there was a manhole nearby ......
Do you think I should call the authorities..???
Whilst we're on it why the f
k are all manholes in verges just dumped on top and not concreted it, every time I hit one cutting the verge I end up moving it off the hole completely, I can usually shove it back with the tractor but if I can't I've taken to calling BT, the water company or the power network to tell them about it, a lot of the time now they don't even dig down the surface access hatches for stopcock and just dump the whole thing on the earth so it stuck up a good 6 inches and isn't retained by anything 
k are all manholes in verges just dumped on top and not concreted it, every time I hit one cutting the verge I end up moving it off the hole completely, I can usually shove it back with the tractor but if I can't I've taken to calling BT, the water company or the power network to tell them about it, a lot of the time now they don't even dig down the surface access hatches for stopcock and just dump the whole thing on the earth so it stuck up a good 6 inches and isn't retained by anything Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff