Manhole Covers

[Lawrie]

Hi, Had a problem with a blocked drain recently which grateful advice from this group sorted out. But the last manhole cover before the road is in the middle of our front garden and having lifted it to rod through, both the cover and the frame are so rusted through that they need to be replaced. Unfortunately the garden slopes down towards the house and the sewer obviously the opposite way so that the sewer is a long way down way beyond arm's reach. I am worried that when chipping away the old frame and cement and re-cementing that nothing falls down into the sewer which is the last thing I want; don't want any more blockages. Has anyone any ideas for stopping stuff falling into the manhole; had thought of a sheet of hardboard resting on screws into the side of the manhole or on some sort of clips resting on the edge of the manhole. Or is there any obvious way that I am missing, Thanks, Lawrie

[Andrew Mawson]

Lay loops of rope down to bottom of pit. Fold a tarpaulin to suitable size to go down with a bit coming up the sides. Get on with chipping away and don't get too panicky about debris falling down but try to avoid it. When finished use the ropes to pull up the tarpaulin with whatever did go down.

AWEM

[Stuart Noble]

Maybe pump up an old lilo bed? Something inflatable that will wedge itself in the hole, and then a sheet of hardboard or something to stop it puncturing.

[Stuart B]

Or one of those containers that you get sand delivered in with ropes attached to the handles to haul it back up...I've no idea how much room is down there tho'

[Pete Cross]

Don't know if it would do but most fireplace shops sell square and oblong inflatable balloons for temporarily blocking flues , about a foot down would allow you to clean the dbris before you remove it?

[Dave Fawthrop]

|!Lawrie wrote: |!> Hi, |!> Had a problem with a blocked drain recently which grateful advice from this |!> group sorted out. |!> But the last manhole cover before the road is in the middle of our front |!> garden and having lifted it to rod through, both the cover and the frame are |!> so rusted through that they need to be replaced. |!> Unfortunately the garden slopes down towards the house and the sewer |!> obviously the opposite way so that the sewer is a long way down way beyond |!> arm's reach. I am worried that when chipping away the old frame and cement |!> and re-cementing that nothing falls down into the sewer which is the last |!> thing I want; don't want any more blockages. |!> Has anyone any ideas for stopping stuff falling into the manhole; had |!> thought of a sheet of hardboard resting on screws into the side of the |!> manhole or on some sort of clips resting on the edge of the manhole. |!> Or is there any obvious way that I am missing, |!> Thanks, Lawrie |!> |!> |! |!Maybe pump up an old lilo bed? Something inflatable that will wedge |!itself in the hole, and then a sheet of hardboard or something to stop |!it puncturing.

IME Lilo beds deflate slowly, so after a while you would end up with a

*deflated* lilo

[Stuart Noble]

Only when they've been abused. Those were the days!

[Mr Fuxit]

An inverted umbrella?

[Roger Mills]

Yes, I remember that! Ours ended up with a 6" split! [Our son was born 9 months later. ]

However, under normal circumstances, they should be good for 8 hours kip. That's long enough to do a manhole, *surely*?

[Andrew Gabriel]

I cut a piece of plywood to sit on the top edge of the flaunching, making it quite a close fit with the wall sides. It was also useful to stand on this to work on the manhole (I was also replacing the top two courses of bricks). At the end, I scooped up the larger pieces of mortar, and used a vacuum cleaner to suck up all the finer stuff, before removing the sheet of ply. (If any neighbours were watching me apparently cleaning out the sewer with a vacuum cleaner, they probably thought I was nuts;-)