Update on getting water to allotment

[mogga]

Got a quote. This is to connect us to the mains at the end of a road that goes to the allotment. Nearly £1000.

So aside from buying taps, pipes etc we need a long hole to get from the tap on the allotment to the mains. It's a concrete road used by two houses for access and the allotments. It's an adopted road .. So we have to ask for permission to dig it up ... and I assume not annoy either of the neighbours by taking more than a couple of days about it... lay the pipe ... get it certified and then get it connected and then backfill the trench.

The road is concrete so I assume just filling it in back with concrete is ok - but I have no idea where to find rules and regulations about burying pipes in roads ...

My OH reckons about £500 of concrete to backfill.

At this point I'd quite happy give up on the idea ...

[John Williamson]

About average.

Is the road concrete wall-to-wall? You need to find out what else is under the road and any verges, too.

Chat to your local council roads department. If you dig a trench through a concrete road surface, you'll need to reinstate the layers below the concrete as well, although that is pretty cheap and easy to do. It'll be

100 - 150mm concrete, possibly reinforced, with about the same thickness of hardcore under that, and earth below that, and you need to compact the whole lot as you lay it so it doesn't sink after a month or two. With the right equipment, the trench only needs to be a few inches wide, and although hiring the right gear (Diamond slitting saw, and a pipe trench digger) with an operator might not be cheap, it may be cheaper and will certainly be quicker than doing the whole job by hand.

Dig a well? Then all you need is a licence to abstract from the water board. That and the right soil type, of course.

[newshound]

Might it be possible to mole under the road?

[Owain]

I think that means you have to use a Roads and Streetworks accredited firm.

Owain

[Nightjar]

About what I would have expected.

Which means the work has to be done by a properly accredited company.

Surely you can get a water pipe moled in? That only needs a hole at each end.

Bignell

[mogga]

Oo ta mister and where might I find one of them? Will the council have a list of prefered companies?

[mogga]

I don't know! I will have to have a look into this further! Thanks for the links

[mogga]

Don't know!

[mogga]

a bit ropey at the gate end though.

[Dave Liquorice]

Yes but you could get accredited yourself. But for a one off that almost certainly isn't economical. B-)

You'll need the Streetworks stuff even if moleing.

[Owain]

There doesn't seem to be a publically accessible register.

[Nthkentman]

Ok.... Thus far the suggestions given are fruitless or effin expensive.

So, Get ya arse onto eBay, Source a suitable towable large(ish) bowser that can be either towed or converted to self propelled slowly to get it to your site, after all it ain't that far.

Get local water board to provide a suitable stand point that can be metered and accessed by your allotment people.

After installation of said point, fill bowser, move to wherever it's needed and water your veg/plants/selves/etc etc Refill as required

Far far cheaper and practical that a shit load of work that's going to benefit only the scroungers that won't pay for their share anyway.

[Dave Liquorice]

The scroungers will still get the benefit of the water but never get involved in the work refilling it.

[Nightjar]

Obviously, get quotes for both trench and mole, but for that length I would expect the mole to be cheaper.

Colin Bignell

[mogga]

We need some IBCs and about a million blue barrels and we won't need the mains water. It falls out of the sky on a fairly regular basis.

They want nearly a grand for connecting our pipes to the mains to join up whatever we want...

We'd be on a meter however they give us water out of the mains...

[John Williamson]

Find a member or two who are not on meters, and buy them small bowsers and towbars. Then make sure they come to the allotment every day.

[mogga]

:-) Ah I see.

Or have a bowser/tank that fills from any nearby garage roof?

[John Williamson]

Well, I can see at least four roofs within pipe range in your pictures. Two houses and two garages. ;-)

[mogga]

We currently fill only off the big garage on the right. Our issue is having enough barrels to fill. We've only got a few. I suspect we also need a hunting expedition as my polite begging letters to companies haven't worked yet.

[Andy Burns]

A few 1000 litre IBCs or 330 gallon fruit juice tanks ought to work out cheaper than your water supply and trenching costs ...