Drains in garden

[adder]

Hi, I'm in the process of purchasing a detached house & in the garden just yards from the back wall there are two manhole covers half a yard-ish in diameter & I'm told they're for the foul/sewage drains.

Should I be concerned about this? The covers are quite unsightly - what can I do about it? They're in the paved patio area which I was thinking of changing so can I redo the patio to cover over the covers with a removeable slab?

If I ever wanted to extend the house out the back, in general would the drains themselves be deep enough or would they have to be re-routed? The house is on a slight left-right slope if that makes any difference. Can I find out this info from any plans anywhere??

Thanks for your help!

Steve

[Richard Sterry]

[snip]

You can certainly get rectangular drain covers which are designed to have paving etc. set within them, so that they blend in. There is one in my brick-paved driveway - see

for a photo.

HTH

Rick

[John Woodhall]

Hi Steve, forget the extension they would need to be re-routed, mega bucks. I have heard you can put airtight covers on them though but not sure if I would be happy if they blocked and overflowed shit into the living room.

[Richard Sterry]

At our last house, we extended over the drains - in fact this subject was covered in a fairly recent thread, so would be worth your while having a trawl back through the archives. The footings have to be nice and deep, ie extending below drain level.

An airtight cover was fitted in place of the original outdoor cover, and filled with the same screed as the new solid floor. This prevented any nasty smells or anything more, er, tangible, from getting into the house, and also insulated against sound so that we weren't put off by flushing noises while eating our dinner! This arrangement did not give us any problems for the 18 years or so from us building the extension, to us moving house.

Bye from Rick

[The Natural Philosopher]

Not mega bucks, a few thousand at the worst. Possibly less than a grand actually. Drains are not a huge problem - a mini digger, and a man with a spade and gravel is all it takes.

You MUST have access by building regs. Every time a pipe deviated from a straight line, or another joins it you MUST HAVE ACCESS.