locating drain access point

[Rich K]

Our house was built in 1910 and we are selling it. The buyers want to get the drains checked out using a cctv thingy and that's fine by me except I can't locate an access point anywhere.

Where I suspect it *might* be is undernieth paving stones and 2 inches of sand as laid by the previous owners. (I know this from removing said paving stones from the garden and discovering the original black bricked path below it - much nicer tbh).

Without actually digging the whole lot up just to look, is there any way of determining the direction a drain is taking? To make an educated guess as to it's location.

Or, could it be possible that there is no access point at all? I have looked on the neighbours side and they don't have one either.

Thanks Rich.

[Andrew Mawson]

inches of

I have a thing (bootsale bargain) that screws onto the end of a set of drain rods, and transmits a low power radio signal, and the accompanying tracker follows it, but you still need somewhere to slide the rod in.

If you know the rough track of the drain and the access point has a cast iron cover, you might find it with a metal detector.

AWEM

[Lobster]

Are there other houses like yours nearby, ie which may have been built at the same time? If so, might be worth finding out if they know where

*their's* are.

It was quite common back then for houses (esp terraces) to have the main drain running from the back of the house to the road directly under the house, with no provision for repair/maintenance, which means it's an appalling job if ever the drain needs replacing; that may be your buyer's worry.

On a slightly different tack, what's your buyer going to do if you were to stop hunting right now, and tell him, "sorry, can't find the access point". Will he shrug his shoulders and say 'oh well, never mind", or will he pull out of the purchase? If he *does* end up getting a drains survey done, bear in mind all they will do (potentially) is use the findings to leverage a price reduction; it's not going to benefit you. All I'm saying is, think carefully how badly you want to find the access point!

David

[John Rumm]

Use a metal detector to see if there is a manhole cover under there?

[Rich K]

That's a good point. However, I also don't want to give them the idea that I'm trying to avoid a drain scan!

[manatbandq]

Agree to the survey at their expense (including making good any damage) and when the survey company can't find the access point you just shrug your shoulders. They are supposed to be the experts, after all.

MBQ