shattered broken inspection chamber cover - why?

[n0tail]

We've just moved into a brand new house (well, 3 weeks ago) and today a van delivering some ceramic tiles drove over one of the inspection chamber covers on our drive and it shattered, the (plastic?) rim also looks compromised.

It's a round cover, looks like metal.

In the snagging list we have already raised the issue of 'wobbly' covers with the developers. Would these 'wobbly' inspection chamber covers weaken the whole thing and make this kind of incident more likely to happen? The rims of some of the inspection chambers also have some movement in them, it's not just the covers. The drive is gravel, quite coarse pebble-like stuff.

I've never heard of these covers breaking like this before, does it seem like something the house developers should fix and are the other ones at risk of a similar thing happening?

I don't know whether to call someone out to fix this straight away or do it myself and then try to get the money back from the developers.. we have placed a pallet over the hole and alerted our neighbours to the situation (the drive is shared). I am worried that doing it myself will affect the warranty and/or that the developers may accuse me of causing some other problem by 'interfering'. There is some gravel visible in the hole, I am also worried this could cause a blockage.

We are already having a nightmare with the developers regarding the other snags and I am dreading the inevitable confrontation about it. Buying this new house has been such a horrible experience I can honestly say I would not have gone ahead if I'd known. They are a small developer, not one of the large ones.

Also, how can I work out whether this is sewerage or other drainage, is there a health hazard if it is sewerage?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Andrew Mawson]

today a

other

developers..

Drain covers come in many guises. There are pedestrian service ones and traffic service, and probably many shades in between.If it is in a driveway, presumably it 'should' be a vehicle rated one, but is it? What ever it is, demonstrably it is not 'fit for purpose' so you should call the developer to account. As for foul sewerage or surface drainage, get someone to flush the toilets while you watch the hole - mind it will take a while if it's a long driveway.

AWEM

[Stuart Noble]

Maybe they used the cover that's rated for foot traffic only. With any luck the stronger one will be the same size. Either way, if the frames aren't supported properly from underneath, there will be wobbles. I imagine the solid material (brick, concrete or whatever) should extend 50mm or so into the opening to give the frame adequate support, but I don't know what the regs might be.

[Dave Liquorice]

If the OP still has the bits I'd expect to find a makers name or mark and some numbers. Wander of to makers web site or google and see what turns up. In a drive it should be at least light or medium traffic. That is suitable to take the load imposed by a car or small lorry delivering things...

Agreed, being able to show what they fitted was under rated strengthens the case against the developer.

I wouldn't be particulary worried if it is a foul drain, at least in the sort term. Unless if blocks (try not to let too much of the gravel go down) the mucky stuff will simply flow past out of harms way. The hole in the ground is a bigger danger.

[deckertim]

They don't build things like they used to. I am always noticing plastic water stopcock covers near where I live that are broken, generally on new builds or where work has been carried out. The one on my house still has the date 1903 on it and I reckon it has got another couple of hundred years life left in it. Expect we will have water meters fitted long before then though!

[Harry Bloomfield]

Andrew Mawson used his keyboard to write :

Read the spec. with a pinch of salt...

I bought and fitted two covers rated 3 ton, they permanently deformed under the weight of one wheel of my car, the very first time I drove over them. Supplier had to swap them FOC for 5 ton rated ones, which luckily fitted in the same frame.

[Andrew Mawson]

surface

deformed

same way floor loadings are quoted rather than the 'point load' - or infact fat line of contact with a tyre

AWEM

[n0tail]

Thanks for all the replies.

Yes, you are (all) right, the cover appears to be rated for pedestrian use, it has the following embossed onto it: 'EN124 A15', also some other characters below but hard to make out and didn't seem to be a manufacturers name. I only know this cos there is another identical cover nearby, we have 4 or 5 covers on our drive, not all the same, some hepworth some this other unidentifiable type.

So, I spoke to someone in tech support at 'hepworth' who was extremely helpful, he explained about the EN124 ratings and also mentioned that when the polypropelene hole is fitted it ought to be properly supported by concrete and the rim of the hole should be embedded so that it does not bear the weight anything bearing down on it.

The developers will surely take responsability now, have not been able to get hold of them since reporting the problem initially. Will also speak to the building regs 'officer' tomorrow just to make sure, these ratings are def covered in the regs too.

Cheers, jb.

[The Natural Philosopher]

We bought '5 ton' rated block an tackle from a yacht shop to remove an engine..

It bent lifting the car front (about a ton) off the floor when the engine stuck.

One feels the 5 tons was 'guaranteed to snap' rather than 'won't permanently deform'

[Andrew Gabriel]

I bought a 3 ton one to replace a broken one in the alley round to the back of the house. It was galvanised pressed steel, IIRC. It let out a laud "poing-ping" when you stepped on it. Took it back and got a proper cast iron one (can't remember if it was 7 or 10 ton). That was much better, and not much more expensive (although I also had to buy lifting handles for it).

[Aidan]

It's grey cast iron, which is brittle & can be broken with a good crack from a hammer. Old baths, guttering and such can be broken into small pieces quite easily.

There were some in my drive, paved over by the previous owner, dopey old gentleman. Drains marked on deeds, but not the manholes. They were Ok for 7 or 8 years until there was a loud bang and the front wheel of the car dropped into one. Fun and games followed in jacking it out and retrieving the debris before it caused a blockage in the stream of s**te below.

I replaced it with a pressed galvanized steel cover, that fotunately fitted the existing frame, so i chucked the new plastic frame. I relaid the paving. OK for another couple of years until Thames Water's Contractors showed up, wanting access to clear a blockage upstream of me; it hadn't affected me at all. Swore they'd make good & relay the paving; lying bastards. They even told the neighbours, whose garden was flooded with s**te that I'd blocked the drains. If you've got public drains crossing your property take note.

I eventually replaced the paved over covers with steel recessed trays & inset paving. The depth of these makes them very rigid.A skip lorry parked on them whilst lifting a full skip without any visible damage.

The ones on roads are ductile/spheroidal graphite (think it's the same stuff) cast iron, which was invented around post-WW2 time and is much stronger than grey cast. British Gas have been having huge problems with failures in their ductile CI medium pressure gas mains, I think the problem was stress corrosion.

[Aidan]

The ones on roads are ductile/spheroidal graphite (think it's the same