How do I go about doing this? I'm putting a new bathroom in, and the
soil pipe is too far from the old one to redirect - I know there is a
sewer running just below the garden (it's on the council charts) and
my guttering drain already flows to this. Can I route my guttering
elsewhere, hook into that drain (with some kind of seal around it) and
forget the issue, or do I need to dig down to the sewer and install
some kind of conenction there? The house/sewers are old - early
victorian. Or, is there a fixed charge for water companies to carry
out this work for me?

Any ideas?

Frank Fisher wrote:

How do I go about doing this? I'm putting a new bathroom in, and the
soil pipe is too far from the old one to redirect - I know there is a
sewer running just below the garden (it's on the council charts) and
my guttering drain already flows to this. Can I route my guttering
elsewhere, hook into that drain (with some kind of seal around it) and
forget the issue,


ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Guttering probablu goes to soakaway..its unlikley to go to fould water
sewer, even in very old prop3erties. Even if it doies and the BCO
catches ou, you run teh risk that as you are making a 'matyerial
alteration' its up to you to divert the gutter water away from the foul
sewer and install a huge soakaway etc.

or do I need to dig down to the sewer and install
some kind of conenction there?


Yes. You will need an inpsection chamber inserting at the join. This is
not trivial, and needs to be done to building control regulatons of
fall, access, pressure testing and general construction.

You will also neeed an air admittance valve at the near end of the soil
stack.

If you are lucky, and a mini digger will fit in the garden, the whole
thing will only be a few hundred to install. If it needs hand digging,
or thigs go wrong (they nearly always do with old pipes) it could easily
cost a grand and it always leaves a fair mess behind that needs
re-seeding with grass at a minimum, and often complete new driveways etc
if ou have to hack them up.

Don't be tempted to try and do it on the cheap. Get a reputable
groundwork firm to quote, and pick on that looks big enough to sue. A
one man band will vanish if the job goes sour.

The house/sewers are old - early
victorian. Or, is there a fixed charge for water companies to carry
out this work for me?


Its not their problem. You need to work out who owns the bit of pipe you
are connecting to, but its your responsibility to connect to it IIRC.



Any ideas?

"Frank Fisher" wrote in message
m...
How do I go about doing this? I'm putting a new bathroom in, and the
soil pipe is too far from the old one to redirect - I know there is a
sewer running just below the garden (it's on the council charts) and
my guttering drain already flows to this. Can I route my guttering
elsewhere, hook into that drain (with some kind of seal around it) and
forget the issue, or do I need to dig down to the sewer and install
some kind of conenction there? The house/sewers are old - early
victorian. Or, is there a fixed charge for water companies to carry
out this work for me?

Any ideas?

It is rare for gutter water to go into a sewer.
It can be quite tricky connecting into an old drain. If you have no
previous experience I would not recommend it.
Best bet is find an existing inspection cover and add a pipe into the
chamber below.

mrcheerful

"MrCheerful" wrote in message
...

"Frank Fisher" wrote in message
m...
How do I go about doing this? I'm putting a new bathroom in, and the
soil pipe is too far from the old one to redirect - I know there is a
sewer running just below the garden (it's on the council charts) and
my guttering drain already flows to this. Can I route my guttering
elsewhere, hook into that drain (with some kind of seal around it) and
forget the issue, or do I need to dig down to the sewer and install
some kind of conenction there? The house/sewers are old - early
victorian. Or, is there a fixed charge for water companies to carry
out this work for me?

Any ideas?

It is rare for gutter water to go into a sewer.

It isn't in old houses and roads.

It can be quite tricky connecting into an old drain. If you have no
previous experience I would not recommend it.
Best bet is find an existing inspection cover and add a pipe into the
chamber below.

If the gutters are run directly into the main sewer pipe and it is a minimum
of a 4" pipe then this can be used for the foul drains. It is best to
insert a plastic inspection chamber, run the house drain to this and then
run a pipe from this to the main sewer.

The gutters can be run to a soakaway in the garden. Which is basically a
pit filled with hardcore. Again an inspection chamber should have the
downpipe run to it and the chamber drops to the soakaway.

"MrCheerful" wrote in message

It is rare for gutter water to go into a sewer.

I have two properties in old style town centres and in both cases the
surface water feeds into the main sewer. Certainly in any newer developement
the two are split!

IMM wrote

"MrCheerful" wrote in message
...

"Frank Fisher" wrote in message
m...
How do I go about doing this? I'm putting a new bathroom in, and the
soil pipe is too far from the old one to redirect - I know there is a
sewer running just below the garden (it's on the council charts) and
my guttering drain already flows to this. Can I route my guttering
elsewhere, hook into that drain (with some kind of seal around it) and
forget the issue, or do I need to dig down to the sewer and install
some kind of conenction there? The house/sewers are old - early
victorian. Or, is there a fixed charge for water companies to carry
out this work for me?

Any ideas?

It is rare for gutter water to go into a sewer.

It isn't in old houses and roads.

I agree, in London anyway. But neither is it rare to find the gutters draining
into a dedicated surface water drain and thence into a public surface water
sewer, quite separate from the foul water sewer. The water authority would take
a very dim view of connecting foul water into that! The OP needs to ignore the
gutters and establish exactly the route of the existing foul water drains, by
lifting manhole covers and flushing loos or running taps.

Peter

"Peter Taylor" wrote in message
...
IMM wrote

"MrCheerful" wrote in message
...

"Frank Fisher" wrote in message
m...
How do I go about doing this? I'm putting a new bathroom in, and the
soil pipe is too far from the old one to redirect - I know there is
a
sewer running just below the garden (it's on the council charts) and
my guttering drain already flows to this. Can I route my guttering
elsewhere, hook into that drain (with some kind of seal around it)
and
forget the issue, or do I need to dig down to the sewer and install
some kind of conenction there? The house/sewers are old - early
victorian. Or, is there a fixed charge for water companies to carry
out this work for me?

Any ideas?

It is rare for gutter water to go into a sewer.

It isn't in old houses and roads.

I agree, in London anyway. But neither is it rare to find the gutters
draining
into a dedicated surface water drain and thence into a public surface
water
sewer, quite separate from the foul water sewer.

And they both combine at the end anyhow.

The water authority would take
a very dim view of connecting foul water into that!

This case only has one drain.

The OP needs to ignore the
gutters and establish exactly the route of the existing foul water drains,
by
lifting manhole covers and flushing loos or running taps.

He needs to establish the route of all drains to the sewers.

"Stuart" wrote in message ...
"MrCheerful" wrote in message

It is rare for gutter water to go into a sewer.



Definitely does - according to the charts they have in the town hall.
Just one combined sewer/drain goes right under my garden. No manholes
unfortunately....

I'll try to check things out witht he neighburs, see if they have a
manhole.

In message ,
(Frank Fisher) wrote:

How do I go about doing this? I'm putting a new bathroom in, and the
soil pipe is too far from the old one to redirect - I know there is a
sewer running just below the garden (it's on the council charts) and
my guttering drain already flows to this. Can I route my guttering
elsewhere, hook into that drain (with some kind of seal around it) and
forget the issue, or do I need to dig down to the sewer and install
some kind of conenction there? The house/sewers are old - early
victorian. Or, is there a fixed charge for water companies to carry
out this work for me?

We had a similar problem - a bathroom (sans loo) at the front of the
house (1930s), discharging (sink & bath) into a hopper and thence into
the same drain as the guttering. The only toilet was at the back of the
house connecting directly (about 4ft of pipe outside the house) into the
main 6" sewer running along the rears of the properties.

We moved the bathroom around to the side of the house, and added a
toilet. We therefore needed a 4" connection to the sewer. Both our
builders and two different BCOs were adamant that under no circumstances
were we to go anywhere near the main sewer; "ooh no, that's Welsh Water
property and they want to do all the work themselves - it'll cost a
fortune." (aside, it did occur to me that it was their property on our
land and as we have no record of a wayleave we might be cynically able
to counter-charge them for access ;-)

There was no existing manhole on the property and the main sewer had at
least a couple of dozen houses "up stream".

Our poor builders had to break into the 4ft of 4" from the existing
downstairs loo and insert a "mini manhole" in that extremely tight
space. Both BCOs were happy :-)

There was a *lot* of hand digging involved - filled a mini-skip with
spoil, and used an awful lot of hardcore and cement to re-do everything
afterwards. Cost us the thick end of a grand.

Hwyl!

M.

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