Sewer below patio - would you buy house?

[hyperspacebug]

We are in the process of purchasing home. Drainage search result revealed sewer close to the house, so any extension is likely to be over it. Looking back on pics of the house, yes there is a manhole on the patio.

Extension totally out of question? Any other implications?

Thanks in advance!

I don't think an extension would be completely out of the question but it might cost a few grand to have the sewer moved.

It seems like it is a less major sewer than public one that runs along the road with terraced houses.

Did anyone have experience of moving sewer?

Extension is low on our to do list with the house, I just don't like a 'never')))

The problem with relocating is its not always very practical to move just one small section, i.e. The bit in just one small garden.

If you do that you'd be putting in lots of bends, resulting in more potential blocking points. Each bend would need to be accessible from a rodding point (manhole).

If the sewer isn't running parallel to the house it may be easier.

Hi, we had an extension done over a sewer but it was slightly more complex.
Basically it depends who owns the sewer. An extension is not totally out of the question at all. your solicitor should know who is responsible for the drains.
It is not necessary to move the manhole but most people are more comfortable if access to drains is via the garden. If it's yours it is easy to move the manhole. You need to make sure that if there is ever a blockage you can get the blockage rodded. If they are doing foundation work and lots of digging there won't be lots of additional cost to doing this.
In our case ours was "shared" with other houses, so it was quite a big sewer and was considered to belong to the wastewater company.. We needed a buildover agreement from the wastewater company which the architect organised. We needed to provide evidence that the building was not going to cause the public sewer to collapse and the local building control officer inspected it to make sure we had done everything properly. We also moved the single manhole to two separate manholes either side of the extension to satisfy the requirement for rodding points. It wouldn't put me off at all again but make sure you know the size and ownership of the drains.

Thanks, snowman1 - that's good news. Yes, the sewer (Thames Water) is shared with 4 other houses - it runs along the back of the terraced houses before it joins the public sewer that runs along the road, if I am reading the map correctly.

If you don't mind, any idea how much costs did it add to the building work? (with buildover agreement, moving manholes, etc)

And house next door already has applied for planning permission for extension in 2007 (I haven't seen if the extension was there or not - we weren't in the garden as it was absolutely pouring down during the viewing)

Its not a never, its just an additional cost. We thought we might have to do this but in the end Thames Water didn't make us move it even though we were within 3 meters. It would be a most an extra 3k. Once you are digging up your entire yard anyway, doing the drainage work itself is relatively straight-forward.

Regarding costs, I'm afraid I'm not too sure, it was all priced in together with the groundworks totalling about 6k. But the solicitor was about £180, they agreed the details with the water co and made sure we weren't signing our life away. The Southern water agreement was about £350. Building control inspected on behalf of the water company that was if I remember correctly about £400 but you will have to pay for an inspector to come out anyway, they will report back to the water company or at least they did for us. There were additional costs for lintels that were placed over the drains near foundations but like I say we got an all in price for that. The extension was huge, 7x4m, they dug 3m down as well hence the huge price, before you choke on your tea.

Drains are always by the house and there are regulations to cover what you can and can't do. As long as it can be rodded and cleared from an access point that's the main goal of these regs, and that the right pipes are connected to the right drains (ie not kitchen waste into rainwater waste). A lot of houses have the wrong drain connected. Any drain work has to be done with proper building reg inspections from the council (which are free) which most builders have full knowledge about. Watch out for any builder that tells you otherwise. The council might refer you to the water board.

Just checked - since 2010 councils have been charging for building regs.

we had conservatory built over sewers, brick base and all done to regs, we moved the manhole cover outside, and the walls have lintels over the drain areas, think it was only a couple of hundred quid more to do the work and have the building regs inspector come and check , certainly not a deal breaker on the price.

I agree its still very doable! Wouldn't put me off if I liked the house.

Thames Water told me about 800 to move the manhole cover down into the garden. Mine sounds exactly like yours. Bored woman I spoke to in a flap before exchange called it a "bog standard relocation" no pun intended.
So long as the drains can be rodded you are fine. We had someone in to unblock it recently and they gave us some useful tips to remember if we ever get around to doing the extension which I forgot to write down...