Round plastic manhole covers

[Paulinethecat]

I have recently had some of these installed on the main path that goes through my front garden. This is the only way to access my front door. The covers in themselves seem ok but I have noticed when it has been raining the rainwater sits on top of the covers for many hours after the rain has stopped. Is this normal?

Yes they are not absorbent so the rain will sit on top, unless they are sloping enough the water will sit there

Thanks for replying. I can't believe that it must have rained overnight or, at least early this morning before I got up at 8am and there's still a fair amount of water on top of it now (nine hours later). The path it sits on is completely flat so I guess no opportunity for it to drain off. It's annoying because either I or any visitors would have to walk through this water to get to my door. I wish I'd left my old metal manhole covers there now. I think I'll price up how much it would cost for new metal ones.

Metal ones are also not absorbent, so you might be wasting your money.
You'd be better getting the path laid with a suitable fall, then water would drain regardless.

I think you’ll get the same problem with metal ones. The problem is that the path is flat but also the top of the cover could be set just a few mm below the level of the main path and that means the water will just sit there. The only way to avoid this is to have a fall on the path.

Is it a small round one? Like 200mm diameter. If so it doesn’t seem like a big deal. Though I can see why it would be annoying if it was a bigger one!

I used to have rectangular metal ones and then when I had the underground drainage pipes replaced they got changed to these round plastic ones. I never had any real problems with the metal ones and rainwater sitting on them so I'm not too sure what changed in terms of the fall/slope.

The round ones are approx 20" diameter, the path is only a few inches wider each side.

I think I'll just have to put up with them as I don't want the path dug up again. Thanks.