Building near water pipes please help

mantisimo · 10 Feb 2009

Hi All.

I have planning permission for my extension and sorted out everything for the ground work to begin but my builder asked the water board if building 700 mm away from the mains (which run through my back garden) would be ok and they have insisted that no it would not! 3m is minimum distance this puts the whole project in jeapordy as they want me to pay thousands to move their pipe I'm devastated as we cannot have any more mortgage and the planning runs out early next year is there anything i can do?

There is no option of moving the extension as space is tight and I cannot make it smaller or it would be pointless.

all advice would be brilliant as I now have 6 people in a 2 bed house!

Alastairreid · 10 Feb 2009

Does the water board not give you the option of putting in deeper footings or piles?
we had this problem a couple of years back (Scottish water) where we had to extend the footings 300mm below the the level of the water main.
the extension was 700mm from the main.

mantisimo · 10 Feb 2009

Hi they haven't given any alternatuve just insisting that the build is 3 metres away although the guy at the other end of our terrace built an extension over the pipe only last year!and his garage (10 years old ) is also built right on top of the pipe so I don't know just wondered if anyone else had come up against this and once again thanks if I have some ideas or suggestions like deeper footings I can go in armed as I know so little about it.

Kindest regards Jay.

noseall · 10 Feb 2009

i guess you are talking about a publicly owned sewer?

how deep is the pipe?

mantisimo · 10 Feb 2009

noseall said:
i guess you are talking about a publicly owned sewer?

how deep is the pipe?

Hi noseall.

No I mean the mains the main pipes carrying the fresh water into all the houses in our terrace which actually and unusually I believe run through our back gardens 3 metres 70 from our houses, rather than the normal
way of them coming in from the council owned land in front of houses.

mantisimo · 10 Feb 2009

sorry and we are still 700mm away from them I guess they are about 3 feet down but we are not even going anywhere near them! and its my blooming land.

noseall · 10 Feb 2009

surely, so long as the foundations are below the water main and that the pipe is accessible, then there is not a problem?

i guess their reasoning is access for a mechanical digger maybe?

mantisimo · 10 Feb 2009

noseall said:
surely, so long as the foundations are below the water main and that the pipe is accessible, then there is not a problem?

i guess their reasoning is access for a mechanical digger maybe?

Again they have given no reason but there is no access for a mechanical digger so this argument can't (no pun intended) hold water.

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Building near water pipes please help

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