Manhole cover & decking - what's the guidelines?

[Dylan T]

Hi all - Planning a decked patio but have a manhole cover it would go over (just from my house); original idea was the decking could easily be screwed up if they needed to access to not a problem. However I might go down route of composite decking, which doesnt have screws but slots into spacers via recesses in the side meaning pulling them up is a little tricker - but still doable. I'm trying to work out what the guidelines are on this and whether that would still be okay, or I'd need to build in some sort of removable panel (which would be a shame but understandable). Anything I read just mentions access is needed, but provides no further details. IE i don't know if there's legal recourse if something has to be removed or what my rights are.

Thanks!

 

[sodthisforfun]

Just make it easy to get to them..
Otherwise if you get blocked pipes, you're buggered. So to speak!

 

[john4703]

I put down a load of decking behind a church. There were two inspection chambers under the decking. I simply framed the joists so there was not a joist over the inspection cover and then laid decking with strips of decking screwed under it so it was one piece to cover the inspection chamber.

 

[Ian H]

There won’t be a problem covering it but the easier accessible you can make it, the faster and cheaper it would be to unblock if you ever get a blockage.

Are there junctions into the manhole and are there other manholes up and down stream?