Manhole Cover

[griffta1]

Hi there,

Been landscaping my garden recently and have lowered the ground level around an inspection cover.

The cover seems to be mounted on two courses of bricks which are built upon a 6' x 6' concrete pad. This kinda indicates to me that its a large sewer, would this be the case? It's at the rear of my house and i would really like to remove the two courses of bricks to place the metal cover frame directly on the concrete slab, is this possible?

My house is a semi-detached, around 50 years old.

The cover has four screws, one in each corner, which hold it shut. I cannot budge these screws so cannot find out what's down there.

Can anyone advise me?

Kind Regards,

Matt Griffin.

 

[htgeng]

.
The cover has four screws, one in each corner, which hold it shut. I cannot budge these screws so cannot find out what's down there.
.

A blowtorch on the screws, or drill em out!

 

[griffta1]

will give that a go... but still... can i lower it?

 

[ChrisR]

IMpact screwdrivers are good for those (the ones you belt with a hammer).
I think I'd want to peek inside before doing anything!

 

[Agile]

If its a large concrete slab like that then it might be an old well.

Or it might be a septic tank cover.

Or something along those lines.

It might also be the entrance to some kind of old chamber like an ROC post.

Let us know what it turns out to be.

You could try lifting the cover with a pry bar.

Tony

 

[doitall]

As Tony said, and do ware a safety harness just in case you suddenly drop a 100ft down a mine shaft.

Yes you can lower the brick work, all it"s for is to get the final level.

 

[bobs156]

if they screws wont budge then soak them in wd40 it sometimes works, they wont budge because the person that put the manhole in didnt grease he screws up and tightend them to tight.

if that doesnt work then you will have to break the manhole.

i suggest that you dont tamper with the row of bricks that sit on the concrete pad as this supports your manhole cover.

if they are concrete pads then that suggests that you might have a deep sewer therefore you cant enter it. health & safety and the current regulations wont let you do it, there is a risk of build up of methane gas and this can kill you.

so as a general safety warning i would not tamper with it until you know what kind of sewer it is, and whether it actually belongs to you or the local authorities.

 

[Rico99]

bobs,

You're at it again, check the dates of the posts you're replying to.

This was from 12 months ago.

Rico

 

[Agile]

I am always facinated by this kind of thing!

Its such a pity that they never post the outcome!

There was quite a lot of coal minimg in the Midlands area and it may well be a coal shaft.

There is a web site which gives details of most shafts somewhere and it should have showed up on searches when the house was bought.

Tony