Mini digger - damage to porcelain pipe

[frank999]

At the rear of our semi residential property, 1mt down for 1 and two storey, digger 1.5t scrapes against a hard lump of concrete - after much prying with the smaller bucket, a dive down into the trench discovers a 150mm porcelain pipe partly encased in concrete.

The pipe still looks intact, but fear it has been cracked.

We have continued digging around it - carefully, but now find a small amount of water in the trench has gathered (it does not smell foul).

We suspect it it is a sewer or drain - as the manhole exit - is in the direction of this pipe.

Our Thames Water property searches indicated no sewers in this area.

Digging out all the soil and trying to find the crack to sort it will be a right pain, the amount of water seeping seems small - does the damaged bit if pipe though need cutting off and a replacing.

 

[Notch7]

Well its easier to repair now!

Bit more tricky with 20 tonnes of extension on it

Do you have friendly neighbours -sometimes manholes can be found in neighbours garden.

 

[23vc]

So it’s crossing your proposed foundation? As above it really needs sorting before it’s built over, can you tell where the other end goes? I replaced all mine under the extension footprint and converted back to clay outside of it.

 

[Ian H]

If the concrete is too hard of a job to chop off to put a new section in then you could get a drain guy in to Line or Patch Line the broken bit.

 

[frank999]

Thanks for the replies.

Umm, looks like I will do some more digging, best sort it out now as you say, water under foundations I presume will cause heave.
A trench dug higher up today revealed more of the pipe (dug very carefully this time) - but from what I could see no weeping of water, so will uncover to see where the leak is coming from.

The pipe is surrounded by clay, so guess no water courses are going to make their way through that.

 

[noseall]

Thanks for the replies.

Umm, looks like I will do some more digging, best sort it out now as you say, water under foundations I presume will cause heave.
A trench dug higher up today revealed more of the pipe (dug very carefully this time) - but from what I could see no weeping of water, so will uncover to see where the leak is coming from.

The pipe is surrounded by clay, so guess no water courses are going to make their way through that.

You do realise now that you will either have to move the trench or move the pipe?

 

[^woody^]

does the damaged bit if pipe though need cutting off and a replacing.

Only if you don't want your new extension to subside.

 

[bobasd]

OP, why not lightly water test from various house fixtures to determine where the soil water/waste is coming from?

why not post a pic from the nearest manhole towards the SVP? this might suggest a new route for the pipe in the trench.

is the manhole your manhole - or is it a shared manhole?