Wooden garage over sewer and near boundary

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Hi,

Me and my girlfriend will hopefully be moving into our first house in about a month, but I like to have my research done! Been wondering about a few things that are bugging me...

Got a search back yesterday from the solicitors showing a sewer running parallel to the side of the house all the way out through the rear boundary. We have side access at the rear and was planning on building a wooden double garage down the bottom of the garden.

So two things here:

1) Looks like the garage would run over the sewer, front roughly above and parallel with the pipe (will have to check more when we move in obviously), though there's no manholes or anything. Is this a problem? As far as I can tell I would normally be ok building the garage on a 6" concrete slab, do I need to talk to the water board about it? It's no different to putting a shed on a patio though really I guess, and seems crazy you would need permission for that...

2) Was hoping to build out of wood, and also hoping to get as close to the boundary as possible. Might be a bit short on space otherwise. I've read that a wood garage within 1m of the boundary (as well as also over 30m2, I'm hoping for 36m2 but will have to see) needs building regs. But what sort of regulations would apply? Will I just need fireproof insulation or something? Or is it more than that?

Any help appreciated! Am also hoping to extend out the back so I imagine this forum could become rather important to me!!
 
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You can't rely on sewer maps for their location. You need to actually find it.

Either way, you will need a build over agreement from the water company. Building control won't accept an application unless you have this in place beforehand.

You will need to meet all applicable building regs, not just fire safety.
 
Thanks for the reply. Do you have any idea whether they will require deep foundations, like I think they would with a proper extension, or are they normally fine with a slab on top? Or are there just too many variables to say?

Problem I've had is I haven't been able to find out what the "applicable building regs" actually are, would be nice to have a look to see what would be involved. Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong place but I can't seem to find any regs anywhere really!
 
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Problem I've had is I haven't been able to find out what the "applicable building regs" actually are

They are all that apply to the work you are doing. :cool:

That's normally where a professional comes in. It depends on what it is and what it will be used for so it can mean more or lesser parts of the different building regulations. All the approved documents are online. Try the planning portal. These are "suggested" ways of complying with the building regulations. But if you don't know what will apply to your work, then they may not be much help.

What you can put over the drain in terms of a trench foundation or raft will be down to the water company. Building control wont have a say in it. But they will have a say in, is whether what the water company agrees to is actually sufficient for the structure you want to build.

The water company will want no loading on the sewer, so that normally means that the drains need to be bridged and not built over with a raft.
 

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