Question 1

What happens to a manhole in my driveway?

Accepted Answer

It has to stay accessible — burying it is not an option. What you can do is fit a recessed tray cover, which takes the surface material inside the lid so the chamber blends into the paving and still lifts out. Whatever is fitted, the cover has to be rated for what will drive over it. An inspection chamber exists so that the drain can be rodded and inspected, and paving over it stores up a genuinely expensive problem for the first time something blocks. It may also not be yours to bury: since 1 October 2011 drains and sewers serving more than one property transferred to the water company, so a chamber in your drive on a shared run belongs to United Utilities rather than to you. The neat solution is a recessed tray cover. The lid is a shallow tray into which the surrounding surface material — blocks, setts, resin, even a cut flag — is laid, so from a few feet away the chamber disappears into the paving. It lifts out with keys exactly like a normal cover. On block paving the result is close to invisible, and it is worth specifying when a drive is being built rather than regretting afterwards. Load class is the technical point and the one most often ignored. Covers are classified under BS EN 124 for the loading they will take, and the light pedestrian-duty covers common in gardens and paths are not designed for a car. A drive built around a cover that was already there, or one where the existing cover was simply reused, will crack it — and then the frame moves, and then the paving around it follows. The frame and its surround matter as much as the cover. Everything driving over the lid goes through the frame into the brickwork or concrete beneath, so a frame bedded on a thin dab of mortar over ordinary brickwork will rock, break its bedding and let water into the chamber and the surrounding base. Then fines wash out of the sub-base, a void forms, and the paving settles in a ring around the chamber. That is why a rocking manhole cover in a drive is worth dealing with early rather than tolerating. It is a modest job now — rebuild the surround, bed the frame properly, fit a cover of the right class, reinstate the paving — and a settled area plus a chamber rebuild later. The rocking is the warning, and it comes well before the settlement.

Question 2

Can I pave over a manhole?

Accepted Answer

It has to stay accessible — burying it is not an option. What you can do is fit a recessed tray cover, which takes the surface material inside the lid so the chamber blends into the paving and still lifts out. Whatever is fitted, the cover has to be rated for what will drive over it. An inspection chamber exists so that the drain can be rodded and inspected, and paving over it stores up a genuinely expensive problem for the first time something blocks. It may also not be yours to bury: since 1 October 2011 drains and sewers serving more than one property transferred to the water company, so a chamber in your drive on a shared run belongs to United Utilities rather than to you. The neat solution is a recessed tray cover. The lid is a shallow tray into which the surrounding surface material — blocks, setts, resin, even a cut flag — is laid, so from a few feet away the chamber disappears into the paving. It lifts out with keys exactly like a normal cover. On block paving the result is close to invisible, and it is worth specifying when a drive is being built rather than regretting afterwards. Load class is the technical point and the one most often ignored. Covers are classified under BS EN 124 for the loading they will take, and the light pedestrian-duty covers common in gardens and paths are not designed for a car. A drive built around a cover that was already there, or one where the existing cover was simply reused, will crack it — and then the frame moves, and then the paving around it follows. The frame and its surround matter as much as the cover. Everything driving over the lid goes through the frame into the brickwork or concrete beneath, so a frame bedded on a thin dab of mortar over ordinary brickwork will rock, break its bedding and let water into the chamber and the surrounding base. Then fines wash out of the sub-base, a void forms, and the paving settles in a ring around the chamber. That is why a rocking manhole cover in a drive is worth dealing with early rather than tolerating. It is a modest job now — rebuild the surround, bed the frame properly, fit a cover of the right class, reinstate the paving — and a settled area plus a chamber rebuild later. The rocking is the warning, and it comes well before the settlement.

Question 3

Drain cover in my new driveway

Accepted Answer

It has to stay accessible — burying it is not an option. What you can do is fit a recessed tray cover, which takes the surface material inside the lid so the chamber blends into the paving and still lifts out. Whatever is fitted, the cover has to be rated for what will drive over it. An inspection chamber exists so that the drain can be rodded and inspected, and paving over it stores up a genuinely expensive problem for the first time something blocks. It may also not be yours to bury: since 1 October 2011 drains and sewers serving more than one property transferred to the water company, so a chamber in your drive on a shared run belongs to United Utilities rather than to you. The neat solution is a recessed tray cover. The lid is a shallow tray into which the surrounding surface material — blocks, setts, resin, even a cut flag — is laid, so from a few feet away the chamber disappears into the paving. It lifts out with keys exactly like a normal cover. On block paving the result is close to invisible, and it is worth specifying when a drive is being built rather than regretting afterwards. Load class is the technical point and the one most often ignored. Covers are classified under BS EN 124 for the loading they will take, and the light pedestrian-duty covers common in gardens and paths are not designed for a car. A drive built around a cover that was already there, or one where the existing cover was simply reused, will crack it — and then the frame moves, and then the paving around it follows. The frame and its surround matter as much as the cover. Everything driving over the lid goes through the frame into the brickwork or concrete beneath, so a frame bedded on a thin dab of mortar over ordinary brickwork will rock, break its bedding and let water into the chamber and the surrounding base. Then fines wash out of the sub-base, a void forms, and the paving settles in a ring around the chamber. That is why a rocking manhole cover in a drive is worth dealing with early rather than tolerating. It is a modest job now — rebuild the surround, bed the frame properly, fit a cover of the right class, reinstate the paving — and a settled area plus a chamber rebuild later. The rocking is the warning, and it comes well before the settlement.

What happens to a manhole in my driveway?

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