Search the forum,

Does anyone know what one of these it ?

Discuss Does anyone know what one of these it ? in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net

Status
Not open for further replies.
P

phcjpp

Hi,

We live in a London victorian semi and are in the process of getting our front drive done. We discovered what looks like a clay glazed pipe in the flower bed and were wondering what its for. It seems to lead into a sewer access point (covererd by a manhole cover).



We were also surprised it was open like this and did not have a cover of some form.


Many thanks for any help

Chris
 
Hello Chris. It could be an access point, as you say, but possibly to a trap in the sewer. Usually found just where sewer leaves your property. This was done to allow for a sewer pipe run to be higher than the road connection & then dropping from the trap. It also meant that sewer gases coming from the main sewer cannot get past & into your property because of the trap.
You must keep this access point as sewer can block at the trap but is very easy to clear if you can lift a cover.
 
as above, I belive it's called an interceptor or something along them lines,
they usually do have a cove but its probley been lost or broke,
you need to keep it but get a cover for it
 
thats not an interceptor all though there may be an interceptor in the chamber below that was originally an air vent for the drains and would have had a metal fitting in it with a mica flap which allowed air to flow in the drains i will see if i can find an image
like thishttp://www.cadia.com.au/mica-vent-flap-valve
 
Last edited:
Buchan Trap, is the name of what I was talking about. I knew its name, but wasn't sure how to spell it properly, so I looked it up on Internet.
It might not be that, but there are a lot of them on older houses where I am.
 
It might be the top of a Buchan trap you'd know if you dig up a little next to it you'd find the swaned neck base or it could be an old clay rodding point although I can't see why thered be a socket ...I'd go for Buchan .
 
lift the cover and pour a bucket of water down it if it comes out the wall of the chamber its a vent if it runs directly into the channel its an old drain connection if you dont see the water at all it a rodding eye
 
Firstly, thanks for all the responses - most helpful.

I lifted the manhole cover next to the clay glazed pipe and I can see the main house sewer at the bottom about 5 feet below the cover. There is also a 3" (or so) hole in the side of the wall of the sewer access (1ft below the manhole cover) which is the exit for the clay glazed pipe I found (checked by pouring water down as suggested). The clay glazed pipe is only 3ft or so from the sewer access.

From what everyone is saying above it is sounding like this is simply an air vent for the sewer as you have very easy access to the sewer from the manhole cover if you ever needed to clear/rod anything. Someone told me most things made of iron were removed from our street in the war (railings etc) so any metal pipe covers might have gone too I would guess.

I guess my options are either to purchase a sewer vent cover like the one mentioned or to simply permanently block the pipe into the sewer access (concrete/cement or similar) and then smash up the pipe above the surface as it sounds from the comments like these were put in in Victorian times to provide a vent for gas build up but are not needed these days (my particular one was completely blocked by soil until I cleared it yesterday so pretty certain it wasn't venting anything).

Cheers
Chris
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Reply to Does anyone know what one of these it ? in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net

Similar plumbing topics

D
Extending outdoor tap and drain
Hello all, I'm would like to extend an existing outside tap to another point in the garden. I'm about to pour a concrete patio and was hoping to run the water line underneath. There are existing drain (and who knows what) pipes running along the same wall so I'm nervous about digging too far...
Replies
5
Views
112
DIwhYdidIstartThis
D
D
Covering shallow sewer pipe under concrete Patio
Hello all, I’m replacing a concrete paving slab patio in the back yard. The original patio used 50mm deep concrete slabs on hardcore & sand. I’m planning to pour a 100mm deep concrete patio on 100mm hardcore. In order to achieve the same final height to line up with the rest of the patio, I...
Replies
5
Views
117
DIwhYdidIstartThis
D
dreikher
Hole in copper pipe, solder under floor, T coupling & protection
I was stupid enough not to check the position of the pipes under the tiles when installing a toilet and drilled right through the center of a 16 mm copper water pipe. I exposed the pipe by removing a ~30cm section of the plastic sleeve and a ~10 cm section of the pipe around the hole. Several...
Replies
0
Views
102
dreikher
dreikher
Creating content since 2001. Untold Media.

Newest Plumbing Threads

Back
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock