Shallow services

[pagmore]

Hi again all and thanks for your previous words of advice.

Just broken up a 3 inch thick concrete drive slab and discovered gas and electric four inches under. Transco has inspected and just left saying that there is no regulation depth for supply services on the drive, unlike the 375mm that applies to the highway.

Would be very interested to hear what you lads would do given the same problem.


cheers

Pag'

[lutonlagerlout]

can they not be dug a bit deeper by your good self pag?
pain i know but would make it a proper job
LLL

[pagmore]

Thanks LLL

Should've stated that the gas pipe is very old and solid. You know how it gets. I'd imagine myself pogo-ing up and down on the thing. Would you think it possible to lower the pipe without risking damage?

That reminds me I'd better check on the old liability insurance.

Cheers,

Steve

[Dave_L]

Leave the old metal pipe well alone!

So the pipe is now seven inches below finished level?

[Mikey_C]

transco were lot more helpful then southern elctric, when I had problems with electric and gas services,

the gas was literally just under a concrete slab (near the meter) further away it was a lot lower but went through brick built Inspection chamber, which meant it was a H&S risk, I told I needed it replaced either way, but they choose to do it for nowt.

the electric cable on the hand was a nightmare the southern electric wanted nothing to with it and said if I caused any damage it be very expensive to fix, the cable was 4" lower than the damp proof course, meaning I need to drop it by 12" after hand digging round it, and finding the old unused drain which was causing it to be so high, I then managed to squash it down and lower it enough, the ability to manipulate it seemed to vary according to how much power was going through it.

If your a pro, doesn't it become the clients choice as to what they want to do?

[pagmore]

Pipe would be seven inches below paving level if kept the same with a small rise to the drive. We were hoping to level the drive a bit, but the customer has said they can live with it as is. And, yes, the customer was given the option to pay transco to drop the pipe. They declined.
I'm a bricklayer by trade and don't do drives every day of the week, which makes this board a great source of experience for me to mine.

[lutonlagerlout]

Pipe would be seven inches below paving level if kept the same with a small rise to the drive. We were hoping to level the drive a bit, but the customer has said they can live with it as is. And, yes, the customer was given the option to pay transco to drop the pipe. They declined.
I'm a bricklayer by trade and don't do drives every day of the week, which makes this board a great source of experience for me to mine.

yay 2 brickies!!
any more brickies lurking?

LLL

[Ted]

If your a pro, doesn't it become the clients choice as to what they want to do?

As long as you make the client take responsibilty for their choice in writing...

http://www.building.co.uk/story.a....563&c=1

http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/eyl/06repChuse.htm

The builder is obliged to carry out the works in a way that any reasonably competent contractor would do... the client is not normally a reasonably competent contractor so his/her ideas must often be taken with a pinch of salt.

[James.Q]

yay 2 brickies!!
any more brickies lurking?

no there all on brickwork expert.com
This is paving. lol :p

[flowjoe]

You often find that services (gas/water etc) have been laid in the same trench as the drainage system, on quite a few occasions we have uncovered old gas mains running the length of our dig and had to call out the gas board (old school) because they do tend to leak slightly.

If you expose the pipe and tell them you can smell gas i am pretty sure they are obliged to renew it in that lovely yellow bendy plastic pipework. Slip the engineer a few quid and they put in an extra metre or two so you can lower it at will

Worth a try

[matt h]

have encountered this problem many times over the years, and am annoyed that the gas board/transco still insist that there is no real regulation regarding depth of gas services to domestic properties, and yet will insist that you dig to a depth of min 375mm if you prepare the trench yourself. I have encountered gas service pipe laid by the gas board only 6inches below a soil driveway. They refused to put it right sayinfgthey didnt have to adhere to any specification...it so happened that our concrete delivery severed the pipe and when I located and sealed the leak awaiting transco to arrive, they then tried to charge me for the callout! Needless to say I didnt pay, and have tried to raise a national standard through corgi, but again no one seems prepared to bit the bullet and make a decision.! As for the transco digging teams, they are about as much use as a paper condom. Had arranged for a team to turn up and connect the mains to a pre-dug trench, only to have them say they couldnt do it because they needed a road closure and a different wall mounted box, so a different team would be needed... caused me a delay of three weeks, and thenthe same team turns up three weeks later and actually carries out the wsork which they supposedly couldnt do the previous visit. Another time I had specified that i wanted a wall mounted box for the metr and had already laid and pressure tested the remainder of the gas pipe in preparation. First team turns up and lays piper in trench, but fits a ground box, saying they were not allowed to fit a surface box because their pipe would be exposed for a length of 1metre. I protestedand said that the box had to be wall mounted because the client wanted a prepaid metre. They just said the meter fitter would arrive shortly. 2 hours later meter boy turns up... yes, you guessed it his mater wouldnt fit the ground laid box...@why didnt they fit a wall mounted box he asked ' a slightly irrate mr hannigan lost the plot and immediately got on the phone to Fulcrum connections' the gas board installation office, but a subsiduary of transco just the same... but they have nothin to do with them if you know what i mean. Next day the meter man turns up with a wall box and new meter,and I had to make a surface connection between the old box and the new before i could carry out the commissioning of the new system... many other rant worthy episodes have occurred since, but it just goes to show what a load of jobs worths they are

[matt h]

P.S. Informing the client also has othre dangers... you advise what's right and thr costs involved and you loose the contract because you are either too expensive or just considered to be a fly in the ointment..

[Ted]

P.S. Informing the client also has othre dangers... you advise what's right and thr costs involved and you loose the contract because you are either too expensive or just considered to be a fly in the ointment..

But by not informing the client you run the risk of legal proceedings being issued which is something you don't want!

[matt h]

always err on the side of caution;)

[pagmore]

Thanks all for invaluable advice. As pointed out, transco visited the customer and the outcome was basically that they weren't interested, unless paid, which the customer did not want to do. I did not wish to tamper with the rusty gas pipe and open a can of worms.
We raised the drive level (not ideal) and left the services covered with sand below sub base level.
The job's finished and a good un. I was a little snookered, but satisfied as I could be with the result.

Cheers again for all who gave their time.

Pag'