The Brew Cabin

I just want a little job doing - the top of a manhole has collapsed, and it needs rebuilding and a new biscuit dropping on. Can I get a contractor......!

Anyone know of someone in North East Derbyshire?

Any building sites round about your place, Jon? This sounds like an ideal job for a groundworker with a JCB and a couple of hours to spare.

If there are any local sites, call in and ask to speak to whoever's doing the groundworks. They usually like to be paid in beer vouchers. :)

The bloke next door has a JCB type thingy which his kids play around in. Is it an easy job to do me sen?

Yeah, if you can get all the 'bits' delivered and you have access to slings or a set of bothers to lift the biscuit into place.

How big is this manhole?

Sorry - been on me hols.

Its about ten feet deep and four feet square. Theory is that it is on the pipe from a drain in the front corner of the cellar to a sewer that runs behind the neigbour's wall. Unfortunately I suspect that the surveyors drilled through the pipe from the cellar when they were doing tests for the subsidence, but I can't prove that without digging a ten foot deep hole at the front corner of the house.

The biggest problem is craning the new biscuit into place. If you have a JCB on site, then it's no big thing, but when you're DIYing, it is a major challenge.

In an ideal world, you'd have everything ready for when the new slab is delivered, and it can be craned straight from the back of the wagon onto the chamber (this usually requires a donation to the wagon driver's local hostelry), but, if you can get next door's JCB-thingy, then you might be able to manage.

Have you any photos?