What is the likely route of my waste pipe?

[Scott07]

Hey all
Moved into my 1930's mid-terrace house 3 days ago, and planning out the building work I want to do on it.
Can someone give me an idea of where the drainage hole might be for such a property, and also what *possibilities* there are for redirecting the waste flow?
Basics are this:
The house has a small kitchen extension at the back, and I am pretty sure the waste pipe goes straight down into the kitchen from the bathroom above. The back of the old house is only 6 meters wide, and the kitchen extension was built to cover only 4.9 meters of it from the left-side fence and across. This wasn't a planning issue that I can see, I *think* it was so that the study could have a window into the back garden.
I want to extend into that space they haven't used to create a square, and then open up the entire downstairs (Kitchen, dining room, study), BUT, I don't want a waste pipe standing in the middle.
Has anyone come across this sort of problem, who can suggest a solution?
I will certainly be getting a plumber in soon, and have already enlisted a friend, but I want to have some background of my own in preperation if i can, so that I can think on my feet if the plumber and I are discussing options.

 

[andyplumber2009]

Hey all
Moved into my 1930's mid-terrace house 3 days ago, and planning out the building work I want to do on it.
Can someone give me an idea of where the drainage hole might be for such a property, and also what *possibilities* there are for redirecting the waste flow?
Basics are this:
The house has a small kitchen extension at the back, and I am pretty sure the waste pipe goes straight down into the kitchen from the bathroom above. The back of the old house is only 6 meters wide, and the kitchen extension was built to cover only 4.9 meters of it from the left-side fence and across. This wasn't a planning issue that I can see, I *think* it was so that the study could have a window into the back garden.
I want to extend into that space they haven't used to create a square, and then open up the entire downstairs (Kitchen, dining room, study), BUT, I don't want a waste pipe standing in the middle.
Has anyone come across this sort of problem, who can suggest a solution?
I will certainly be getting a plumber in soon, and have already enlisted a friend, but I want to have some background of my own in preperation if i can, so that I can think on my feet if the plumber and I are discussing options.

Hi
Where does the stench pip drop down from upstairs? That is you main indicator
1st thing is that as part of your local authority searches there should be a plan view of local properties with drainage indicated.
2nd thing is that it will either go to the front of rear of you property. Are man hole covers are in the road at the front or spaced about 3 houses apart along the back. Look out upstairs window at neighbours patios and see what you can see.

I would expect that they run to the back along a row of say ... 6 houses and then drop through to the main sewer on the road running through an alley between the rows of terraces.

Hope this makes sense

 

[Scott07]

>>I would expect that they run to the back along a row of say ... 6 houses and then drop through to the main sewer on the >> road running through an alley between the rows of terraces.

Yep, that all made sense, thank you!
If the above is true, and I'll check out the searches this evening, then where would I be looking for this pipe? I am fairly sure you are right about the feed to the main sewer being through an alley. I'll check out the window if it's not too dark this evening, but at a guess? The layout of the back of the house is: They extended by the allowed3m for their kitchen extension before we bought it, and the waste pipe is in the kitchen I *think*. I then want to extend about 5 meters with terrace paving INTO the garden. If the sewer pipe is likely to be further back than that into the garden, then it sounds like I'm ok as long as I make sure the pipe runs along the side of the fence and under the ground (But not under paving) so that it can still be accessed. In saying all of that, I have no idea if that is technically going to work!

 

[andyplumber2009]

>>I would expect that they run to the back along a row of say ... 6 houses and then drop through to the main sewer on the >> road running through an alley between the rows of terraces.

Yep, that all made sense, thank you!
If the above is true, and I'll check out the searches this evening, then where would I be looking for this pipe? I am fairly sure you are right about the feed to the main sewer being through an alley. I'll check out the window if it's not too dark this evening, but at a guess? The layout of the back of the house is: They extended by the allowed3m for their kitchen extension before we bought it, and the waste pipe is in the kitchen I *think*. I then want to extend about 5 meters with terrace paving INTO the garden. If the sewer pipe is likely to be further back than that into the garden, then it sounds like I'm ok as long as I make sure the pipe runs along the side of the fence and under the ground (But not under paving) so that it can still be accessed. In saying all of that, I have no idea if that is technically going to work!

Based on limited personal experience, i think you will be lucky
i would expect the pipe to run min 750mm deep parallel to the rear of you properties approx 5m from the back of the ORIGINAL property.
Of course you have various options like you need to joining further along then you would need to excavate, break in with new join (regs sign off) etc ...
If you are paving over then no big issues. but if they havn't dug up in 80 years they shouldn't need to now! paving is easier to dig up than internal floors and walls.
If you are building over then you will have to lintel across the pipe where your wall line is so that the lintel takes the weight of foundation and brick wall (subject to type of ground and structural eng advice). If your new external wall runs parallel along the top of the pipe..... re submit plans with a slightly smaller of bigger extension.

 

[Scott07]

Thanks for the help guys.
I went to my place last night, still moving in you see, and the waste pipe is *definitely* inside the kitchen extension. Looks like they built around the pipe when they extended, which I believe is quite common.
The kitchen sink faces the back garden, and the kitchen pipe goes straight through the back wall into a drain in the ground. So that's one access point into the sewer pipe which lies *somewhere*. I don't intend to extend the property backwards into the garden, but I do want to pave an extra 5 meters into the garden to create a terrace. So, that will in some way impede access to that kitchen drain, but presumably that can be worked around just by leaving a gap.
The ground floor layout of my house has the kitchen extension bolted onto the back of the old preperty, coming out about 2.5 meters from the original building. If you imagine the property being 6 meters wide, the kitchen extension only takes up about 4.9 meters of that. In that 1.1m *open space* where I want to build, there is a drainage hole which has 2 external plastic pipes going into it. One of those pipes comes from the side of the kitchen extension (Washing machine was on the other side of that pipe I think), and the other pipe comes vertically down the back of the older wall of the house, with 2 little pipes joining into it from around the upstairs bathroom area (Confused as to what these 2 little pipes are. If they are from the bathroom, why isn't the soil pipe there too).
I'm trying to piece together in my head how it all fits. I am almost certain the waste pipe is inside the kitchen extension, because when my wife flushes the upstairs toilet, and I press my ear against the column in the kitchen corner, I can hear the water trickling down. I'm trying to figure out how much work will be involved in moving that soil pipe (bearing in mind all the walls around it, and the floor will be getting ripped out anyway), and whether that drain in the corner of the unused *extension* space outside is going to cause me problems if I want to build over it. Really, what I want to figure out is, is this a reasonably common bit of work?