I currently have a ground level open gully that is taking waste water from the kitchen to the main foul water drainage system. The gully feeds to a swept bend in the household foul water drain - with an inspection cover over the joint. I'm 99% certain there is a P-trap (or simillar) between the open gully and the swept bend. I want to add an upstairs toilet and was wondering if I can feed the soil stack into this gully drain, capping it off so it is no longer open (and joining the kitchen waste pipe into the soil stack). Is that : a) sensible b) notifiable under BCO? I'm not changing ANY sub-terrain drainage c) compatible with the current gully p-trap? Are soil pipes able to empty via a p-trap or must they go direct to the swept bend? Any advice greatly appreciated.
Yes. BUT, you will need to use a rest bend at the base of the stack & instead of a P trap, sink waste can be connected by using a strap on boss or using a boss pipe. And it's not notifiable work.
Thanks KIAB. The trap thing will be a pain in the neck. There is a 4 inch thick concrete pathway on top of it (i.e. the gully goes into 4 inch thick path and the pipe then runs under this path the to the swept joint) so I'd either have to break through the concrete that and dig down to replace the trap with a resting bend, or dig down beside the path and then dig under the path to replace the trap with a bend. I guess I'd better check if there really is a trap there or not before I decide on my plan of action. There should be trap there but not everything on this house has been done properly.
I believe all in ground changes to waste pipes are subject to building control now. I think the only exception is if you are registered installer. It is quite an easy call to your local office to check and you don't have to give your details
You might be right & I'm wrong. It is covered in Building Regulations Document H - Drainage and Waste Disposal (2015 edition),
It is quite confusing a lot has changed over the years regarding permissible work and competent people. As law abiding as I am, I haven't notified BC over minor changes to ground works for a number of years. If is something more substantial then certainly but can't see them overseeing any minor change
Like wise, I don't involve BC over minor groundworks, can open a can of worms,& cause so much grief,have past experience of this, so if your sensible, I can't see a problem changing a gully to a rest bend for a new stack.
It does indeed feed into the foul sewer and not a soakaway. Further inspection confirms there is a trap in the open gully but not an inspection chamber over the joint into the main foul sewer (the inspection chamber I previously mentioned actually services a downstairs toilet). So I need to at the very least remove the trap and fit a rest bend. But would I need to retrospectively add an inspection hatch to meet regs? I have considered not going for regs (but fitting the rest bend in a compliant manner) but have concerns for when I come to sell.
No need for a inspection hatch, if you could rod from the exsisting manhole. Any blockage is usually in pipe work exiting manhole going to mains sewer or septic tank. There are mini access chambers,about 250mm diameter, but these are usually a shallow depth fitting, about 600mm depth maximum.
Thanks all. Spoke to BCO who confirmed your statements. He suggested I include a rodding point in the soil stack. Now I just need to decide whether or not to actually register or just do it and hope to get away with it when we eventually sell.
Normally I'd keep quiet about it but got caught out when we came to sell our previous house. The property form asks if you've made any changes and writing "added an ensuite" would, I imagine, attract requests for buildings regs documentation from the buyer's solicitor
Things like adding an en-suite are quite noticeable changes which is why we always advise people to contact the Building Control department for any structural changes to the fabric of the home as it will probably come back and bite them eventually.