It is a long story, but a few weeks ago we learned that we have a buried manhole in the front yard. It would be good to have relatively easy access to check inside every year or so. However, it is about 10 inches below grade and we don’t just want a hole in the ground. We have a quote to raise it to grade, but are there other reasonable options to keep it where it is and still be accessible and not an eyesore? If we were to just bury it again, might there be a way to make digging it up easier in the future? Fill most of it with rocks wrapped in landscaping fabric?
by unicornpirate24
14 Comments
My recommendation has always been a rock bed landscaping feature for stuff like this.
Keeps it accessible but hidden.
But not everyone likes rocks.
You can also place a statue/fountain/etc .
A manhole to where? Annual access to check on what?
Isn’t it the city’s job to raise the access to meet the landscape so it doesn’t get buried like this?
Go get a 12” iron riser from a civil supplier like Ferguson. It’ll cost you about $400.
Make a brick well thing with a A frame roof. I mean, how many times does anyone go down there? Maybe the roof thing can be easily removed and the brick well wide enough and low enough to still access it?
Bird bath over a small pillar. That’s what I plan to do here.
Do y’all just have a tree growing out of the street?
Since you mentioned it’s a shared sewer line for 4 units, you definitely want to raise it to grade with a proper riser. If roots block that line and it backs up into four different basements, the insurance headache will be 100x more expensive than the quote you got. Do it right once
Concrete Collar
Riser ring. Be sure to seal it properly, though; water shouldn’t infiltrate.
I would contact the city for proper protocol
Some things are meant to stay buried…
Measure the distance from two fixed points to the manhole. Corner of the house and the mailbox for instance.
We put a patio in surrounded by a retaining wall, which raised the grade where the septic tank is by couple of feet.
Using the measurements we had taken from the corner of the house to the tank and the corner of the shed to the tank, the manhole was easy to locate.
The septic guy added a riser he had with him, which fit perfectly in place. We marked spot with a big piece of flagstone
When we did a service upgrade from 100 A to 200 A the utility had to come locate the box, turns out it was buried, and then we had to wait while another crew dug out and extended the box with a riser. Then the connection crew came and were able to do the hookup.