What to do with backyard grate?

Willo13

 Hello team,

I just bought a house & am clueless to what I can & can’t do as far as a decking goes. Before I go paying the crazy council approval fees I just wanted some advice firstly to confirm this is a stormwater drain only.

Its 50 cm cubed with 3 outlets pipes, 1 from my water tank & to main front overflow drain.

On plans it looks like no easement in my backyard as it’s in the rear property.

can I lay a deck over it taking care of pipe locations & having an access door put in?

I’m thinking I would need to allow water to pass underneath low level decking to prevent flooding & rotting as per a previous post I read.

cheers

  

EricL

Hello @Willo13 

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's fabulous to have you join us, and thank you for sharing your question about your storm water drain.

A good rule of thumb when drawing up your decking plans is to make sure that nothing is blocking the flow of water to the drain and the top part of the drain must be accessible through your deck. This means that the top part of your deck that goes over the drain must be removable, and that council engineers have access to it.

I also suggest engaging the services of a builder who is familiar with deck building. They might possibly be aware of the rules in your area regarding putting a low-level deck over drains. I also recommend having a look at the rules and regulations of your local council regarding low-level decks over drains.

Here is a link for ideas and inspiration: Inspiring low-level deck builds

Here are some handy guides when building decks:

• How to build a low-level deck by @Adam_W 
   
• How to build a deck by @MitchellMc

If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.

Eric