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What is this BT setup, and can I build a porch on top of it?

Flomberg — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 18:23:56 GMT

Hi, please can someone help identify what this BT setup is intended for, and if I can build a porch on top of it without causing any future issues?

The house is 35 years old, and on the outside is a small concrete box in the ground with a metal lid. On the lid is the letters 'BT'.
Visible inside the box is the end of two plastic tubes sticking out of the ground. A black cable loops out of one plastic pipe and into the second pipe.

What is this for, and can I just concrete on top of it without causing future headaches?

Thank you for any help provided 🙂

Re: What is this BT setup, and can I build a porch on top of it?

iniltous — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 19:25:54 GMT

Those are normally provided on the public side of the property boundary ( in the footpath ) rather than on the customer side of the property boundary, is this next to your house wall or possibly the garden wall , it would be unusual to be near enough to your house to be in the way of building a porch .

It’s obviously used for access to the existing cable , so if you build on top of it , access is then lost , so should you have a problem ( a fault ) or if FTTP becomes available , and this ‘box’ was to be part of the underground routing , it would delay the repair or the provision….

Re: What is this BT setup, and can I build a porch on top of it?

gg30340 — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 19:39:24 GMT

If you concrete on top of it and there is a problem Openreach will dig through your concrete to access it which if it is the floor of your porch it will not be ideal.

You should contact Openreach and arrange for it to be relocated. This will most likely be at your expense.

See link.

Changing our existing network | Openreach

Re: What is this BT setup, and can I build a porch on top of it?

Flomberg — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 19:46:43 GMT

Thank you for your kind reply.
This box is up against our house, on the side of the front door 🙂

Re: What is this BT setup, and can I build a porch on top of it?

Flomberg — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 20:16:59 GMT

Haha glad I asked before starting to pour concrete! Thank you for the kind reply.

Re: What is this BT setup, and can I build a porch on top of it?

Daedalus2000 — Sun, 28 Jan 2024 14:51:34 GMT

Why not simply remove the complete metal cover assembly, build a square 'pipe' around the open with some shuttering, pour your concrete and then put the cover back on the top. That way you keep the access but raise it to level of your porch floor? I did much the same with a water stop-tap many years ago when extending a garage.