My wife has got some land and we're going to build a house. Part of the land has a small (a few feet wide) canal. We'd like to fill this in to increase the size of our garden.

Her dad has done a job like this before. He laid some kind of concrete piping down to allow the water to continue flowing, and then just burried it all with soil. He's plannning on doing the same for us on this land.

I'm thinking that maybe we would like to put some kind of structure over this. It could be part of the house, or an outbuilding. Perhaps nothing at all, but it would be nice to have the option of building over it at some point in the future.

So my question is, is there a specific kind of pipe that we should use to ensure it will be safe to build over in the future?

(I'm sorry that I know nothing about construction and so probably have used incorrect terms to describe things.)

As a rough guide, the footings for an average cement + block house with post spans of 4M are going to have a design spec of 20 tons (per post). Suggest you consult an engineer on this one.

The first thing you need to establish is what is the purpose of this canal/klong .

Does it drain surface water from somewhere, was it just an old irrigation pond for crop growing.

And do you have legal rights to alter it.

If you are going to be building over it or even driving a car then it needs to be a concrete drain, bigger the better.

And that drain should ideally be covered with concrete.

I have one now across my gate to give you an idea.

You have to maintain the flow . Ours is actually controlled by sluice gates to irrigate fields elsewhere.

Will post photo later, it's full now they haven't released the water, haha

window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());

As a rough guide, the footings for an average cement + block house with post spans of 4M are going to have a design spec of 20 tons (per post). Suggest you consult an engineer on this one.

I've shown my ignorance of all things construction here. What I understand now is that the posts are load bearing, and that provided we don't have a post directly over this drainage tube, we won't have any problems. The land is large and so we have some flexibility about exactly where we place the house, so I think it should be easy enough to avoid putting a post directly above the tube.

The first thing you need to establish is what is the purpose of this canal/klong .

Does it drain surface water from somewhere, was it just an old irrigation pond for crop growing.

And do you have legal rights to alter it.

If you are going to be building over it or even driving a car then it needs to be a concrete drain, bigger the better.

And that drain should ideally be covered with concrete.

I have one now across my gate to give you an idea.

You have to maintain the flow . Ours is actually controlled by sluice gates to irrigate fields elsewhere.

Will post photo later, it's full now they haven't released the water, haha

Thanks for your input on this; that's helpful. I spoke to my father-in-law yesterday when we visited the land about these questions. It's an irrigation channel, and he does have a pump and sluice gates to control the water. He plans to put in concrete piping, like you suggested, and put in some vertical channels for inspection too.

You should be able to tell from the chanote whether the canal or whatever is yours to modify. Some are kings property and cannot be modified in any way.

You should be able to tell from the chanote whether the canal or whatever is yours to modify. Some are kings property and cannot be modified in any way.

Thanks for that info. I got a scan of the deeds yesterday as it happens. None of the irrigation channels are marked on it. They're quite small.