Building a carport or garage
If you want to build a carport or garage on your property there are some things you need to consider.
Even if you there are no water or sewer pipes or other assets near your garage or carport you still need Icon Water approval to build as we may have to dig up our pipes in the future, and we need to make sure there is enough room to do this safely and without damaging your garage or carport.
This information should be read together with the following pages:
Step 1: Know the implications if your project is part of a bigger renovation
Although you can build a garage or carport over our assets in some circumstances, you can’t build a house (or extension) over any of our infrastructure. Please consider this when you are planning your carport or garage, especially if you want it to eventually be attached to your house.
Step 2: Find out what's in the ground
We recommend contacting Before You Dig Australia (BYDA). This free service will provide plans showing Icon Water’s assets (as well as assets for telecommunications, electricity, gas and stormwater) in your work area.
Once you’ve located our assets, confirm their location (they might have shifted from what is shown on plans because of past activities, erosion, subsidence or the slope of the land). For step-by-step instructions see How to Locate Icon Water Assets.
You may also want to find out where your own services are on your property (like the pipes that run from your water meter into your house) before you start digging. Ask a plumber, electrician or visit Access Canberra. These internal service lines belong to you and we don’t keep records of them at Icon Water.
Step 3: Check for easements
An easement is a section of your property that others have the right to use and access in specific situations, to keep your water, sewer, stormwater, electricity, or gas services working properly.
Because of this, you can’t build any permanent structures over easements, even if they don’t contain infrastructure. Easements are usually shown on your title or lease document. You can also search your property, and find more information about any easements, at ACTmapi.
Step 4:Check your access requirements
You can’t build a structure that prevents us from bringing machinery in to access our pipes, manholes and other infrastructure on your property. If we can’t get machinery in, we can’t repair or replace assets in an emergency or during planned maintenance.
We have two types of access requirements:
Maintenance access – If there is a water or sewer main at the back of your property, we will need maintenance access to drive machinery or other equipment to repair and eventually replace the main.
Emergency access – If there is a sewer manhole on your property, we must have 24/7 emergency access.
Both types of access can be through your garage or carport as long it is big enough (taking into account door heights).
Step 5: Understand the type of carport or garage you can have
There are some restrictions if you would like to build your garage or carport over our assets (understanding what assets are located on your property is also vital):
- The minimum height of the roof and the width of the garage or carport will depend on the depth, size and type of main underneath.
- If you have a water or sewer pipe under the floor, the floor must be able to be removed easily (for example concrete no more than 100mm thick or small pavers).
- If you do not have a pipe under your carport, you can have both front and back doors as long as we can get our machinery through without having to remove or unlock them.
- We must be able to access our infrastructure at the back of your property (see Step 4).
Step 6: Check how close you can build to our infrastructure
When planning and building a new structure there are two important guides as to how close you can build to our infrastructure – the Pipe Protection Envelope (PPE) and the Zone of Influence (ZOI).
Pipe Protection Envelope: Your structure must be outside the Pipe Protection Envelope (or PPE). This is a space above and below ground surrounding our pipes and other infrastructure. The exact width and height of the PPE will vary depending on the type and depth of our pipe. You must keep this space clear so we can safely excavate our pipe without undermining your structure. More about the Pipe Protection Envelope for pipe types;
- Gravity sewer pipes: the PPE width depends on the size of the pipe and its depth below the ground. The height above ground of the PPE for gravity sewer pipes depends on the depth and diameter of the pipe.
- Pressurised pipes (such as water mains and pumped sewer mains): the PPE width depends on the size of the pipe and its depth below the ground. The height above ground of the PPE for pressurised pipes in infinite, i.e. no overhanging structures such as roof eaves can extend over the PPE
- For very deep pipes we might need to use specialised excavation equipment. This equipment takes up more space so please contact us for further advice.
The dimensions of the PPE and easements may be different. Your proposed structure must comply with both requirements.
Zone of Influence: You also need to consider the ‘Zone of Influence’ (or ZOI). This is the area below the ground either side of a pipe where the weight of your structure will impact or place pressure on our pipes and may cause them to crack or break (older pipes are particularly vulnerable). This is different to the PPE.
You can build in the ZOI if you take additional measures that allow the weight of your structure to be supported away from our pipe and outside the PPE.
Step 7: Prepare and submit an Icon Water building application
Once you have decided on the details of your proposed construction we recommend engaging a professional to develop a design and engineering drawings and submit them to us with an application for approval.
See What makes a good building plan (you can also submit your application from this page) for more information.
Following these steps will help your project run smoothly.
We’re always happy to help
For general queries, you can contact us directly at talktous@iconwater.com.au. Our team will do their best to respond within 24 hours.
If you need a bit more assistance, or just prefer talking to a person, you can call us on 02 6248 3111 (select option 3).