Low-budget SUDS (sustainable drainage)

[Andy Dingley]

Any experience of installing SUDS (sustainable urban drainage system - look it up at pavingexpert)? In particular, doing it on the cheap.

I'm dealing with about 50m^2(plan) of roof, splitting two ways, which I reckon as two units of about 1/2 m^3 of soakaway each. Space is somewhat limited, so I want a high void ratio soakaway: one built from plastic cages, rather than a hole filled with rocks. As it's low traffic, low budget, I'm thinking about subbing a 300 quid commercial plastic crate with a stack of inverted beer / milk crates.

Any thoughts?

Any favoured brands? 8-)

[Bruce]

Make sure you surround the soakaway(s) with a strong geotextile fabric. This will allow the water to soak away unimpeded while preventing the surrounding soil from migrating into the soakaway and blocking it.

[robgraham]

Will watch this one with interest as I need to do something similar.

Rob

[Mike]

Rather than let it go to waste, pipe it to an IBC* and store the water for toilet flushing or for garden irrigation - if you find more water than you can use then dump it to the surface drainage before the new rainfall arrives.

[*]

[The Natural Philosopher]

Ah..I'll remember tht when I sort the outflow from my klargester PROPERLY.

[PeterC]

Stella Artois, please.

[Andy Dingley]

I'm planning a divert a single waterbutt (it's a small garden), but toilet flush wold require far too much piping and probably two stories of pumped lift. This is for the workshop, which is detached and behind the house. At present there's only 1/4 of it that even has guttering!

I have been thinking about a bathroom grey water system for flushing the downstairs toilet, when that gets refurbed.

or similar

[Thomas Prufer]

Ask at pavingexpert?

While Tony does tell you how it should be done properly were you a contractor charging a customer for a proper job, he will also tell you how to do it for nowt, if you ask nicely...

Othern'that, I'd make sure that there was some sort of removable wire basket (or some other filter-like-thing) between the outlet and the soakaway: not enough to block the flow should it become full, but enough to catch leaves etc. before they line the bottom of the soakaway and become a decomposed mess that will need to be removed the hard way.

Thomas Prufer