soakaway details

[richard]

I need to dig out a new soakaway. It needs to be at least 1m3.

What else do I do other than dig a big hole and connect the drainage to it?

Richard

[Peter Crosland]

A useful guide can be downloaded here

Crosland

[Richard]

Or even from here:

me know how you get on. I seem to have no means of disposing of any rainwater at the back of my place despite all the downpipes disappearing into the ground. So, I worrying about how big a soakaway I need to dig and the prospect of digging two trenches 6 m long to connect it to the existing downpipes.

Richard

[Andrew Gabriel]

You could try asking the local water company if they would allow you to feed rainwater into a foul sewer. I think the answer is normally No, but a friend recently asked and the answer was Yes in his case.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Fill it full of percolable (?) material and cover it with a waterproof membrane to stop soil getting into it.

In general a good mix of builders rubble and various shingle grades works well as a filler, and a sheet of plastic on top, and about a foot of topsoil on THAT is fine.

I believe you can now get precast concrete perforated pipe sections to line the walls but not sure. That is useful when you need to do it near other buildings - you can define the outflow better I THINK.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Trenching is easy - hire a mini digger.

You may need something bigger to dig a soakaway.

However, when designing drainage, you cannot get water to drain away below local water table: If this rises in rainy conditions, you need to work on a system to lower that, and that may nmean going a lot further downhill than you would like.

[Rob Bradley]

Have a look here

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