How do you build a soakaway?

Thanks to all for their valued advice on building the soak away. I du

down 4 feet in one afternoon but was still not free of the clay. Th next day it rained and the whole completely filled with water and ha overflowed into the garden. 4 weeks later the whole is still full o water and shows no signs of percolating. My options as I see them ar to drain the water and carry on digging? (Or are there any othe options?)

However, to do this I need to remove the water already in the hole. have dug 4 feet down by approx 6 feet long and 18 inches wide. neighbour mentioned using a stirrup pump, but the last time she saw on was during the air raids!!.

Any suggestions would be most grateful.

N. Thornt> Rick Dipper snipped-for-privacy@cwcom.net wrote in messag

news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...- > > - > > My back garden is split between a paved area running from the house > which then meets a lawned area which is surrounded by brickwork. The > paved area runs down to the lawn, although it is not a stee > gradient. > Where the paved areas comes up against the brick work surrounding the > lawn, rain waste collects and doesn't drain away. I have heard that a > "soakaway" might help. If this is true, how deep should I make it > what > should I fill it with, should I replace the paving afterwards o > leave > it open with the fill I put into it. the width of the paved area is > approx 20 feet. > > Regards, > > Kevin- > > You need a mini digger. > > Dig trenches, fill with washed stone, then "land drain", then more > washed stone, then top with soil. You end up with lots of spare soil, > and you need to do lots of digging / shifting. > > Rick- > > yes, except you wont need the drain pipes, the water trickles through > the stones. And crushed concrete is cheaper. The flow rate is lower > with mixed lump sizes, but flow rate is a non issue in such a situ. > Its a good way to get rid of building rubble. > > And you can always do them by hand, if you want to get fit :) > > A soakaway is a big hole filled with stone or rubble. The lawn drains > into it, and the water can slowly soak away over hours or days while > the lawn stays not wet. > > > N

-- kevinspiller

Reply to
kevinspiller
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Get a mini digger with a ditching bucket and bail it out.

PS I have the same problems, so my soakaway is now a nice pond complete with fish.

PPS where geographically are you? Here we have to go down a long way to get through clay to the chalk, and really surface drainage to ditches is the only sane solution.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

If you drain the water then it is likely to fill back up again - so it doesn't seem like an ideal solution to me.

You might gain something in terms of knowledge if you can get some information about the structure of the land around your property. Perhaps someone has done surveys in the past which you could get access to? If you keep on digging you currently have no idea whether you are inches away from breaking thru the clay soil, or have a couple of miles to go.

One thing you could try instead of digging with a spade is to use a post hole borer. That might give you an indication of whether you are close to the bottom of the clay or not.

Another possible issue that that you may be close to the top of the water table in the area. If so then no amount of digging is going to relieve the water arriving in your soakaway.

The only other solution as I see it would be to lay pipes from the soakaway to a lower area so that the water can run off freely (until the pipe silts up....).

I guess you don't have a problem with moles in your garden.

Andrew

Reply to
Andrew McKay

I've got the same problem (Kent).

I dug a hole about 5ft all round, there has been no change in the level (except up). I bought a submersible pump to clear it while I was working (I've always wanted one anyway) but now I've decided to abandon the idea and take the pipe 10 yards down the hill, then let it come to the surface and drain away.

Pump is "Wolf Dirty Water Pump with Float Switch" from Screwfix, item number 36057, £39.99 - spend another £5.01 and get free delivery.

Reply to
Nigel M

Hi,

A submersible mains or 12v bilge pump will pump it out. If you have a pressure washer try boring a narrow hole at the bottom. A pipe can then be used to take a soil sample or see if the narrow hole drains OK. If it fills of it's own accord you've hit the water table!

May be worth doing a test dig in other areas to see how deep the clay goes. Another possible way to bore a hole in clay is to take some rigid pipe, cut the end at 45°, twist it in a few turns and then twist it out and remove the plug in the end, and keep doing that. But it would be much much easier to hire a post hole borer!

If it's all clay and there is some drainage elsewhere, it may be better to dig a sump instead and used a double ended siphon to move the water elsewhere. I can post some ascii to illustrate that if need be.

cheers, Pete.

Reply to
Pete C

Hmm, 45 quid - maybe you'd be better off with a bilge pump from a chandlers - perhaps about 15 quid (12 volts, get a battery...) will certainly do the job as a one-off just as well, although it would have a limited life if you 'abused' it in this way continuously! Try

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Reply to
Dave

I'd like to see it anyway ;-)

Reply to
Nigel M

LOL! Ok here goes:

___ _( )__ ( ) ~~~~~~~~ // // flow ->

/ / ________________ // |.--------------.| || __________ || || | | || || | | || runoff -> || | | || -> to drain

-------------.~||~| |~||~.------ | || | | || | | || | | || | | || | | || | |____| |____|

Basically the tube is primed, then any rise in level on one side will cause flow round the loop to the other side until the levels balance again.

This allows water from the area being drained to be emptied down a drain some distance away despite the ground in between being higher.

cheers, Pete.

Reply to
Pete C

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