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Blocked pipe to soakaway

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  • I have a soakaway that fills quickly and floods the patio on a regular basis. DynoRod had a look and said there was no blockage. He suggested I channel the water from the gutter into a water butt instead of allowing it to fill the soakaway.

    Did he tell you how big a water butt you needed ?
    You scullion! You rampallian! You fustilarian! I’ll tickle your catastrophe (Henry IV part 2)
  • Furts
    Furts Posts: 4,474 Forumite
    Just a word of caution regarding pressure washers into drains. Commercial drain companies have been known to blast through both pvcu drain pipes and through pipe connectors/collars. This has been a running issue on adopted drains.

    On private drains this is single wall pipe. This is the most vulnerable pipe. It has failed testing for use in adopted drains.

    So as not to be alarmist it will depend on how powerful the jet is and how it is directed against the pipe. But putting a pressure washer against, say a 90 degree bend, is risky!
  • Stooby2
    Stooby2 Posts: 1,195 Forumite
    I live in a terrace and found the drain at the front of the house for the downpipe regularly overflowed. Despite cleaning the trap out, pushing hose down, cable-tied to a drain rod with a good nozzle on (and getting a ton of c r a p out) it still wouldn't drain properly. I came to the conclusion that after the 70 odd years the soakaway had been there it was full of leaves, mud and other rubbish. It was located under my elderly neighbour's front garden.

    We were having a new driveway installed anyway and I asked for two new soakaways to be put in - one to handle the downpipe and a drain from the driveway, the other to handle two more drains for the driveway (yes, it's a very big driveway).

    I noticed last year, the second soakaway drain was overflowing. It's only a couple of years old so can't be full of muck already. After a lot of inspection - including running a cheap waterproof camera down, it was obvious the soakway was just full - there had been so much rain it just couldn't soak away fast enough. We're on sand and shingle here and a way up a hill, so it drains really well. Once we had some (comparatively) drier weather, the soakways returned to normal.

    So either case could be your problem - a soakaway that's just full up of muck and needs redoing, or the ground is too wet to take any more water at the moment.
  • Stooby2 wrote: »
    I live in a terrace and found the drain at the front of the house for the downpipe regularly overflowed. Despite cleaning the trap out, pushing hose down, cable-tied to a drain rod with a good nozzle on (and getting a ton of c r a p out) it still wouldn't drain properly. I came to the conclusion that after the 70 odd years the soakaway had been there it was full of leaves, mud and other rubbish. It was located under my elderly neighbour's front garden.

    We were having a new driveway installed anyway and I asked for two new soakaways to be put in - one to handle the downpipe and a drain from the driveway, the other to handle two more drains for the driveway (yes, it's a very big driveway).

    I noticed last year, the second soakaway drain was overflowing. It's only a couple of years old so can't be full of muck already. After a lot of inspection - including running a cheap waterproof camera down, it was obvious the soakway was just full - there had been so much rain it just couldn't soak away fast enough. We're on sand and shingle here and a way up a hill, so it drains really well. Once we had some (comparatively) drier weather, the soakways returned to normal.

    So either case could be your problem - a soakaway that's just full up of muck and needs redoing, or the ground is too wet to take any more water at the moment.

    One of the problems of constructing soakaways in sand/shingle is that they are very free draining and often occur in areas adjoing river valley uplands such as Taplow . The consequence is that winter rain causes the watershed to raise the ground water table readily. Typically a ground water level of several meters down in Summer can rise to ground level in the Winter and even become artesian (ie water will break and issue through the surface).
    You scullion! You rampallian! You fustilarian! I’ll tickle your catastrophe (Henry IV part 2)
  • Stooby2
    Stooby2 Posts: 1,195 Forumite
    Nope I'm nowhere near Taplow. And aside from last year and the appalling rain we had, I've never had a problem with drainage here.
  • Stooby2 wrote: »
    Nope I'm nowhere near Taplow. And aside from last year and the appalling rain we had, I've never had a problem with drainage here.

    Which confirms what I said , probably ground water rising in the gravel strata due to abnormal rain. But brace yourself there's another great deluge coming through over the weekend.
    You scullion! You rampallian! You fustilarian! I’ll tickle your catastrophe (Henry IV part 2)
  • Did he tell you how big a water butt you needed ?

    No. I'm not going to get one unless it becomes a major problem.
    I'm sure hot weather is round the corner anyway :)
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