Building Control & Soakaways

fly_half83

Hi,

We are in the process of selling our property and have Building Control coming round towards the end of the week to do a final inspection.

As far as we can find out there is only one thing that is required for us to do and that is a rear soakaway. We currently have a water butt there which takes the rain water away, and use to water the garden.

What are the chances of us getting the Completion Certificate with this? Or do we require an all singing and dancing soakaway? Just keen to find out so that if need be we can get someone in to do the work before Building Control come round.

All help much appreciated.

G_M

What did the plans you submitted to BC say?

What do B Regs say about requirements for drainage?

I can't believe a water butt is sufficient to manage run-off from a roof (though you don't specify the source of the water). What happens when the butt is full?

But I'm not a surveyor so don't know the BRs!

jbainbridge

fly_half83 wrote: »

As far as we can find out there is only one thing that is required for us to do and that is a rear soakaway.

Sounds like you might need a soakaway ... not a water butt.

fly_half83

The source of the water is rain water; I am trying to find the B Regs but unfortunately I am unable to locate them as we bought the property without the visibility of the documents (great solicitors who didn't advise us correctly it seems!).

The reasons for me asking about the water butt, is that I do know in some cases they are enough for Building Control to sign off on, but I was not sure on what grounds they have been - these are things I have been told by tradesmen. It seems I get a different story from each one annoyingly.

Davesnave

You will have to construct a soakaway, unless your ground conditions, such as a very high water table, make this impossible.

As a soakaway must be 5m away from any habitable building, I imagine that small gardens might qualify for exception too. No one is keen for run off to go into sewer systems nowadays, but it has to go somewhere.

Rain water butts do not "take water away," they only store it until they become full, when the obvious happens. Naturally, they are overwhelmed most at the times of year when watering the garden is not necessary.

I'm not completely sure, but I think the local Water Authority would have the final say on soakaways. When plans are submitted now, a drainage form must be completed before they are passed. I recently filled one in.

fly_half83

Thanks Davesnave

In regards to the 5m thing; we have one at the front of our house (a soakaway), but if it was 5m it would be in the middle of the road.

As for the back of the house, we have a garden but there is a significant drop from the patio part down to where the actual grass is - i.e. approximately .75 of a metre.

We have spoken to 2 tradesmen who are both coming round over the next two days with a view to starting and completing the work on Thursday should we ask them to so thats not a problem.

Just keen to not have to fork out more money if we don't need to. Not trying to escape anything or do it on the cheap. Just if its an expense we don't need then would rather save the money.

Davesnave

The drop is good, and if the land continues to fall a bit, even better.

I wasn't suggesting you were trying to escape anything, only flagging up that the whole matter of drainage has become 'hotter' in the past few years, with additional new regs on impermeable surfaces etc to boot.

When I last did an extension, over 20 years ago, we planned-in a soakaway, but the inspector looked at the ground and said, "That'll never work well." and gave us permission to link to the sewer. I don't believe there's that level of flexibility now, judging by the amount of detail required for my recent plans. The drainage forms were for the regs, not the PP, if I remember correctly.

fly_half83

Hmm ok...so we have someone coming round to start on the soakaway. I have accepted that there is no way around it, and hey worst case scenario we don't get the Completion Certificate and we have some work to do - at least this would be one thing off the list.

It has been brought to my attention however that the other thing on the list of things to be checked by the local authority is that of the egress windows. We are not certain that we actually have keys to the windows. We know that one part certainly opens but we are not sure that the other one does - and obviously without the keys this would mean we have no way of opening them :mad:

Has anyone got any ideas on what I can do to open the poxy thing or get keys for them? Great isn't it?! :rotfl:

G_M

Surely the best peopletoanswer these Qs are.... Building Control?

fly_half83

Apologies G_M I have already spoken to them and they have advised on what is needed. I have taken the necessary steps towards sorting all of this - including having someone starting on the soakaway this afternoon.

In regards to the windows; they have said they can only give advice at this stage as to what needs to be completed - not what steps to take in order to rectify any problems etc.

DominicJ_2

If you work out the area of your roof, and work out the average rainfall over a year in the UK, you will be able to work out how much water your roof will collect. If you can fit that much in water butts, and can reasonable argue you can dispose of that much in summer, BC *might* sign it off.

I'd be surprised, if they have a box that says soakaway, thats what they want.