Issue with neighbour

real1314

I *think* you can just drain rainwater away regardless of any connection to drains, by using the natural ability of the ground to absorb water, however as others (or just 1 other) have suggested you could use a soakaway, BUT don't bother with the hardcore style soakaway, you can now get soakaway structures to bury under your soil/turf (using a semi-permeable membrane) that have a much higher capacity than hardcore type soakaways.

have a look here: http://www.pavingexpert.com/drain08.html

duncan32

Well, having considered this even more, with a bit of difficulty sleeping last night to be honest (its crap when stuff like this is whirling around your head!) I am now liking the idea of utilising both my existing water butt and the new one. This would give me about 350 litres of water before the overflow kicked in and was required. Surely, with this amount of water storage the need for a soak-away is not so great? Assuming that I empty the water butt on a regular basis, and ensure that the overflow is solid and not likely to fail, would this be an acceptable solution to you people if you were in my neighbour's shoes? Also, bearing in mind the work that he did to put in the plastic / board against the wall to protect from damp due to the height of my garden against his garage (and the fact that I have told him that I will also dig up a further section behind the actual water butts and put some more there).... just not wanting to dig up the side of my house.

Thoughts?

Duncan

paddy's_mum

duncan - my opinion only and it is for you to decide on the best way, but if I were your neighbour, the how's and why's of achieving a remedy wouldn't bother me in the slightest - so long as the problem gets fixed would be all I cared about!

Don't beat yourself up over it and lay awake nights - just be sure in your own mind that you have genuinely tried to sort it out and that your chosen remedy is working.

Then, just relax and congratulate yourself on having the sense to take on board the good advice given to you here. Lie in bed and envisage all those lovely summer days to come where you and your neighbour will have pleasure nodding and greeting one another over the fence instead of engaging in a full-on war! Well done.

[Deleted User]

I believe that rainwater has to go into a soakaway and not into a main drain. We built a soakaway at our last house and it wasn`t a difficult or expensive job and will be a more permanent solution. What if you are away for two weeks and it pours the whole time

Give and take with neighbours is very worth while