Tick Drain Alternative?? (French Drains & Flooding)

Barry505

Hello All,

I have had a drainage/flooding problem in my rear garden/dining room.

As a result i'm now in the middle of:
1- Lowering the rear garden (its currently higher than the inside of dining room)
2 - Installing a couple of french drains (with limestone chippings and perforated pipe).

I was hoping to direct the perforated pipe in to the rectangular rain water hopper which would be okay but now that I've lowered the garden the hopper is far to high. I then thought to lower the hopper, however, as this goes in to a tick bend and then the mains i'm not sure whether this would work as the mains pipe is rather high.

Is it now a case of extending the tick bend down deeper? will this work as the hopper could end up being lower than the pipe to the mains! or is there an alternative which I can install to prevent problems and still have efficient water movement?

Any help you can provide would be much appreciated. Ill try and get a photo up here.

Cheers

Barry505

Sorry not allow to post links as i'm a newbie!

DirectDebacle

This may be of assistance to you. Several options for dipersal are covered.

anotherbaldrick

What is a "Tick Bend" ? is this a term for a "P" trap ? What is the nature of the soil/subsoil in the garden ?

keystone

anotherbaldrick wrote: »

What is a "Tick Bend" ? is this a term for a "P" trap ?

What is the nature of the soil/subsoil in the garden ?

Bloody good question!

Cheers

keystone

Barry505 wrote: »

I was hoping to direct the perforated pipe in to the rectangular rain water hopper which would be okay but now that I've lowered the garden the hopper is far to high. I then thought to lower the hopper, however, as this goes in to a tick bend and then the mains i'm not sure whether this would work as the mains pipe is rather high.

Do you mean that you are now bringing the water back towards the house?

The purpose of a French drain is to take the stuff away and let it permeate into the soil furtrher away or alternatively into a soakaway.

Balders question is very germane.

Cheers

Barry505

Excellent website thanks!

Yes the tick bend is/does the same as a P-Trap, just looks like different terminology.

The subsoil is wet clay lower down.

Cheers

Barry505

Posted same topic in DIYnot, in the gardens section, with title "Flooding, French Drains and Tick Bend Alternatives".

Its let me post a link to the photos there, so its more obvious what i'm talking about.

The rear garden is a climbing terrace (not massively but defo climbing) hence the lack of fall to main drain, sorry should have prob mentioned this before.

Cheers

anotherbaldrick

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=29mapfo&s=5

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2djtk0n&s=5

What is the drain coming from on the right hand side ? It may be possible to connect the land drain via a silt sump into that . But a question > is the sewer this lot connects to a combined (foul/surface water) sewer ?

Barry505

The drain on the RHS lead to a 'Flodrain Channel' which was supposed to move the water run-off from the paving flags, however, it was too high and didn't work so I've pulled it out and will hopefully replace with a french drain.

I'm planning on leading it to the same hole beneath the hopper, however as you can see from the photo I've not chased the drain in yet so it will be much lower than where that pipe is now.

I would also have a matching pipe leading in from the LHS so that it clears the water from the rest of the yard.

Hope this makes sense.

The mains is a combined sewer, so yes it has both foul and surface water leading to it, which is why (I believe) we still need the bend in the pipe (to keep out the smells).

Cheers

anotherbaldrick

To a degree, still unsure by how much you are intending to lower the ground level by in the vicinity of the hopper, but my old rheumy eyes detect that the incoming pipe is only just about level with the outgoing drain. If you lower the trap bend any more the incoming will be below outgoing and will always remain surcharged and for this reason soon silt up and stop working. Sorry you need a plan B