Water butt

Annie1960

Does a water butt need to be connected to a soakaway or drain? I'm wondering what happens once the butt is full. Where does any new rain go to?

torbrex

If it is connected the correct way to a downpipe then it just won't fill any more.

Annie1960

torbrex wrote: »

If it is connected the correct way to a downpipe then it just won't fill any more.

Where will the water go to when it goes down the downpipe? Does the downpipe need to be connected to a soakaway, or can it just run into the garden soil?


I'll be fitting a new water butt from scratch with a new shed, new gutters and downpipe, and need to know if it will work without a drain or soakaway nearby.

torbrex

Ask yourself where it would drain to if there was no water butt.

I set one up for my dad and the excess just drained into the garden, what the gutters do is concentrate the run-off into a single stream and that creates a single soak point at the down pipe.
You could dig a deep hole at that point and backfill it with stones to take the water away from the soil surface.

Ant555

You could dig a deep hole at that point and backfill it with stones to take the water away from the soil surface.

How deep would you suggest a hole needs to be to cope with the concentrated volume of rainwater from a 7'x7' shed roof?

torbrex

Ant555 wrote: »

How deep would you suggest a hole needs to be to cope with the concentrated volume of rainwater from a 7'x7' shed roof?

That's a difficult one to answer

If the rainfall is so low that a rain butt is required then 2ft cubed should be enough as the butt will be getting emptied for use in the garden.
Obviously in a higher rainfall area the use will be less in proportion to the 'fill' being more so a larger hole will be reguired to stop the area becoming overly soggy.
Planting of wet loving plants in the area should help as well.

andrewf75

I would just let it overflow onto the ground. As stated above unless that causes a particular problem specific to the site (ie the water pools) thats where the rain would drain to from the roof without the butt and it won't be a problem.

pendragon_arther

I had 2 butts collecting water from the roof of a utility room extension, with the larger one collecting the rain from the down pipe and a connecting pipe going from it into the smaller one when the larger had filled. They were both raised lying on a reinforced small table. I used the water to refill the pond and water the garden.