Driveway Drainage

misterstingy

Our driveway has a large puddle whenever there is heavy rain. I put in a small soakaway with a grill on top, which helps after summer showers, but in the winter when the ground is saturated it isn't adequate,

I've seen some peoples' direways with a metal drainage grill going right across the driveway. I was thinking of having one of those professionally installed, but it would only be as good as the drainage space below it.

There is a sewage pipe running right across our driveway, which goes across under the neighbours driveway then from there out to the public sewer/drain. Is it legal to tap into that sewage pipe and have our driveway draining into it? If it is OK to do that, presumably it needs a water trap to prevent smells from coming up?

EachPenny

misterstingy wrote: »

There is a sewage pipe running right across our driveway, which goes across under the neighbours driveway then from there out to the public sewer/drain. Is it legal to tap into that sewage pipe and have our driveway draining into it? If it is OK to do that, presumably it needs a water trap to prevent smells from coming up?

It depends what kind of pipe it is, and who owns it. If it goes into a foul sewer then the water company are likely to object to you adding surface water drainage into it, as this can cause flooding problems and has the cumulative effect of overloading sewage treatment works.

You also need to check whether there are any planning restrictions on your property - depending on when the house was built and when the driveway was constructed, there may be planning restrictions that require surface water drainage to be dealt with on-site and not connected into the public sewers.