Soakaway versus water butt

ecclesto

:(I bought my house last September. I did not have a survey as I was buying the house cash and lived next door for 3 years with no problems (I will probably get lots of comments now about surveys but please bear with me, hindsight is a wonderful thing).
I will be having some building work done on the house and whilst showing the architect round, I noticed some cracks in the mortar and a couple of bricks on the outside wall, none on the inside. Two builders thought it could be a cracked pipe underground from the rainwater pipe. I took a policy out with Homeserve, fantastic service from them, and they have fixed a displacement from the clay pipe and it looks like that should stop anymore cracks. Happy days until he said my soakaway was knackered and would need replacing either with a new soakaway or water butt. I like the idea of recycling rain water but have had disadvantages pointed out to me. Needless to say the water butt idea is cheaper than a new soakaway but would a water butt work even in torrential rain? It is a shared rainwater pipe so the council and my solicitor stated that Severn Trent water should be responsible for the soakaway but the water co and Homeserve have said no!! Should my neighbour be responsible for half the cost of a new soakaway?

G_M

You need both.


A 'water butt' will not store all the water off the roof. Once it is full (which it will be all winter) it will overflow and cause you damp problems - the excess wwater must be directed away from the property, either to a soakaway, mains drainage or whatever.


An alternative is a major water recycling system which is really not comparable with a 'water butt'. This would store huge amunts of water, far in excess of the garden requirements of a typical water butt, and would be typically pumped back into the house eg for flushing toilets and other non-drinking uses.

FreeBear

When the builders come in, ask the to dig a pit large enough for a couple of SUDS crates - If they have a mini digger, it shouldn't take long to do. You'll need a soakaway regardless of having a water butt or not.