Soakaways

ecclesto

I have cracks down the side of the house near to a rainwater drainpipe. Homeserve have now fixed a large displacement between 2 pipes near the downspout so hopefully there won't be anymore cracks.
They told me I had a soakaway in the front garden. My house is at the end of a row of 4 and my neighbours rainwater runs into my soakaway. I am assuming that I will have a soakaway in my back garden as the front pipe only runs one way. A builder has suggested that I run pipes from the front soakaway to join my drainpipe at the back of the house to take any water away from the front of the house.Will this be too much water going into 1 soakaway? The Homeserve engineer stated that the front soakaway was silted up but he did wash it out. I might want to pave over the front driveway so thought the linking in with the back pipes would alleviate any future problems. I have to say the service from Homeserve was fantastic!

Doozergirl

I don't understand what you're asking. Can you rephrase the question.

(You would connect something to a soakaway, not connect a soakaway to something, so maybe start with what you're trying to connect to what soakaway.)

It's not a good idea to connect more rainwater pipes to an existing soakaway. It should have been sized to the area of roof it serves. Not more.

ecclesto

Sorry, what I meant to say is that builder wants to link the downspout pipe from the front of the house into the downspout pipe at the back of the house and this will go into the soakaway at the back of the house. My house slopes down from the front of the house to the back. It was built in 1975 and is a smallish end of 4 linked houses. My neighbour has his own downspout pipe at the back of his house but his front guttering runs into my downspout pipe.

Doozergirl

Why does the builder want to do that?

ecclesto

The Homeserve guy mentioned that the front soakaway was silted. I might be panicking here ....

EachPenny

ecclesto wrote: »

The Homeserve guy mentioned that the front soakaway was silted. I might be panicking here ....

Quite possibly. Why did the Homeserve guy come in the first place? We need to understand the full story before we can help.

tonyh66

you have you and your neighbours front rainwater running into your front soakaway, adding it to the rear soakaway would be crazy it would be well over capacity.

ecclesto

The homeserve guy came out as builders has said the cracks in the wall could have been caused by water building up. There was a large displacement in the pipes so water would have been flooding out of this gap. The engineers report just mentioned that he had told me I had a soakaway. I will contact the water co tomorrow morning

Doozergirl

Why would you contact the water company? You have soakaways, it has nothing to do with them.

I can't get my head around this thread.

Anyhow, the advice is no, do not add any more outlets to your existing soakaways. If there is a problem with one, fix it, don't divert it. That's called bodging and there are likely consequences.

tony6403

You should bear in mind that soakaways are subject to building regulations.
Found a copy of the guidance here
https://www.eden.gov.uk/media/1072/bre_digest_soakawaysdesign.pdf

Furts

ecclesto wrote: »

Homeserve was fantastic!

Homeserve may have been fantastic, but I am questionning here. I suspect your front soakaway was not cleaned out. How would you know here? Was every piece of stone infill removed, carefully washed, and the inside of the soakaway likewise? Then everything was put back together? Or was it a pcc ring mangole and the silt was pumped out to a tanker lorry?



All round I suspect Homeserve have been dismal! But over to you here.