Drainage / soAkaway on a driveway put in Aug 2018

CattyUk

I had a tarmac driveway installed on half of my front garden approx 18 square metres (other half was already concrete) in 2018.

I obviousley asked the contractor at time re putting drainage in as I made it clear wanted to comply with all regs etc. So what they did was put a gulley? I think acco type grate at front of drive and we had left a strip/border along the left hand side with gravel on. At the end of the grate where the water is directed to/and border, he did put a small soakaway in.

Now I didn’t know the full ins and outs of it now but I have since become aware that it has to be 5 m from a building etc. It is 5 metres from our property but our neighbour to left where the soAkaway is, is a terraced house which is closer to the front of street payment. I estimate about 2 metres from their house.

Is this going to be ok, like I said there is a metre wide border to left with the soAkaway at bottom? Really worrying about if causes any future problems. Don’t really want to dig driveway up if can avoid. But majorly worried sick if next door suffer subsidence from it.

The driveway slopes down slightly and thre soAkaway would sorta be diagonally away 2 metres from house.

I am not sure how and where you would put one if it had to redo it as wherever you put it it’s going to be close to our house/theirs and public highway regardless.

Having a nightmare at the moment, as we thought everything was ok and had subsequently used them to do a patio in our back garden. This was the eye opener. Had lots of issues as we could feel movement in slabs throughout. They came back about 3/4 times relaying and in end they did proper pointing/concrete and that was solid. However, now it seems in process of relaying one section seems to dip thus creating a big puddle.

I’ve just getting fobbed off about both patio and driveway. Completely ignoring fact guidelines state 5 metres. Now he has been paid, obvious doesn’t want to know. A sticky situation as a customer of my work (why I used him as I thought would do a good job).

Is there anything salavagable? Cheaper remedy’s. Feel sick that I’ve paid £3500 and if have to do it again, which we can’t really afford.

Any guidance much appreciated.

Thank you

Davesnave

What sort of tarmac was used? It doesn't sound as if it was permeable if an Acco drain was required. If it wasn't and you had over 5m2 laid, you needed planning permission you needed to consider where the run off would go and provide for it.

While you will say that the contractor should know the regulations, and you appear to know something about them now, the onus is always on the house owner to check their proposal first and gain the required permission to see if it meets regulations.

The good news is that the provision of a soak away 2m away would be unlikely to cause a modern house with metre deep foundations to subside.

The bad news is that it took me only 20 seconds to Google this: Pity I didn't read it!!!:rotfl:

https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/45/paving_your_front_garden

CattyUk

I did look into it myself and it stated if you directed it to somewhere permeable you didn’t need planning permission so thought that would be ok.

We kept a strip 5 metres long and metre wide with gravel and directed the water at end to there and to a small soakaway. Is that not what the planning portal says?

How new a building are you talking? I don’t know build date other the terraces house next door as mine was built later. It’s a terraced house so not 100s of years old but not brand new either

Davesnave

It's a long time since 2010 when I looked at this for my front garden car parking area. Having followed my own link, I see now that you're right about planning permission and I've mis-remembered. Sorry!


We had 3 lots of planning permission, but that wasn't in any of them; it was the back garden where the new soak aways had to be built 5m from the house for the roof rainwater: completely different.

That's better news for you, because as far as I can see, building regulations only cover roof run-off, which is where the minimum 5m distance from property is enforced. Surface water run-off has a suggested minimum soak away distance, but it's not compulsory. This is what the Environment Agency advice says:

"do not build rain gardens or soakaways close to building foundations. For small driveways, a minimum distance of 3m should be suitable, but it depends on the ground conditions and a greater distance may be required. Ask your local authority Building Control Department if you are unsure."

Finding out about local ground conditions happens automatically when work is inspected for building regs. The building inspector knows about local conditions and advises accordingly. If you don't have a building inspector looking at the work, you have to rely on your own judgement and that of your contractor, which is what you did.

So, do you need to be worried that the suggested distance of someone's foundations to the soak-away is only 2m or so? I don't think you do, but more recent houses have much better foundations than older ones from, say, the 1930s or 40s. Unless the whole area around the soak-away is turning into a bog all winter, it's fine.


When we refurbished our 1970s house a few years ago, the original roof water soak-aways were only 2m from our foundations, which is why we had to move them to 5m. We didn't know where they were until we dug them out. One was actually under the conservatory floor and we'd never had a problem.

Finally, reading your post again, you have more than just a soak-away. There's a 'rain garden' area too; a posh name for the gravel strip you mention. That does a job and means your soak away doesn't have to work so hard.

Long story short; I don't think you'll have a problem with the drive. That doesn't help with the patio, I know, but it's one less thing to be concerned about.

Once again, sorry I hurried and got my first post wrong. I will change it so it's not misleading.

CattyUk

Thank you very much, that has really helped.

Do you have a link for environmental agency regarding 3m surface water as I was struggling to find it?

Just a question though about the strip of gravel/rain garden, due to the shape and slope of driveway, the water is really only distributed at the bottom of the strip as the water is meant to flow down into the aco grate and then to strip of gravel/soakaway. What I wanted to know though will it still help having the strip or is it just going to be concreted to that area.

Apologies if stupid question.

My husband was having a look at it yesterday and he basically just said looks like a hole in ground and got gravel in there then soil on top. Not sure if that’s still considered a proper soAkaway?

Thank you very much for your help.

Davesnave

CattyUk wrote: »

Do you have a link for environmental agency regarding 3m surface water as I was struggling to find it?

Just a question though about the strip of gravel/rain garden, due to the shape and slope of driveway, the water is really only distributed at the bottom of the strip as the water is meant to flow down into the aco grate and then to strip of gravel/soakaway. What I wanted to know though will it still help having the strip or is it just going to be concreted to that area.

Apologies if stupid question.

My husband was having a look at it yesterday and he basically just said looks like a hole in ground and got gravel in there then soil on top. Not sure if that’s still considered a proper soAkaway?

Thank you very much for your help.

The link to the Environment Agency surface water info is in the Planning Portal page I gave you, after the third paragraph.

A rain garden is best if it's to the side of a paved drive with the drive sloped towards it, like the camber on most roads, so the run off spreads widely. I can't quite picture yours, but so long as the soak away is connected to it, it will help.


I've just remembered that when we rebuilt our conservatory, including new foundations, I took the rainwater from it into a 5m long soak away that runs parallel to it, only about 1.5m away. I didn't think of that as a risk. I wanted to spread the roof water at the back of the house as much as possible between that and the two 'inspected' soak-aways.. The building inspector wasn't consulted, as the conservatory doesn't need to meet building regs. So it looks like I unwittingly broke the EA guidelines there.


We've had two very dry summers since then and very wet winter times too, but the conservatory, which has walls and foundations the same as a house, hasn't moved at all.

I know every site is different, and ours drains quickly, but guidelines are usually drafted for a worst case scenario.


Our soak-aways are just holes in the ground filled with stone and gravel, though on one I have a perforated pipe running out and downhill from it through more gravel in an underground trench, because we hit clay at the main hole. It's possible to get plastic crates to construct high capacity soak-aways from, but we wanted rid of broken blocks and concrete etc.

Nowadays, the Environment Agency don't want what used to happen, with many people sending roof water into the sewers and causing flooding. Instead, they want more soak-aways and slower run-off. The problem is that much housing isn't laid out to make compliance with their guidelines easy, or even possible, as you've found.