What do you do when soakaway doesn't work in clay soil?

Ksw3

We bought our house at the end of last year. The guttering had been disconnected. We reconnected it and paid for a soakaway to be installed as it seemed to just end in the ground. We have heavy clay soil so the soakaway gets full and floods in heavy rain. 

We share our downpipe with our neighbours so we are taking a lot of the rainfall.

Im not sure what to do now. I used to love the sound of rain and now I just dread it and often find myself not sleeping worrying about it, having thought I'd done the right thing what do I do now?

Any suggestions or helpful advice? 

Section62

Ksw3 said:

We bought our house at the end of last year. The guttering had been disconnected. We reconnected it and paid for a soakaway to be installed as it seemed to just end in the ground. We have heavy clay soil so the soakaway gets full and floods in heavy rain. 

We share our downpipe with our neighbours so we are taking a lot of the rainfall.

Im not sure what to do now. I used to love the sound of rain and now I just dread it and often find myself not sleeping worrying about it, having thought I'd done the right thing what do I do now?

Any suggestions or helpful advice? 

Any ditches, other watercourses, or sewers in the area?

Doozergirl

You can connect to the combined sewer but you will need permission from the water co. and pay them for the privilege of using the infrastructure.   Your neighbours are probably in the same situation.  

I'm in the same situation, though we dug the trial hole first to test and didn't go to the full effort of a soak-away.  

stuart45

A friend of mine had an underground harvesting tank installed.

Ksw3

Thank you all. 

The property report we had (and our bills) said that they already take our surface water but that seems to have been wrong. 

There is a kitchen waste and sewer on the other side of our back door although we would need to re-route the guttering.

Is it a case of just calling the water company or would I need to have some sort of proof? Is there a worry that it could overwhelm the sewers? 

stuart45

If you've been paying for it you should be able to claim a refund.

GrubbyGirl_2

When I purchased my house the soakaway had collapsed.  When the builder dug it out it was clay soil so he put a soakaway in that was twice the size needed just to compensate

sevenhills

Ksw3 said:

We share our downpipe with our neighbours so we are taking a lot of the rainfall.

Can they be forced to get their own downpipe?

stuart45

Some Water companies are asking for an Attenuation tank installed if you want to connect to the mains. In really heavy clay and a high water table even large soakaways struggle. 

Ectophile

sevenhills said:

Ksw3 said:

We share our downpipe with our neighbours so we are taking a lot of the rainfall.

Can they be forced to get their own downpipe?

Not if that's the way the houses were built.

travis-powers

This is the soak away on the job I’m working at, that at the moment is just taking water from the front of the house, there is the rear and a flat roof to add to this Anglia water are making my clients life hell asking for percolation tests before they will consider letting her connect to drainage system