Water butt or soakaway, old conservatory

ellenpal

Hi all,

We are newish owners to a house with a 20+ years old conservatory. To make it more habitable, we had a warm roof installed and signed off by building regs. However, the neighbour has since complained to the council that the conservatory drain is connected to a water butt and council said to install a soakaway. Its always been connected to a water butt. We called the roof installer about this and they said since the conservatory has been there for so many years with only a water butt, that we should challenge the council on this.

Any advice on this?

silvercar

Very odd complaint from the neighbour, why does it make a difference to them? Suggests there is some background to this, either between you and the neighbour or the previous owner.

How long has your water butt been in situ? After a certain time it is too late for any enforcement action.

Keep_pedalling

What happens to water overflowing from the butt? Three of ours overflow to the drains the 4th goes to a soak away. It is not really a case of one or the other it should be both.

None of the rain currently falling will be retained by your butt and it has to go somewhere and if a lot of it is ending up in your neighbour’s property then I an not surprised they are complaining.

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6655148/water-butt-or-soakaway-old-conservatory

Which council department has told you to install a soakaway? E.g. Building Control, Environmental Health etc…

The roof installer's advice is nonsense. The length of time the conservatory has been there makes no difference to this issue - you've changed the roof. A different type of roof will impact on the way rainwater will run off the conservatory, therefore trying to claim the conservatory is old and therefore you don't need to manage your surface water runoff will get you nowhere.

As Keep_pedalling says, the important bit is what happens to the water when the water butt is full. If it doesn't have an overflow to a proper drain and you aren't using water on a daily basis through the year then in wet weather an overflowing water butt would be the equivalent of having no water butt and just having your gutters discharging directly onto the ground.

grumpy_codger

For winter I use a long flexible hose to connect my water butt (permanently open) tap to drain - and the but remains empty. In summer I do this periodically if I don't need the collected water. As simple as that.

Section62

silvercar said:

….

How long has your water butt been in situ? After a certain time it is too late for any enforcement action.

The water butt is largely irrelevant - the enforcement would either be related to the new roof and not having adequate drainage for it, or else possible public health legislation enforcement relating to inadequate drainage (especially if the runoff is affecting the neighbour's property).

subjecttocontract

If the conservatory has been there for 20+ years with the roof discharging into a water butt it will make little difference to the water butt if the type of roof is changed. I suspect the neighbours complaint is due to the current wet weather where it's rained nearly every day since Christmas so the water butt is full and the water is all ending up in their garden. I've never found soak always particularly good unless they are exceptionally large.

Easiest fix is to run an overflow pipe or hose into a suitable surface water drain or existing soakaway.

Does your property have surface water drainage or does the water off the main roof already go to a soakway ?

ellenpal

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81882463#Comment_81882463

The original water butt was there since the conservatory was built, I reckon. And the roof installer just hooked it back up to the water butt that was already there. The neighbour has complained about everything, this is just one thing from a very long list of annoyances.

ellenpal

Thanks for the comment. The water from the main roof drains into the sewer but the conservatory was built over the sewer ages ago. So there's no cost effective way to drain to the sewer from the conservatory roof. I suppose that's why they always had a water butt.

We have a 2nd overflow water butt to help prevent any spillage.

silvercar

If it's been there longer than 10 years (or for more than 4 years and pre-dates the rule change) then there is nothing the neighbour can do about it.

If you want good relations with the neighbour, then discuss it with them over tea and cake; if not ignore them and tell the council its been there longer than enforcement action will apply.

WIAWSNB

You may have a second butt, but surely in this weather they do overflow? And, when they do, where does this excess water go to?

Does your neighbour have a valid complaint about this discharged water? (Or are they just looking for a thrill from forcing you to have a costly soakaway installed?)

How deep is your back garden?

How does the water from the main roof get to the sewer?

I wonder if the council does have any challenge on this - you went through the correct BC process for your new roof, of which the drainage was surely a parameter, and they signed it off. S62?