Building a Soak away

[milbo1990]

Hi,

I'm about to start building a soak away at the bottom of my garden because;

A) my garden keeps flooding when it rains (clay soil) and takes a day or two to clear
B) I'm building an extension which BC will likely say needs surface water to drain to a soak away

I just wanted to run my plans past the knowledgable people on here...

I'm going to dig down to ground water level (this was only about 500mm in the winter, so likely to be lower now), line the perimeter with some bricks I have leftover layer loose (not bonded) in a honeycomb pattern and backfill with broken-down construction waste (roof tiles, slabs, concrete/brick rubble) with the finer stuff at the bottom.

On another note; what do you all do with soil spoil? I think I'd fill a skip with soil alone!!

 

[stuart45]

If your garden keeps flooding what's the chances of the soakaway working?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

A) my garden keeps flooding when it rains (clay soil) and takes a day or two to clear
B) I'm building an extension which BC will likely say needs surface water to drain to a soak away

BC will likely excuse you from building a soakaway on the grounds that it won't work. Normally the Inspectors are familiar with local ground conditions.

 

[milbo1990]

Well it does eventually soak into the ground, but it takes a day or so. I just thought that by digging a soak away it would give somewhere for the water to hold whilst it soaks away. I will be building raised decking over the area that floods (and the soak away) next summer.

 

[Newboy]

I suspect (and hope!) that your building inspector will know that the ground conditions are not suitable for a soakaway but if they insist on one being built then I don't think that they would accept your planned method.

Ask for their advice before planning any further