soakaway

[liverpoolkeith]

Hi guys. New to forum so this is my first post.
Found you off Google and looked promising.
I have a soakaway at the front of the flat. It was a 6 bed house made into flats. I use the basement aswell. However after last week's torrential storm there was some spillage in the basement only along front wall and about a few foot across. I'm thinking the soakaway didn't cope with the excess water. Any help full ways to improve the soakaway. Like maybe maintenance or cleaning out. I've not had one before. This has only happened twice in 4 yrs. Thanks.
Keith

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Probably not, how old is the soakaway? They have a limited lifespan, maybe 25 years but sometimes less or more .......

Has it got any kind of access?

 

[liverpoolkeith]

the house was built in the turn of the 1900's. so is over 100yrs old. there is access to the top. its like an upside down chimney at the front of the house.

 

[HERTS P&D]

Post a picture please.

Andy

 

[Nige F]

Your helpful freeholder will shoulder all responsibility and probably redecorate any damage to your flat as a goodwill gesture.

 

[liverpoolkeith]

This is 2 pics one from ground level, and one from the basement window, thats open. you can see a lot of debris in the area, and the remains of the old drainage from the bay roof, thats no longer connected to anything.

 

[liverpoolkeith]

Your helpful freeholder will shoulder all responsibility and probably redecorate any damage to your flat as a goodwill gesture.

Nige, yes there will possibly be some sort of opportunity to have help with any damage etc. However I'm interested in looking more closely at this to stop it from happeneing again, and also want to make the basement a more permenant room, to sleep in. I've used it as a bedroom for over 4 yrs now and it's great. Is very quiet, usually dry, and the right temperture most of the year. I am not hugely tall, and neither is my partner so the 2 mtre height suits us. I would like to decorate the room properly now as weve done the rest of the flat now so in the future, maybe a year we want to make it part of the flat. Hopefully even add it to the living space and get it classed as part of the living space and not a basement area?

 

[endecotp]

I see pictures of a basement window well. There are some leaves at the bottom and a pipe which I think you're saying is disused. Where do you think the soakaway is?

 

[liverpoolkeith]

I see pictures of a basement window well. There are some leaves at the bottom and a pipe which I think you're saying is disused. Where do you think the soakaway is?

Hi there, I assumed that the soakaway was under the leaves? Is this not right? I wondered where the water went and I was told by a neighbour it just soaks into the soil at the bottom?

 

[endecotp]

A soakaway is a chamber away from the building into which the water is carried by a pipe and from where it drains into the ground. Google it!

Start by clearing up the leaves.

 

[theprinceofdarkness]

As the light well needs a drain (covered in leaves at present) it looks as though the builder who installed the plastic drainage, decided to use this to also drain the roof as well. The problem is the size of the light well soak a way and what is required for the roof.
Soak a ways get blocked by detritus washed of the roof , especially when there is no gulley to trap it. Could be that under the leaves, there is a proper gulley that needs cleaning out. easiest way is to get a wet'n'dry vacuum cleaner set it up with a rigid pipe. Stuff the pipe down the gulley, it will now be sitting in the silt. Switch on vac. It will suck out the silt, should take 10 seconds. Empty vac onto the garden borders!
Frank

 

[liverpoolkeith]

Thank you both. I have often wondered what goes on under there. The drain pipe is redundant now, as Ive had a new one fitted and that drains into the borders of the garden.
I always assumed there was just a natural soakaway type of thing. It only recently, that I've had time to concider what other possible things could be happeneing hense the post.
So I will clear it and let you know what I find. Hopefully the great british weather allows me the spell long enough to get it clear, but if not Ill do it peace meal.
Getting hopeful now.