Is my driveway drainage adequate (new build)?

[Paul Bunce]

I live in a new build (in England), the house has a block paved drive 10m x 10m that slopes away from the house down to the road. At the bottom edge of my drive I have plastic drainage gully. I noticed that when it rains the gully was filling with water and over spilling into the road. There was a lot of sand from when the driveway was laid (fair enough) so I have removed this and found the outlet of the gully. This outlet is a 90 degree 110mm pipe bend that just faces back under the drive and just terminates. Once I've dug the sand out of the bend I can feel the hardcore under the drive.

Does this need to be connected to the surface water drainage or can the builder get away with this set up?

The drain seems pointless as it just fills with water and spills out into the road.

The building company is a local company with a good rep, they don't seem to be cowboys so I'm surprised to see this setup.

 

[Notch7]

I live in a new build (in England), the house has a block paved drive 10m x 10m that slopes away from the house down to the road. At the bottom edge of my drive I have plastic drainage gully. I noticed that when it rains the gully was filling with water and over spilling into the road. There was a lot of sand from when the driveway was laid (fair enough) so I have removed this and found the outlet of the gully. This outlet is a 90 degree 110mm pipe bend that just faces back under the drive and just terminates. Once I've dug the sand out of the bend I can feel the hardcore under the drive.

Does this need to be connected to the surface water drainage or can the builder get away with this set up?

The drain seems pointless as it just fills with water and spills out into the road.

The building company is a local company with a good rep, they don't seem to be cowboys so I'm surprised to see this setup.

Its wrong but common.

I walk my dog around the village every day -in one close, a driveway company has done about half a dozen or more jobs. All with acos where the driveway reaches the footpath and every single one has the outket going nowhere. It looks superficially correct, but when it rains, it fills up in minutes.

It should be piped to a soakaway.

 

[Paul Bunce]

So would I be within my right to expect it to be correctly connected to a surface water system, or can the developer just say no?
I would like to ask them to connect it to the surface water drainage system but I'm unsure of their legal responsibilities.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Unless you're on clay or other impermeable ground a soakaway should have been created below the paving. Are you still inside the snagging period (or have you added the block paving separately), whoever put it in has cut a massive corner

 

[Paul Bunce]

Unless you're on clay or other impermeable ground a soakaway should have been created below the paving. Are you still inside the snagging period (or have you added the block paving separately), whoever put it in has cut a massive corner

The drive was laid by the developer when the house was built (in June), its constructed of a very course sub-base (MOT type 1??) then sand then the blockwork. From what I have seen none of the gully's on the estate actually drain away (120+ houses) but most driveways are flat so I doubt its an issue (or people dont know/care about it). It just seems odd to put a very short piece of pipe (a simple 3" long 90 bend) that just goes into the sub base. Unless of course it it just to make it look like its connected to something?

I have only been in the house a few months and I'm still within the snagging period. It only an issue to me as my drive has a slope down and as the gully is at the bottom of both mine and my neighbours drive but falls my way, it fills up with water then overfills into the road at the bottom of my drive leaving water and crap etc. It over fills just from washing the car.

Spending a lot of cash on a brand new 4 bed detached house I don't expect the driveway gully to be over spilling in light rain or when I wash the car. I just want to know if I ask my developer to fix it whether or not they actually
"have" to, or if they have met their obligations with the design.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

If the build is that new the plans should be available...get hold of them & see what they have to say about surface water drainage. Also ask the builder what the arrangements are for surface water- if they say soakaways then ask them where they are, how big they are etc etc (do this by email so when they tell you a load of lies you have some evidence). May be worth a chat with local building control as well...

 

[Leofric]

Basically as others say - mention to housebuilder , NHBC (assuming they are registered) and Building Control . They should connect to surface water system and builder should not 'get away with this (current) set up'.