DIY block paved driveway, what drainage?

[lasors]

You are leaving a flower bed, aren't you? As long as you drain into it then you wont need PP. Unless you are on a load of clay this will drain OK one would imagine.

Drain an entire drive into a flower bed

You are kidding?

The bed is large enough to easily accommodate 2 cubic metres of soakaway, providing it will soak away and not just pond, which I plan to test.

Installing drainage might well be expensive, as there's no downpipe on our land, as I said before.

I suppose I could test it by covering the garden in tarpaulin and seeing what happens to all the water!

 

[mointainwalker]

But by regulation - and good sense - soakaways have to be a good distance away from the house and it sounds like your flower-bed is close to the house-wall.

I'm only a DIYer but it doesn't sound like a smart move to me. Generally people go to a lot of trouble to move and keep water away from their house walls

 

[Thermo]

i would er on the side of installing a soakaway and the drain towards the bed as well, if tehre is no where else for it to go.

I have to say despite the regulations, im amazed at the number of so called decent driveway companies that still put no drainage on driveways, for non porous installations. DO the councils ever do anything??

 

[lasors]

If I did it, there's room to put it perhaps 1.5m away from the house wall, but it needn't be any deeper than 500mm. If lined with plastic it could only drain downwards. The bed runs almost the full width of the bottom of the driveway, between it and the house, the soakaway would be underneath it. I should add a photo!

How deep are the foundations likely to be below ground level?

I haven't the first idea about how to DIY drainage pipework out to the street, which is above the house. That might be too big a job for me alone. I think I need to get down the planning office to try and find any plans of underground pipework which may or may not be there to use.

 

[Thermo]

i think you need a bit more help. You dont want to put any plastic lining around the soakaway.

have you got any pictures of the area you can post?

 

[lasors]

have you got any pictures of the area you can post?

Soon as I can. We're not staying there as it's a building site just now having the floors replaced.