Drains and Sewers

[Munroast]

A lot of modern properties seem to be attached to two seperate systems, one for surface water (and roofs) and the other is for sewage Do they both go to the sewage works or does the surface water go straight into the river ? or is it just so excess surface water can be dumped straight into river during a downpour.

 

[Notch7]

ideally all surface water should be retained within the curtilage of the property -so it should go to a soakaway

having said that -some new estates have a huge joined soakaway -which may be located across a few gardens.

New builds, like bigger detached ones commonly have a complete rainwater drain run around the property -but go to a single large soakaway



surface water should never go to sewage works -even though many older properties do have combined systems.

my road has a major foul drain problem -after a torrential rain, 2 of the manhole covers for the foul have water spewing out of them -leaving toilet paper and er "stuff" on the road. Nice.

 

[motorbiking]

You can also get a discount off your water bill if you discharge rainwater into a private soak away.

https://www.ofwat.gov.uk/households/your-water-bill/surfacewaterdrainage/

 

[Munroast]

Don't think our surface water/Roof water goes to a soakaway but it does go into a separate drain just curious as to where it goes. Certainly in the the old town centre everything just goes into the sewer, but more modern areas have this two drain system, and the very latest builds seem to have giant soakaways I guess the only way to find out for a particular property is to ask the water board (I wonder if they will ever reply- LOL)

 

[motorbiking]

It will be on any searches that were done

 

[IT Minion]

Don't think our surface water/Roof water goes to a soakaway but it does go into a separate drain just curious as to where it goes. Certainly in the the old town centre everything just goes into the sewer, but more modern areas have this two drain system, and the very latest builds seem to have giant soakaways I guess the only way to find out for a particular property is to ask the water board (I wonder if they will ever reply- LOL)

Once upon a time drains were shared for rainwater and waste water. People worked out that we don't need to take as much care treating rain water before it's released back into the environment and so to save money newer systems started using separate drains which go to a more light touch treatment plant.

Now we're a bit more aware of the downsides of dumping huge amounts of water straight into rivers and so distributed soakaways are much better.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Don't think our surface water/Roof water goes to a soakaway but it does go into a separate drain just curious as to where it goes. Certainly in the the old town centre everything just goes into the sewer, but more modern areas have this two drain system, and the very latest builds seem to have giant soakaways I guess the only way to find out for a particular property is to ask the water board (I wonder if they will ever reply- LOL)

!955 property and we have two separate large pipes passing through the back gardens, one for sewage, one for surface water. Surface water goes untreated to the streams and rivers, sewage to the treatment works before eventual discharge.

We are at the high point of the village, near the church and never get flooded, others lower down often complain of flooding when the drains over flow, but it doesn't stop them building more homes to be flooded. SWMBO works in a local school, halfway down - that regularly suffers floods when it rains, with several inches of water.

Dumping the wrong water into the wrong pipe (cross connecting), can involve heavy fines where there is a two pipe system.

 

[charliegolf]

ideally all surface water should be retained within the curtilage of the property -so it should go to a soakaway

I have a right/dispensation/easement to discharge my SW into the river.

 

[Gasguru]

Google stormwater attenuation ...
Round here (on clay) large ditches collect excess water and release it slowly into the rivers.

 

[securespark]

Our house built 1960ish (like the rest of the estate) has a sewer that runs to the rear of the property, picking up a main sewer running though the back gardens.

The rainwater is piped to the front of the property, picking up a pipe running under the road.

IHNI where it goes after that, though.

 

[jeds]

For planning purposes these days the emphasis is on sustainable drainage. As mentioned above, this means disposing of the water naturally (soakaways, drainage ditches, swales etc.) as close as possible to the property. Of course this isn't always possible, especially for smaller plots. For building regulations purposes there is a hierarchy of solutions which means you must use sustainable methods if it is technically possible. If not the next tier is surface water mains, if that isn't possible then you can revert to foul water mains.

 

[conny]

Our rented house was built 1873 Everything simply goes to a cess pit which gets emptied each year into a big tanker which pumps it out.
What happens after that I have no idea.

 

[CBW]

What happens after that I have no idea.

Probably goes to a treatment works.

 

[jeds]

Everything simply goes to a cess pit which gets emptied each year into a big tanker which pumps it out.
What happens after that I have no idea.

Technically that's a septic tank rather than a cess pit. The difference being a septic tank has an inlet and an outlet. The tank processes the waste by natural bacteria so the outgoing fluid is (you hope) partially treated. A cess pit is a sealed tank with no outlet and no treatment. It just holds x amount of waste until it's pumped out. For even a small house you'd be pumping it out monthly at least, otherwise it would overflow.

 

[conny]

Technically that's a septic tank rather than a cess pit. The difference being a septic tank has an inlet and an outlet. The tank processes the waste by natural bacteria so the outgoing fluid is (you hope) partially treated. A cess pit is a sealed tank with no outlet and no treatment. It just holds x amount of waste until it's pumped out. For even a small house you'd be pumping it out monthly at least, otherwise it would overflow.

I have 2 large, brick-lined chambers at the bottom of the garden with metal lids on them. (Must be at least 6' deep and approximately 2' x 2'-6"). Drains feed into the first one, which has a 4" diameter vertical pipe ending about 2' from the top of the chamber, and the chamber has an outlet about midway up which feeds into the second chamber. (If I remember correctly). This second chamber has a Flygt submersible pump in it and is controlled by a float switch. In this chamber there is a 1 1/4" waste pipe disappearing through the wall towards the meadow next door. We have a tanker come every 12 months or so to empty both chambers.