"Drains" on driveway

[OldKettle]

Hi,
I have been having a problem with rainwater pooling on my driveway and not draining away through two "drains".

Having taken the covers off I realised that they were completely full of soil, so I have dug that out, assuming that I would eventually get down to a pipe that connects to a nearby drain run.

However, when I dug down I actually found that the bottom of both of them have a slit that runs across the bottom, and digging as far into that as I can I just seem to hit more soil.

I have attached a couple of picks that show the drains.

If I keep digging will I eventually get down to a pipe that lead to the main drain run, or are these just designed to hold water and drain it into the ground?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

 

[cwhaley]

Can't see the pictures, but my betting is they just dump the water into a soak-away. Normally you will have the grill and channel which I presume the pictures show, with a short pipe at the end diverting the water to another area under the driveway.

 

[OldKettle]

Can't see the pictures, but my betting is they just dump the water into a soak-away. Normally you will have the grill and channel which I presume the pictures show, with a short pipe at the end diverting the water to another area under the driveway.

Thanks. Yeah, there's some problem with the thumbnails not showing (they show in the preview). I've changed them now so that they have a clickable link.

If you could have a look that would be great.

If they do just link to a soak away, should I be able to clear them more than currently shown?

https://imgur.com/ek3RMGn
https://imgur.com/xhy5FFG
https://imgur.com/hrnav1a

 

[cwhaley]

Not how I imagined it! Hard to tell - the proximity to the manhole cover suggests they're linked up to an existing drainage network.

If they're linked to that system, it's likely soil/dirt has worked its way down and compacted within the pipe. Might be worth having them cleaned with a rod. If they just go to a soakaway crate then it could be a few things leading to the blockage (collapsed pipes or root damage for example) -- in this case a rod would also help clear any blockages. Also, if it's an older type of soakaway (the drive doesn't look modern) they were often just holes in the ground filled with pebbles/rubble.

 

[Ian H]

They should have a gully pot under them, (same shape as inside your toilet).

It looks to me like someone has just fitted those gully hoppers to allow water to get to ground. Have you had a good poke with a screwdriver to see if they continue down?

Or you could lift the manhole lid to see if there is a connection from the gmdirection of those drains.

 

[OldKettle]

Thanks to both of you. I tried digging down alongside one of the hoppers to see if I could find anything. I'm not sure that I dug extensively enough, but attached are pics of what I found. The red arrow shows where the soil is very wet, which seems to be water coming out of the hopper (I filled it with water as a test earlier on). The pics also show the manhole lid off.

 

[Ian H]

I can't see them again.

 

[OldKettle]

Here are the direct links.

https://imgur.com/irHQ6CP
https://imgur.com/GZ2win2
https://imgur.com/HwOyhFS

 

[Ian H]

It looks like it's sat on bricks. They will probably have been acting as a small soakaway. Do you know what the pipe joining the manhole is serving?

There are a few things you could do.

1. See how it goes.

2. Loosen those bricks and fill your hole with gravel covered with a Terran fabric.

3. Connect pipework to the bottom of the drain and divert it to an aquacell (or similar)

4. Fit a gully and connect it into the manhole.

 

[Mottie]

We found something like that when we were digging the footings for our front extension - a series of clay pipes about 2 feet in length just butted end to end. Called building control and they said it was a land drain. I broke into one of them, filled the hole with gravel and used it as a soakaway for my front extension roof. In really heavy persistent rain, it fills up and overflows but disappears within 30 minutes or so.

 

[OldKettle]

Thanks for all of the advice. I dug a bit more and it is definitely just sat on top of bricks. The gap at the bottom is just the gap between the bricks. I dug down a bit further, and have filled the hole in the pictures with some chunks of broken up paving that I had laying around, and then covered it with about 6 inches of soil.

I think that will be OK for now, and I'll see how it does the next time that we have some rain. It has previously overflowed immediately, which is not surprising, given that it was completely full of soil.

If I need to do something else, longer term, then it will be easy to dig up again.