gutter drainage

[councillor]

My garage has guttering which feeds into a drain as you would expect. I have recently put my washing machine in the garage and drilled through the wall and piped up the washing machine drain into the gutter drain.
problem is the drain regurally overflows. It doesn't appear to be blocked though.
I spoke to a guy in the trade and he said some drains just let the water seep into the ground and don't actually go anywhere.

It this true?

 

[JohnD]

yes and you must not plumb anything except the gutter into them.

 

[councillor]

Cheers John, now get back to the electrical forum where you belong

 

[Richard C]

No wonder there is so much "Building Control beurocracy" foisted on the general public these days; for god’s sake plumb it in properly.

Discharging the soapy, greasy contents of your washing machine into your soak away won’t do it much good either & it’ll probably clog up eventually & then your gutter won't drain away properly either!

 

[councillor]

So do you recon the house guttering will be soak away as well?

 

[noseall]

So do you recon the house guttering will be soak away as well?

likely - yes.

if your house is sited on good drainage ground then the builders would have been encouraged to dig a soakaway.

geography can deem some soakaways untenable. so can clay ground.

some sites have a storm system and a foul system.

these days we are instructed to drain any new additions using soakaway method even if there is a storm system close to hand.

do not under any circumstances drain foul into storm whether it is soakaway or not.

 

[councillor]

right I am totally confused now. I want to drain my washer, the current soak away is not adaquate and leaks all the way down my drive. There is a stench pipe close with knock outs, should I put it in there?

 

[noseall]

the current soakawy is for STORM water, regardless of adequacy.

yes, use the stack pipe and boss the waste into that.

 

[jason1958]

On old houses...
- Drainage can be mixed
- Guttering & washing machines down same pipe
- Typically very obviously re central grid

On new houses...
- Drainage is separated
- Washing machine down foul-water pipe
- Storm water down different pipe (often to soakaway!)

Find out what you have, which sounds like modern and fix the mess