Hard standing drainage regulations

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You'd think professional tradesmen would be able to give you a consistent answer! No. So I have a concrete sideway 2.5m wide 30 sqm just footfall. Then a frontage 35sqm, crazy paving and concrete for car. Been there 45 years, drains naturally to road. Question is if I replace it do I need a soakaway to meet regs. I think I do. One said he would connect the drain slots with an underground pipe to the existing surface water sewer from the drain pipes. Surely not?! They tend to say when asked they've never had a driveway checked by building regulations for drainage. These are not cowboys but large well rated firms. I assume I don't need actual planning permission as I already have drop kerb and will be same area?
I've just realised I asked this a while back but didn't get any really clear replies.
 
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Planning Permission is required for new driveways over 5sqm (pretty much every driveway) if the materials aren't porous / permeable. E.G. if your just laying tarmac all over your drive and it runs to the road, you will require planning permission. It's a bit of a farce as I guess it's unlikely to get planning permission as the Council aren't going to want yours (or everyone in the streets) run off - they'll want you to deal with it on your property.

https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/45/paving_your_front_garden

You can deal with it how you want, permeable surface / appropriate soakaways / ACO drainage before the pavement, areas of planting that the water will run into etc, then permission won't be required - or won't really be enforceable if it is ever raised; they hardly ever are.

Some situations I've seen are when your driveway runs down towards your house (and neighbours do) and ends up puddling at the brickwork and causing damp issues, just needs to be sorted the same as above.
 
if the materials aren't porous / permeable.

What does that mean?
"Permeability" surely depends on how dry the ground is and how hard it is raining?
If the ground is sodden and it is pouring with rain then all the water will run off just about anything.
 
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The materials are to be porous / permeable... Relatively self explanatory. It doesn't matter how dry the ground is if you whack 2 inches of tarmac on top of it.
 
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The materials are to be porous / permeable... Relatively self explanatory. It doesn't matter how dry the ground is if you whack 2 inches of tarmac on top of it.

My point is that if the ground is already sodden then additional rainwater will run off. So a permeable surface will become impermeable just in the circumstances when it is supposed to be preventing run-off.
 
My point is that if the ground is already sodden then additional rainwater will run off. So a permeable surface will become impermeable just in the circumstances when it is supposed to be preventing run-off.
But the point is that that situation will be few and far between over a year, with most of the rain going in to the ground as intended. So two days rain in November would not be the defining factor.

But the idea of the regulation is that the ground and site is assessed, and a suitable means of drainage designed.
 
Yes, in a planning context anything existing which is replaced in it's entirety or significanty is new.
 
That’s the best place for it.
It is, but surely that is illegal. The whole point of the SUDS regs is to reduce the water going into the storm sewers. In any case the drain is in the kerb and currently flows off the driveway into that. I spoke to another friend who'd just had his done by what he described as a very professional outfit and they did just that - connect to the sewer under his drive. Surely this practice is wrong?
 
But is it wrong to have a large soakaway under a surface water drain run so that only when the soakaway is full does it overflow into the existing surface water sewer. This is what I have because the drive slopes to the garage and the surface pipe was already there in front of the garage.
 
My point is that if the ground is already sodden then additional rainwater will run off. So a permeable surface will become impermeable just in the circumstances when it is supposed to be preventing run-off.

not necessarily, soakaways should be designed such that the size of the soakaway and the porosity of the ground is taken into consideration -ie in theory the water filling the soakaway should be able to discharge into the ground faster than the soakaway fills up.

I have a gully that takes water from the front driveway. Its obviously silted up as the drive floods a bit in heavy rain, until it drains away -the gully is in a low spot so it doesnt flow away to the road.

My experience of driveway contractors is that they dont deal with the rainwater discharge properly -a favorite is to have an ACO drain where the drive meets the pavement, but its not connected to anything
 
@Notch7 that is exactly what 95% do. But here in this part of Essex there is a clay subsoil so unless you put a deep shaft through the clay into the gravel below it's not going anywhere in winter high rainfall when the water table is high. Furthermore the regulations say that in difficult circumstances with clay you should connect a pipe to the surface water drain from the roof run off. This is frankly ridiculous because it will end up where it would have done if there was no drainage, it was impervious and ran off into the road drain as it does now which defeats the whole point!
 
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I think I have the definitive argument to this regarding clay soils. So long as you use permeable sub base (e.g type 3), permeable concrete or tarmac and permeable resin or other permeable finish) and there is a fall on your driveway you should be able to make a case that you are ok. No need for a soakaway because it would do nothing on clay. The argument is that if the whole area is say, on 43 ft deep London Clay, no SUDS system will be perfect unless you drill 45 ft bore holes through to the chalk aquifer. If your property is not usually subject to flooding the above approx 220mm of porous addition will mean that in almost all cases the drainage will be a good buffer to the sewage system. It will slowly soak into the clay as per normal and if that is waterlogged the whole area of the drive at the 220mm depth will be the soakaway. e.g if your driveway is say 75 sq m you will effectively have a 7 cubic metre soakaway assuming 30%voids! Water can evaporate upwards through this permeable layer and it is unlikely to get surface water as 220mm is about 1/3 rd of the average UK annual rainfall. It is possible to get 100mm of rain in one go in a few areas but that would be exceptional and I think that is about the amount you would need to get surface pour off in the conditions described above.
Feel free to dispute this argument because it is just my thoughts as a scientist :?:;)
 
Just wish when builders put soakaways in they would look at the locality! My property is at the low end of the road. Old houses at the back and above my house fed all their surface water into the drainage system and my property was unaffected. Old cottages condemned so new builds on the plot with bloody soakaways. BT come along and break & block the land drains that run down my garden and under the house to the main sewer in front of my house and so now when it rains I have damp issues.

Grrr
 

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