Impressed concrete - drainage problems

[perrie]

I live in an ex-council house. Earlier this year I had my drive and pathways done with impressed concrete. Because my garden slopes towards the house, I expressed concerns about water drainage.

I checked on my property deeds and the Council stated that surface drains were connected to the mains. My contractor said there would be no problems and assured me that if there was he would rectify - he gave me a 5 year written guarantee.

Since the work has been done I am getting flooding on 2 sides of my house, with water rising up above dampcourse level when we have heavy rain.
I have discovered that the surface drains are just soak away and because the house was built in the 1950's they are not very effective.

The contractor refuses to discuss the matter with me. He just ignores my letters and just put the phone down on me.

I would not recommend anyone to have this type of non-porous surface without checking the drainage situation very carefully.

ps. I live in South Yorkshire. If anyone would like the name of the Contractor I would be happy to provide this as I would not like anyone else to go through the same experience.

 

[studips]

ouch. are the soak aways accessible? if so, it is curable - dig out, reinstate with drainage crates and move on. build centre do a nice one - simple to use and not too pricey.

failing that, check the falls, and if they work in your favour, grind out the concrete around the house and get an acco drain in (this assumes you can get enough fall to do this) and carry the water off to a new soak away.


the concrete on this is what 4" thick at a guess?

but first have a chat with trading standards about the contractor.......

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Soakaways need to be reinstated every 10 years or so, you're lucky they lasted this long. Cheaper to just dig new ones than try and clean them. Why is it your contractors fault that the soakways are blocked? Or are you saying there are problems with the falls he created?