Is a soakaway necessary for a patio?

[r_c]

We have a patio across the rear of our house, approx 50 sqr m (10m wide x 5m deep). It slopes away from the house, towards the garden. There is no drainage installed. The patio is a couple of bricks above the grass, and all the rainwater just falls onto the grass. The garden understandably gets wet in the winter, but I don't know if this is exacterbated by the fact that all this rainwater drains onto it.

I have been considering having a french drain installed, and draining to a 1 cube m soakaway.

Is it normal for a patio this size to have drainage to a soakaway? Or do people just not bother, as long as the patio slopes away from the house?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

It depends, is the earth clay?

 

[stevie888]

You wouldn't normally bother

 

[r_c]

It depends, is the earth clay?

I am in Hertfordshire, I think clay...ish.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Clay - that's your problem then and a soakaway won't work, which is also why you have water not soaking down. It's doubtful a french drain will make much difference. So live with it or drain it into the mains, though strictly speaking that's not permitted.

 

[jj4091]

Clay - that's your problem then and a soakaway won't work, which is also why you have water not soaking down. It's doubtful a french drain will make much difference. So live with it or drain it into the mains, though strictly speaking that's not permitted.

A large soakaway across the boundry at the bottom of the garden fed with several French drains feeding it improved the problem with water sitting on our lawn on clay soil. Lot of work but worth it I think.

 

[GazzaaGardening]

jj4091's approach is the one that actually works on clay - a larger soakaway at the garden boundary rather than tucked under or near the patio itself. A 1 cubic metre soakaway sitting in clay soil just fills up and stays full. The water has nowhere to go. Worth asking yourself what the actual problem is, though. If it's just the garden getting soft and wet in winter - that's fairly normal when you've got 50 square metres of impermeable patio pushing water onto clay. A lot of people with a patio sloping away from the house just leave it. If you're getting standing water that sits for days, or damp near the house foundations, that's when it's worth spending money on it. Most of the time, stevie888's right - people just don't bother.

 

[r_c]

Thank you all for your comments.