patio drainage

[briwire]

I've laid a patio that extends about 2.5m from the house with a slight slow away from the house. It is about 6.5m wide.

I would like to put something on the 6.5m edge to act as a drain.I've seen the meter long drains at B&Q etc that have a plastic or metal grill.

These are level, so how do I get the water to drain away once it has run into it. If I sloped it, it would look odd as it would be out of line with the horizontal edge of the patio.

Are they just set into mortar?

 

[Shytalkz]

Seems excessive for what is not a very large area to drain. What does the patio finish against? If garden, why not let it just water the plants? If you're really worried about it, a pea-shingle drain would suffice - and be much cheaper too!

I don't know about the DIY shed ones, but Acco do a grated system that has a slight fall on the channel, and you buy them in ever-so-slightly-increasing-in-depth lengths so the top is laid level to suit the finish that it's butting up to. Obviously, you need to lay them the right way round!

 

[Richard C]

A pea shingle or Dutch drain as shytalkz recommends works well;

http://www.pavingexpert.com/drain14.htm

I have around one around 20m total length but don’t have the perforated drain tube at the bottom; unlikely you will need this unless surface draining a really large paved area.

 

[briwire]

The patio slopes away from the house to the lawn which varies in height above the patio by about 20 inches at one end to about 6 inches at the other. I am digging the footings for a small retaining/decorative wall to be built.

As soon as we get any rain, the footings fill with water, which I assume is mostly from the garden as the footings are the lowest point.

What do you think of a sloping length of plastic guttering a few inches below the edge of the patio, set into a bed of mortar, with no gap between it and the patio edge, and covered with pea gravel, so it can't be seen? This can then feed into one of those pipes with the holes in, buried and taken to the lowest side of the garden to a soakaway.

Once the wall is built, I could put another length of the plastic tube along the foot of the wall on the garden side which by then would be under quite a bit of soil and would hopefully take any water away from the wall to the soakaway.

Is this a good idea or is it dog-rough?