rain water soak away problem

[yeman]

hi, i have a 50 year old house, and the down pipe of the gutter goes down into a soak away which seams to be under our garage with a concrete floor. when it rains really bad the water seems to come back up and flood the floor.
does anyone have any clever sugestions on how to cure this problem?

yeman

 

[marshman]

is the water coming up through the floor or coming out of the pipe joint ?,
if coming out of the pipe fitting then the pipe might just be packed / blocked with muck after all those years so could top of soakaway,
no easy answer to this, have you tried drain rods ?.

 

[yeman]

thanks for your reply marshman

i think it is coming out of the pipe as apposed to the floor, it is an old cast iron pipe, i have been reluctant to move it yet because i have not had the time to sort the problem out. I am hoping it is a blockage of moss from the roof which i will dig out somehow.
my real concern is that i was told by someone that a soak away is designed to last 20 to 30 years and after that it needs re digging etc..?
i found this hard to believe, but it may be true.
do you think it is worth putting a camera down the pipe as i dig so i can see properly? or would i not see much?

Yeman

 

[noseall]

the chances are, the pipe itself is silted up solid.

if the r.w.p. discharges straight into the underground pipe, as opposed to via a trapped gulley, then it is likely that the pipes will be filled solid with crud. this will mean digging up and re-laying the pipes, plus whatever needs doing to the soakaway.

 

[marshman]

by packed/blocked I mean full from end to end.
I'm afraid its as noseall said dig up and start again.
but put a gully pot under pipe outlet if your're going
to a new soakaway.
a push with a drain rod will tell you if its solid.
most soakaways are 4/5 m from buildings,
you could phone a drain jetting company once you know if
its blocked solid and ask if they can clear it.
when we put in soakaways we allway leave a big open
space at the end of the main pipe run so if its ever rodded
there's room to push out the debris.