Soak away by a patio

[LadyM]

Our garden slopes towards the house and water runoff pools in a space between a patio and low wall. The soil is very heavy clay and I want to dig it out and put in a soak away.

How close to the patio and wall foundations can I dig without compromising the structure of both. The area I'm digging out is pretty small and is about one and a half metres at it's widest and slightly less than a metre at it's narrowest.

 

[Ian H]

You should really be 5mtrs away from the house with a soakaway. Have you tested the ground to see if it does let water through?

 

[lonner]

As above, clay doesn't work as a soakaway, you just make a pond

 

[Celeronmanuk]

We had a couple of feet thick layer of clay here when digging our soak away, kept digging and got to chalk which drained very well.