Soakaway near concrete raft

[Stuthehandyman]

Hi,

About 4 years ago I had a detached garage built on a concrete raft. The rainwater from the roof runs into a soakaway that I built about 1.5m away from the raft. The Building Inspector says it is too close and that it should be at least 3m away but it is impractical to move it because it would then be too close to the house. I asked him if there was any way around the problem and he said that if I can find some authoritative evidence that a concrete raft designed to cantilever 1.5m and span 3m would not be adversely affected by a soakaway 1.5m away then he will issue the Completion Certificate. Is there anybody out there who can help me please?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

You'll need to get structural engineers report to satisfy building control, shouldn't cost too much.

 

[Ossy]

Getting an Engineer's report isn't the solution to all problems. In a case like this, I doubt many Engineers would be willing to report back positively without a published paper or recognised book to back them up.

I'd try researching the BRE digests for some guidance. I suspect however that if it's not already known by building control, it's unlikely to hold much to persuade them.

Without knowing the details, my opinion would be that there is a problem with a soakaway being so close - you may end up just paying for a report which tells you everything you don't want to hear.

Is there not any way you can relocate the drain away from both buildings?

 

[Deluks]

It sounds fairly close to the house, probably not too tricky to tie into existing house drainage. A bit of digging involved.

 

[Stuthehandyman]

Thanks for all your help guys, I think Deluks' suggestion is probably the one I'll go for.