Draining front yard - How to kep within the law

[scottyboy]

I am planning to pave the front yard of my daughter's terraced house in London. It is 8 sq.m. and I don't want the hassle of applying for planning permission for draining it and I don't want to consider connecting to the public sewer. I also don't want to use porous paving. My preference would be to drain it into a soakaway (after checking suitability with a porosity test) but I cannot because it would be less than the permitted 5m away from the house. I understand that to comply with the law I can pave 8 sq.m. as long as it drains onto a lawn or a permeable border. Can you tell me what size the permeable border should be? If a permeable border is acceptable then how is that any different from a soakaway?

thanks, scottyboy

[seanandruby]

A soakaway is deeper and the water should slowly filter away over time. A border could become saturated in heavy prolonged downpours. How much distance do you have for a soakaway from house, boundary etc:

[scottyboy]

The frontage is 4m long and there is a boundary wall 2m from the front of the house. I like the idea of the linear drain/trench shown on the SUDS page. Do you think a trench 600mm deep and 300mm wide would be acceptable as a method of infiltration in my situation?

[seanandruby]

As it says on the tin "the soil needs to be free draining." Have you done a perculation test to test the ground?

[scottyboy]

A percolation test will be my first job when I get there next week (daughter lives 200miles away). If the ground isn't suitable I guess that permeable paving is the answer. Instead of the purpose-made permeable blocks is there a way of using traditional paving slabs/flags but leaving wide gaps filled with gravel/chippings to allow for percolation?

[lutonlagerlout]

depending where she is in London,the ground is unlikely to be free draining 8 m2 is a small ish area I wouldnt get too worked up maybe just a linear channel to a bucket of gravel would meet the regs
LLL

[lutonlagerlout]

depending where she is in London,the ground is unlikely to be free draining 8 m2 is a small ish area I wouldnt get too worked up maybe just a linear channel to a bucket of gravel would meet the regs
LLL

[scottyboy]

thanks LLL, I was thinking along those lines so it's good to have a second opinion. I'll be doing a porosity test tomorrow and I am thinking it should be OK because the area at the moment is a layer of gravel over soil and it seems to drain away naturally without getting boggy or ponding.

PSH

[scottyboy]

I have done a porosity test with a result of 13.8. Apparently the result should be within the range 15 to 100. Does anyone know why there is a minimum of 15? I thought the lower the figure the better.

[infoseeker5]

The attached link explains the reasoning for the minimum of 15.

https://www.direct-drainage.co.uk/pages....ty-test


Regards