Drainage problems with new drive - Advice needed urgently

Foul and surface water, private drains and public sewers, land drains and soakaways, filter drains and any other ways of getting rid of water.
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uklarka
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Oct 07, 2019 11:53 pm
Location: sheffield

Post: # 117865Post uklarka

Hi

Need some advice re our new driveway and some major drainage problems. We did an extension to our new house and decided to block pave the whole garden and side of house to expand the drive a few months ago. I have not previous experience of block paving.

The guy who did the drive told us that there would be enough of of the slope from the back of the house the front for the rain water to run off but unfortunately that is not the case.

The drive appears to have been laid correctly - membrane - hardcore crusher - sand - blocks.

When digging up the side of the house he noted that there was drain pipe from the back of the garden (higher than) front which went into a shared drain. This was put in by the previous owner. We had no idea it was there. Not sure what to do with it and from pressure from the neighbour (who said it was illegal) it was removed when the drive was extended / laid.

Anyway, since the drive has been laid down rain water is pooling at the back of drive and sat next the to house. The drive guy came back and lift the back of the drive up about 3 inches but that has not really sorted the problem.

After some recent heavy rain he came back and removed some the block paving to try and relay and even higher. I am not sure that will work.

Anyway, we finally got yorkshire water to come and take a look and advise us. We were hoping that we could put a drain in the drive and connect it into the share drive with our neighbour or drain at the back of our house. He had told us we cannot do that.

So I am really stuck as to what to do next to remedy this problem and how much it will cost to rectify.

Having done some reading etc theses are the options I can think of. I hope you guys can advised or suggest a cheaper / better / alternative options.
1. take up the whole drive block and dig it out more sore there is bigger gradient / slope from back to front. I am not sure the drive guy (who has guaranteed the job) will do
2. install a soak away (the drive guy can't do this) - very expensive i think
3. put some gravel to the sides of drive so the rain water can soak through - not sure if this would work and how wide to have this.
4. remove the block paving from the side section of the house and put grass / lawn there instead.
5. any other options?

Not sure what other information is needed. I have tried to put link the the photos which show the problem and the garden pre drive.

Thank you for you help.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/184892838@N06
U K Larka

Tony McC
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Joined: Mon Jul 05, 2004 7:27 pm
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Post: # 117876Post Tony McC

There are all sorts of alarm bells ringing here.... "membrane, hardcore crusher..." not what I like to hgear, and then blocks were 'lifted' to generate extra fall, but did that involve scraping out the sand laying course, re-grading the sub-base with additional aggregate, re-compacying it all, and then re-laying....or was it simply a matter of shoving a bit of extra sand underneath the blocks?

The front paving falls directly towards the public highway with no sign of an interceptor drain to prevent run-off, and there is a near absence of any fall or drainage provision down the side and at the back.

Maybe I'm doing this guy an injustice, but nothing you've stated or shown inspires me with confidence or convinces me that he has a clue about pavement construction.

And that projecting pipe needs properly investigating and explaining before anything else is done - it looks like it could be an extension to a pre-existing field drain.


I'm not familiar with the site, so it's difficult to suggest what would be best, but a cursory examination of the photies suggests that all of the side and rear paving needs to come up, a linear drainage channel installing either along one of the walls or down the centre, and the paving re-laying on a properly re-graded sub-base to suitable falls and levels.
Site Agent - Pavingexpert

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