Our bungalow (built 1983) that we have owned for 5 years was a self build & I have only just found out that the builder was in fact a plasterer. There are several problems I believe with the drainage so I will split my request for help in to a few topics for clarity if anyone would be so kind as to give their opinion.
Here is a layout of the drainage plan to assist.
I have been reading about soakaways on this website and this forum so am a little concerned about ours. I believe that current regulations are for them to be sited 5 metres from a building. I assume that this is because of house foundations.
We live in Rotherham which does have clay type soil but our house is also in an old mining area so I am aware that there are some coal seams and that our foundations are much deeper than normal.
I have ascertained that our rainwater gullies discharge to soakaways as there are no other inlet pipes to our sewage pump chamber and no water from those gullies discharges into the manholes nearby them. They all appear to be tick gullies.
I have no idea where the soakaway is for the gully near to manhole no. 5 and I am concerned with it being so close to our boundary, I don't know if it somehow runs into the rear garden or whether it discharges right next to the foundations. Would I have to start digging out to find out?
I can only assume that the gully at the rear of the house goes into the garden, and we don't have any apparent problems with it.
The one causing me most concern at the front near to manhole no. 3 is shown here.
You can see that the concrete has collapsed slightly. Now this may be due only to surface water having to find somewhere to go as the concrete drive doesn't have any french drain or similar and runs towards the house.
This is something that I will be putting right when we get the drive ripped up and laid with either tarmac or bonded gravel type stuff.
If it were your house what would you be doing now for peace of mind?
With regards drains if it ain't broken I'd steer clear of trying to find problem if they aren't causing problems. Legislation like soakaway siting only covers new builds anything predating it that isn't bound by law to adhere to it in most cases unless the property is being upgraded. The best solution may be to get a drain liner into the dodgy pipes rather than dig it all up and those chamber rings will be very hard going to get out. Also it's only a short run so would probably be cheaper and definately much quicker. Post all your stuff together it'll make the bigger picture easier for us to understand. The sinking concrete is probably due to poor base compaction around the gully it's quite common to see although I'd cut it out and have a look anyway just to make sure nothings crushed then patch it up nice and level.
Sometimes where a drain collapses the surround gets washed down the pipe leaving a void then the ground sinks, causing the concrete patio etc: to sink. I would recommend you get all your drains surveyed by someone competent like flowjoe ( his adress should be in the contractors list ) or he will put you on to someone. May be that you need to upgrade the soakaway.
Cheers, have contacted flowjoe through one of his websites.
I did try to find a local company but they are nearly all 'make a quick buck' water jetting companies. The two I did find never got back to me after telephoning and they said they would. Not a good sign of a professional!
