The Brew Cabin

In around a weeks time I will be setting out ready for a block paved drive. However after searching the forums and guides I am unable to find a solution to my 2 problems. I live in a area where the houses are lower than the pavement and the displacement is 70cms lower over a distance of just under 7 metres to where a linear drain will be sited. Is this too much considering I do not wish to scrape the bottom of the car on the rising apex of the drive. The other problem is we also live at the bottom of a hill and when we get heavy rainfall we get a torrent of water racing down the pavement which I feel will race towards our house if given the chance. Would 1 linear drain at the bottom of the drive suffice or would it be best to use 1 at the top of the drive as well for good measure. Please help as my wife wants me to throw it all down now and sort problems out later which I think would be expensve and time consuming, where I think a little thought now will save a lot of hassle.

In your situation, I'd prefer to take some action that would ensure any water from the street is not able to find its way onto your driveway. My main concern is that significant quantities of surface water on such a gfradient will scour the jointing sand and, unless you seal the lot, you'll be forever topping up the jointing and/or fixing loose blocks.

Just how you keep the water out is up to you. A linear drain across the threshold with the public footpath would certainly work, but consider costs and also consider just how you're going to connect it to the SW system. You could be installing an additional 7-10m of pipework, which ain't cheap or easy.

An alternative would be to form a "ridge" at the threshold, so that, unless it was flood conditions, there'd be no way for the water to enter your drive.



This is a much cheaper option, but relies on there being somewhere else for the water to run, along the path to some other poor sod's drive, perhaps.

Briefly dealing with your other concern, about scraping the underside of the car on the crown of the drive - if you ease out the gradient as a sine curve, you should have no problem. Here's a drawing I did some time ago for someone with a similar problem...

Many thanks for the solutions you've come up with, you're the man....