Block paved drive causing water under floorboards

[Nathan67]

Hi all,

We have water under our floorboards at the front of the house. After lots of investigation we discovered that it appears after it rains. We have a downstairs toilet at the front of our house and the water appears to be draining through the block paving at the front of the house and in around where the toilet waste goes through the front wall underground. There is no drainage on the front drive and it's a bit of a mess so I'm aware it needs completely relaying with proper drainage but I'm not sure this will fix our water ingress problem. The sub floor is very deep at the front. Much deeper than the rest of the house and it could be that when it rains the water table rises and drains to the lowest point round the toilet pipe however if I sprinkle drain dye on the drive it appears in the water under the floor. My plan would be to relay the drive and try and raise the height of the sub floor with concrete. Any advice would be much appreciated and anyone in the Midlands who might be available?

Many thanks

[Tony McC]

I'd *strongly* recommend getting a structural engineer to look at this before you commit to any remedial action that may not be necessary....or may even make matters worse!

It's quite likely (but not certain!) that the remedy will incolve constructing a deep interceptor filter or fin drain at the boundary between masonry and paving. The invert (botiom) of such a draina would need tpo be loower than the internal sub-floor, and it would need to drain out to some other pace, so you may need somthing like a 'sump & pump' arangement to lift the collected water to a suitable disposal point.

But, as I said, before carrying out this sort of work, spend a couple of hundred quid on a good structural engineer as there is an outside chance they will spot summat that's much simpler to rectify.

Fin Drains

Sump & Pump

[Nathan67]

Thanks for advice. The front drive is such a mess that we always knew it needed doing before we discovered the water. My thinking was we could get it done with proper drainage and see if it made any difference before embarking on other more invasive solutions.

But it is probably worth more investigating before the drive is dug up. Any recommendations for structural engineers?

Thanks

[Tony McC]

The English midlands isn't really my area. You could try asking at a local landscape supplier or a BM - they often know who, locally, takes on that type of work.