The Brew Cabin

we are installing a new patio and are routing down spouts and planting hole into an atrium drain, we aren't sure what to surface the hole with if anything.

I'm not sure what you mean by an 'atrium drain'. I know what an atium is, and I know how one could be drained, but I've not come across a specific drain that is designed for atria.

Can you describe it, or post a picture?

Normally, we'd cover drains (gullies or linear types) with a grating to suit the expected traffic type, be it foot traffic, the occasional light vehicle or heavy vehicles on a regular basis. However, there may be other options, depending on the size of the gulley and its location within the atrium.

hello, thank you for your interest. The whole story is that the house was set too deep in the footprint and we had water laying against the back of the house, the area is to be dug out to form a sunken patio with an underground drain system. the surface will be exposed aggregate with a 7ft. planting hole in the center, the downspouts from both sides will be part of the drain system and there is a cone drain cap that goes under the planting hole and they all are then piped 60ft. away from the house. this planting hole drain is called an atrium drain but it did not come with installation instructions and I am unsure of what I should put under it and how deep to set it. The surface is clay. Thank you very much for your time. Darla

Right - I'm more or less with you, except for this thing you call a 'cone drain cap'; another term I've never encountered in the UK.

I'm guessing that this 'cone drain cap' is to be sited beneath the planter area, so, I'd guess that it would need to be at least 300mm below the surface, to allow sufficient soil cover, and that it would be wrapped in a separation or filter membrane to prevent migration of silts and clays into the drain itself. How big is this yoke? Is it a small gully-like arrangement, 300x300mm in plan or smaller, or does it cover a sizable proportion of the planter hole?

In this sort of scenario, we would probably use a drainage composite at the base of the planter, and then link that to the surface water system for disposal. That way, the entire base of the planter is drained, rather than a single point.