The Brew Cabin

Hi Tony

Excellent site and very informative. My questions are

Iam re-laying a blocked drive which at present has no drainage in fact the house has no drainage at the front at all. As my property is above the next door neighbours everything naturally drains from my drive in towards their front door. I can't locate where the storm water drains to, all I can think is it goes into a main out on the road direct from the rear our properties (no storm drains at the front I have checked all visible inspection chambers). Where I want to put the drain on the drive there is a foul IC not that far away, Is it okay to tap into this or does it need to be kept seperate. Also I am going to relay the drive because at present it has ugly pin curbs rather than key kerbs and has sank in places, would you advise that all of the sand is removed, hard core compacted and then fresh sand re screeded before I relay the original blocks

Hi Dave - again, my apologies for a long-delayed response, but I do have a note from me ma. :)

You can connect to the FW system if there is nowhere else to connect to, but have you checked for the possibility of a soakaway? If you do connect up to the FW, remember to use a trapped connection to prevent 'odours' escaping.

When it comes to relaying the drive, I'd aim to re-compact the sand bedding, top it up, if necessary, and then re-lay the blocks, but try to avoid having to expose and regulate the sub-base, as it is a lot of work.

Unless there is serious settlement, adding an extra 10mm of sand is a better option than removing it all to get to the sub-base, but if there is settlement or channelisation, and you want a permanent fix, then exposing the sub-base, regulating it with additional material and then re-compacting, is the best way to go. Similarly, if the re-kerbing will involve significant disturbance to the bedding and/or the sub-base, then it might be as well to start again, as it's often quicker to clear the decks and work in an uncluttered area than to try and piece in bits and bobs here and there.