The Brew Cabin

I live in a 20 year old house in Kent (on soil with lots of chalk stones in it). Whenever it rains heavily my gutters run over and I know my soakaway standpipe backs up. There is a joint right at the bottom and this "leaks" as the downpipe empties over time. I notice, however, that it is still weeping even though we have not had rain for a few days. I am pretty sure the soakaway itself could be blocked. Also, as I am halfway up a hill, I am wondering if water draining away down the hill is maybe backing up and seeping through that joint.
a) Is that possible/likely ?
b) Where do I even start trying to find out where the soakaway is and if there is a problem there? and
c) As the ground has a lot of stone in it and generally drains OK can I just ignore it?
Thanks,
Mike

Soakaway standpipe? Wossat?

And what's this downpipe?

A soakaway is an underground structure, so I can't figure out how you can see a joint 'weeping'. Can you explain this in more detail?

To locate the soakaway, you first need to loacte the pipework that connects to it, and then use rods or a 'generator/detector' kit to track its route to the eventual soakaway. There's a chance that the Local Authority BCO will have some reord of where soakaways were placed on that development, but I wouldn't count on it!

As you are on chalk, I can't quite understand why you're having such problems. Obviously, it's hard for me sat here in sunny Culcheth to visualise the problem, but I'd tend to suspect that you have a simple blockage or sedimentation problem in one of the pipes linked to the soakaway.

Sorry Tony,
Excuse my lack of building terminology !!! I mean the pipe that runs from the roof guttering down to the ground and into the soakaway. It is the bottom of this pipe (at a joint) that weeps for a while after heavy rain as if the pipe is emptying. That is why I thought that the soakaway itself may be blocked as any leakage due to the pipe itself being blocked would, I guess, be seen as an overflow in the gutter (which also happens in very heavy rain).
Cheers
Mike

Right - you have a downspout that comes from the roof and leaks when it gets to ground level.

Is this downspout discharging directly into the underground pipe system or is it discharging into a hopper or gully?

If it's piped directly into the undeground system, then the fact that water is surcharging suggests that there's a blockage somewhere, but it's much more likely to be in a trap or a section of pipe than at the soakaway itself.

Have you any means of rodding the troublesome section?