Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2004 4:01 pm
I'm trying to decide what to do with the rain water from my new conservatory roof. Its gutters are below the house gutters, which run to a downpipe at the far side of the bungalow. Pipes from the conservatory gutters to the side downpipe would have to run across windows and a patio door. There are no drains at the rear of the property because it's built up above the garden and all the drains run to the front.
I dug a pit in the garden for a soakaway and ended up with a sump. The water level is never more than a foot from the surface, and when it rains hard it comes to the surface and parts of the garden run with water, though it does drain away reasonably quickly.
Three options occur to me: I can take the conservatory down pipe into a small hopper piped to the sump. The end of the underground pipe will be under water most of the time, but the ground slopes away so that the sump will overflow before the hopper can, so at least the water is taken away from the house.
Alternatively, I could with considerable effort excavate a 30 yard trench in sticky clay full of rocks, through dense shrubbery and down to the bottom of the garden. What to do here is a puzzle though, because although there is a stream it's a couple of feet inside my neighbour's garden, and the bottom of my garden slopes up slightly before dropping down to the stream (and is full of tree roots). It seems an enormous effort for a drop of rainwater.
Or I can let the downpipe discharge onto the ground and lay paving around the conservatory with a fall towards the garden. At present the conservatory is surrounded by soil, so I want some kind of paving, which no doubt will add to the runoff problems.
None of these options seems ideal. Any suggestions?
I dug a pit in the garden for a soakaway and ended up with a sump. The water level is never more than a foot from the surface, and when it rains hard it comes to the surface and parts of the garden run with water, though it does drain away reasonably quickly.
Three options occur to me: I can take the conservatory down pipe into a small hopper piped to the sump. The end of the underground pipe will be under water most of the time, but the ground slopes away so that the sump will overflow before the hopper can, so at least the water is taken away from the house.
Alternatively, I could with considerable effort excavate a 30 yard trench in sticky clay full of rocks, through dense shrubbery and down to the bottom of the garden. What to do here is a puzzle though, because although there is a stream it's a couple of feet inside my neighbour's garden, and the bottom of my garden slopes up slightly before dropping down to the stream (and is full of tree roots). It seems an enormous effort for a drop of rainwater.
Or I can let the downpipe discharge onto the ground and lay paving around the conservatory with a fall towards the garden. At present the conservatory is surrounded by soil, so I want some kind of paving, which no doubt will add to the runoff problems.
None of these options seems ideal. Any suggestions?