The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Mon Oct 31, 2005 9:56 am**

I'm a complete novice so bear with me.

I'm laying a largish patio in a mixtur of slabs and pavers, with the idea of using the pavers to form drainage channels as well as for appearances sake.

The patio is 16.6metres long, and 5-6 metres wide. One end will end onto steps ao I aimed to slope away from these for safety. Is that the right decision.

So... Can I rely just on falls to the end and garden to drain it, or how many channels should I run across it. I was envisioning using three lines of pavers set in a slight trough.

Also can I run a french drain under a footpath or even a drive?

I have looked at a lot of this site and found it immensely useful, but my ingorance is so deep I'd appreciate any advice.

Thanks
:p

Posted: **Wed Nov 02, 2005 5:15 pm**

If the crossfall is along the 5-6m dimension, then there's no overwhelming need to use custom-formed drainage channels, but if you're looking to send water along the 15m dimension, I'd give serious consideration to using a channel of some description.

Sending surface water over steps is less than ideal, and if it can'y be avoided, then it might be possible to engineer some solution that keeps the water off the surface of the treads - a simple option would be to use a linear channel at the head of the steps and have that linked to a pipe that directs the water to the base of the flight by means of a pipe, rather than just allowing it to flow over and down the steps.

French drain? Means diferent things to different people, but a standard "French Drain" would not be suitable beneath a pavement. You could, however, use a carefully constructed land drain of the type shown on the main website.

Posted: **Wed Nov 02, 2005 10:10 pm**

Many thanks for that, I'll just go for a slope across the width then and collect the water in a landdrain as shown. Great that sounds easier than I'd feared.

The Brew Cabin

Patio runoff