Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 7:59 pm
Hi, this will be a long post please bear with me while I explain my problem........... I moved into my house about 10 years ago. My house sits at the lowest point in the street, the gradiant of which is very slight in deed, not reallly a hill at all just a little above flat at the one end of the street. It was apparent that there was a drainage problem as with each rainfall came a torrent of water running across the garden away fron the house under the fence at the end of the lawn and down my nieghborus very steep garden. They never complained once. The water always came from where my downpipe went into the ground, with each rainfall came a gush of water out of this drain about six inches high and always left a black sandy residue behind. However about four years ago the rain was so bad that the water level came witin half inch of my patio door. So I dug around the offending stormdrain to see if I could locate the problem....The problem was blindingly obvious my two downpies entered two drains beside my house and were never connected to anything just planted in the clay soil and that was the problem.....I contacted my insurers who promptly sent out workmen who agreed this was indeed my flooding problem. the reslove was to connect the the soakaway drains directly into the sewers which was about six feet away...........The next rains came and no flooding at all...yeepee.. After years, we could now landscape and take pride in our garden. I laid a sculptured decking from the house which went over the sewerage manhole and beyond. we rotivated and reseeded the lawn. around 8 mths later towards the end of last summer we started getting a smell from under the decking. My partner was convinced it was a dying rat or something simular as it did not smell like sewerage. The winter came and the smell seem to dissappear but now that summer is here again so is our smell. Thinking it could only be the manhole I took up the decking only to be shocked at what I saw..........
I am now the proud owner of a 3 x 2 x 2ft deep hole full of dirty jet black stagnant water. I have borroweed a sump pump this empties the hole which then refilles with clearer water when the water reaches it's level the water is again black and smelly. My local Env. Health officer has tested the water and it is just water, not sewerage. He also has put die in the surrounding drains but again it does not affect my black water. I have run a hose pipe down my stormdrians thinking the origanal job may have been bodged but the black water level stayes the same. Whe I pumped the water out secong time I realised the the water flow was coming from underground????? I turned a broom upside down and pushed it into the base of the 2ft deep hole to my horror and shock the 4ft broom handle went right in to the broom head. Tha is some 6ft of soggy soil right nest to my house and sewerage manhole. Severn trent say they have no water problems in the area and as it is in my back garden it is My problem anyway??? council say private house it is My problem??? insurers now say it is underground water rising, therefore My problem??? the council approved drainage specialist say they think and only think that because the seam on the manhole was not sealed properly the natural water table had risen to that point and then flowed through the manhole sides and therefore provided a constant flow of water underground, which has resulted in my hole in the ground. Everytime it rains there is a constant flow into the manhole when the rain stops the level drops and the water turns black almost instantly.... I have had a quote to install a 6ft deep land drain (sewerage juction sits 3ft below ground)next to the manhole with a silt trap and geotec membrane which would be tapped into the sewer..... I have no garden access, all works would be by hand, all soil would be carted through the house, as would all aggregate needed to make good again..my quote is for £1600. I do not know if this would solve my problem which apart from the water issure, there is of course the soft ground issue right next to my house. Any help/advise you could give would be appreciated as I do not know what to do.
Perhaps 5 or 6 six years of rain water washing around beneath my house would of coursed underground holes and chambers that has now appeared next to my manhole?? I really don't know. I am not sleeping through worry i won't let my kids play out in the garden and we all seam stay away from the back of the house.
agian sry for the long winded story but I think it is all relavant.
should I trust this quote please help me. Thankyou.
I am now the proud owner of a 3 x 2 x 2ft deep hole full of dirty jet black stagnant water. I have borroweed a sump pump this empties the hole which then refilles with clearer water when the water reaches it's level the water is again black and smelly. My local Env. Health officer has tested the water and it is just water, not sewerage. He also has put die in the surrounding drains but again it does not affect my black water. I have run a hose pipe down my stormdrians thinking the origanal job may have been bodged but the black water level stayes the same. Whe I pumped the water out secong time I realised the the water flow was coming from underground????? I turned a broom upside down and pushed it into the base of the 2ft deep hole to my horror and shock the 4ft broom handle went right in to the broom head. Tha is some 6ft of soggy soil right nest to my house and sewerage manhole. Severn trent say they have no water problems in the area and as it is in my back garden it is My problem anyway??? council say private house it is My problem??? insurers now say it is underground water rising, therefore My problem??? the council approved drainage specialist say they think and only think that because the seam on the manhole was not sealed properly the natural water table had risen to that point and then flowed through the manhole sides and therefore provided a constant flow of water underground, which has resulted in my hole in the ground. Everytime it rains there is a constant flow into the manhole when the rain stops the level drops and the water turns black almost instantly.... I have had a quote to install a 6ft deep land drain (sewerage juction sits 3ft below ground)next to the manhole with a silt trap and geotec membrane which would be tapped into the sewer..... I have no garden access, all works would be by hand, all soil would be carted through the house, as would all aggregate needed to make good again..my quote is for £1600. I do not know if this would solve my problem which apart from the water issure, there is of course the soft ground issue right next to my house. Any help/advise you could give would be appreciated as I do not know what to do.
Perhaps 5 or 6 six years of rain water washing around beneath my house would of coursed underground holes and chambers that has now appeared next to my manhole?? I really don't know. I am not sleeping through worry i won't let my kids play out in the garden and we all seam stay away from the back of the house.
agian sry for the long winded story but I think it is all relavant.
should I trust this quote please help me. Thankyou.
