The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Sat Aug 22, 2009 10:45 pm**

Can anyone help .
I have dug a hole in my front garden under my drive in search of what I was told was a colapsed drain only to find the drain from the downpipe which also collects water from 2 drives ends about 1 meter from my house about 4 feet down over a hole filled to the top with gravel where there is standing water (bin there for 2 weeks now not going down).I have had drainage experts out who tell me this is a soakway which has come to the end of it's life and I need a new one dug further down the garden.
I note on this site that a soakway is not full of gravel but empty. Some people in the Brew Cabin have mentioned about soakways full of rubble.
Can anyone please tell me the difference and if moving my soakway will solve my problem.
Also the soakway is close to my utility pipes and I believe water is following these pipes into my house and collecting in the void under the floorboards.How do I stop this?

Any answers or advice will be welcome.

Thanks
COLIN

Posted: **Sun Aug 23, 2009 8:39 am**

Welcome to the brew cabin colin. you need to go to the drainage section on the main index. An empty chamber, as opposed to a brick filled soakaway will give you more space for the water. If as you say the water is seeping into your house then i would either, borrow a pump, or hire one immediatly, dig down say 500ml, or low enough to stop it going into the house and pump the water out.Dont pump it down a drain as it may be silty.

Posted: **Tue Aug 25, 2009 10:03 am**

Gravel-filled soakaways replaced rubble-filled soakaways, and now storm crates are replacing gravel-filled soakaways. If you're having a new soakaway constructed, it makes sense to use the most up-to-date construction methods.

Storm crates have a much higher void space than gravel - around 95% compared to 30%, so, in theory, to achieve a soakaway of the same capacity, a storm crate construction need be only one-third the size of a "conventional" soakaway (it's not quite that simple, due to ground permeability, but there's no point in trying to baffle you with science at this stage)

The Brew Cabin

Soakway - Problem