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Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 2:11 pm
by soakaway
Firstly this is my first post so please be kind and secondly this website is fantastic - who knew there was so much to drainage!
I have a builder (not my favourite person) 
He has advised me I need 30 of those polystorm crates for all the rainwater from my roof to go into - he is builing 2 large and 1 tiny soakaway for all the water from my roof to go into.
My roof is 301m2 (according to my builder!) - although I think he is probably about right.
My question is - do I really need 30 crates, as I have looked online and this is going to cost me £1k before any labor or pipework is added into the costs.
I am hoping I don't need that many - I think i need around 25 according to your lovely website calculations does that sound reasonable?
Or is there a cheaper option?
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 3:52 pm
by msh paving
sent you a message soakaway MSH 
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 4:03 pm
by lutonlagerlout
the fact that you are doubting your builder doesnt sound good
we just built a 2m by 2m by 2m soakaway for 133 m of roof
but that was filled with brick hardcore
is the BCO asking for all these crates>?
LLL
Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2011 8:46 pm
by Dave_L
30 crates sounds a helluva lot!
Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:46 pm
by GB_Groundworks
speak to wavin etc their reps will calculate them for you? is it a trafficed of non trafficed soakaway as the light weight ones are cheaper.
you could get a grey water harvesting system but be similarly expensive especially if you go the whole hog and plumb the grey water in for toilet flushing etc
alot of ppl still use brick filled soakaways but there internal area is tiny compared to the crate systems.
Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 6:48 pm
by seanandruby
Brick filled soakaways reduce the volume of water it can take. Far better with crates, or concrete rings.
Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 7:10 pm
by lutonlagerlout
i agree sean,but we do what the BCO tells us
and if he says put clean hardcore in at nill cost to me then i will follow his sagely advice
and if he says put crates in i will do that at approx £200 cost to me
when you are a small business then those 200 quids soon add up
LLL
Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 7:22 pm
by msh paving
the OP is from norfolk , same area as me,i would say 90% of soakaways are filled with clean brick rubble,most quarrys stock pile and sell rubble for this ,i have used crates 3 times in 15 years,last month in lincolnshire septic tank soakaway we used broken concrete rubble BCO had no problems with it MSH
Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 7:35 pm
by pickwell paving
We're using crates more and more now especially on the schools the engineers have gone mad on them, did one earlier this year 20 cubic metres all wrapped in a butyl liner then piped into a control manhole then into a dyke the cost was horrendous.
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2011 6:50 am
by seanandruby
lutonlagerlout wrote:i agree sean,but we do what the BCO tells us
and if he says put clean hardcore in at nill cost to me then i will follow his sagely advice
and if he says put crates in i will do that at approx £200 cost to me
when you are a small business then those 200 quids soon add up
LLL
Well done mr lour for not passing the cost on to the client
Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2011 6:01 pm
by Mikey_C
you should be able to get the crates cheaper than £32 each, especially as gb says you can use the non trafficked type. 6.2m3 seems awfully big, but then i'm no builder and 300m2 is a big old roof.
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 12:22 pm
by soakaway
The plans which have been approved by regs show some of the downpipes going to the septic tank and others just go stright into the ground on the plans. The building regs paperwork just says to assess and replace soakaways as necessary for our building work. Nothing has been specified by architect.
The building control officer has passed the drainage work with the rainwater from our huge roof going straight into our septic tank. I was concerned that this was not a good idea and have asked the builder to repair the old (ie replace with crates) and build new soakaways as required for our extension - so that none of the rainwater is going into our septic tank.
Builder is happy because we now have to pay him to do the work again because he put the stormwater straight into the septic tank = more profit for builder.
Can't say i'm overly happy about it though! And I've run out of money - look like the whole thing including labour is going to be a lot more than I have!
Do I need to inform building regs if I am just improving whats already there? My downpipes were all connected to soakaways until my builder connected them to the septic tank!
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 12:44 pm
by soakaway
Also I can't seem to find the crates at much under £30 each - is there a good place to buy them from?
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 2:23 pm
by msh paving
i sent you another message becky,no way do you put rainwater into septic tank,keep BCO out off it as much as you can,ring me later MSH
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 10:02 pm
by Mikey_C
keyline were the cheapest for me, when i was last buying. msh is right don't put it in the septic. if the soakaway is at the back of the house you probably want to go for the crates. if not you will have to cart alot of clean rubble and pea shingle about, however, if you have the equipment on site dumper/digger it may not be to bad? if the relationship has gone bad with the builder you could always, give the job to someone it is more suited (and hence you "may" get a better price) i.e. a groundwork specialist.