The Brew Cabin

Posted: **Tue Apr 03, 2012 8:46 pm**

I am building a small patio area which is 6 metres wide by 2 metres deep with York flagstones.

My problem is drainage as my garden slopes towards the house so I cannot drain the water directly onto the grass and donâ€™t really want to drain the patio towards the house. I have no surface water drainage on my property as the downpipes from the roof both drain onto my neighbourâ€™s side so I only have a foul water system to connect to, which I know is incorrect. I live in an area with chalky/sandy soil so drainage shouldnâ€™t be a problem if I have a soakaway.

I have seen the SUDs drive and patio infiltration drain page and it appears this would be my best option for drainage, that I could do myself. However I have seen elsewhere on soakaways that they should be at least 5 metres away from a building, this would only be 2 metres away on my patio, would this be acceptable due to the small area to be drained?

Posted: **Tue Apr 03, 2012 9:14 pm**

Given that your patio is so small and the soil so free draining there shouldn't be a problem with the soakaway so close to the house.

Posted: **Sun May 13, 2012 2:59 pm**

For such a small patio you shouldn't have any problems with water if you do a soakaway even if it is so close to the house. After all, the house should be isolated so the water can't harm it.

Don't know how you do soakaways where you live but we (in Slovenia) usually do them with concrete perforated pipes. In your case it should be enough to install max two pipes (2 meters deep) of 40 cm diameter or one pipe (1 meter deep) of 60 cm diameter. Plus of course appropriate cover over.

I've attached some pictures of how we made a soakaway last year where we had to make a drainage for 3 smaller patios into one soakaway. Plus we had to crush some rock first so we could dig a hole, big enough to make a soakaway.

First crushing the rock
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-iEBakm....123.JPG

Making a soakaway
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-pM364A....125.JPG
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-pdPgFu....126.JPG

Filling a hole with drainage sand
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-R3SOVx....127.JPG
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-R5Piqy....128.JPG

And that is why we had to make a soakaway

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-f1mCNW....130.JPG

Bye!

Posted: **Sun May 13, 2012 6:42 pm**

its not something i have seen but it looks pro
I am guessing there is a lot of rock in slovenia?
LLL ???

Posted: **Sun May 13, 2012 7:32 pm**

Slovenia is geographically very diverse country so we have everything - from sea to big mountains and everything in between

From rock to very soft soil

Posted: **Sun May 13, 2012 8:02 pm**

We use pipe bedding in this country of about 100mm minimum Arround the pipe(dust or 6-10mm clean stone).

The Brew Cabin

Drainage for a small patio - Drainage