Hi, I recently acquired a house in Italy, built on a hill, which has no damp course, and luckily there are very little problems except over Winter a small amount of rising damp has appeared in one corner.
There are two downpipes that finish above the ground opp corners of the housewall, no drains(topside of the house) and a garden 4m wide which slopes down to the house, running the length of the house (13m) bordered above by a road, also lengthways to the house.
There are no drains, to tap into, except only ancient septic pipes going down steeply into the nearby fields, no one is sure where they run, except backwards from the house, and no modern septic system, which I have found out I have now to install.
Regarding the septic system, it has to go into the garden mentioned above, as the remainder of land with the house is paved, and so I have permission to site a soakaway around the corner on adjacent land which falls away fairly steeply, and it is heavy clay.
The italian solution is to fill in the ground between road and house, then concrete it up across from the house to the road (which will be nearly a metre up the housewall!)
But at that solution, what about the septic tank??
I prefer the idea of french drain but am unsure if this would be adequate..and if it would be a good idea to run topwater into the soakaway for the septic tank or where???
Water doesnt puddle along the house wall, but at the moment it is going under the house due to the fall. Hence the damp. But I doubt the foundations are too happy!
We do not generally have a high rainfall but these days anything is possible!
Drainage problems..!?! - Drainage yes..best solution??
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Tony McC
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Not sure I'm following this correctly, but it seems to me that you need a septic tank with a leach field which has to go in the garden area.
Then, for the surface water, you need a separate soakaway/leach field which won;t compromise the efficacy of the septic system, so will probably need to be at least 10 metres distant.
And finally, for the potential damp issue in the house, I'd guess that a proper interceptor drain, rather than the non-descript, open-to-any-interpretation "French Drain" is what you want around the walls, and this could be connectred to the proposed SW system.
Then, for the surface water, you need a separate soakaway/leach field which won;t compromise the efficacy of the septic system, so will probably need to be at least 10 metres distant.
And finally, for the potential damp issue in the house, I'd guess that a proper interceptor drain, rather than the non-descript, open-to-any-interpretation "French Drain" is what you want around the walls, and this could be connectred to the proposed SW system.
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