Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2015 1:54 pm
This is not my house but is almost identical and I wanted to post a picture but haven't got the techie skills yet.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-p....england
Mine is a semi - joined at the other side of the bay window - with a shared downpipe between the houses emptying into my garden. There must have been a soakaway when the houses were built but not any more and so I've extended the downpipe to the end of the front garden to drain the rainwater away from the house. I dug a big hole to take the water which fills to the top when it rains. The soil is quite clayish and it does take a few hours to soak in - but it does soak in eventually.
However, the front garden slopes very gently back to the house - probably about 6 inches in difference over the course of the slope - maybe a bit less.
There are airbricks level with the current concrete around the base of the house and when it rains heavily, the rain pools in the garden and runs back to the house, through the airbricks and under the floorboards - causing bad damp and condensation inside. The base of the house seems faily damp generally even when not raining very heavily.
I'm getting a new drive/dropped kerb etc and want to take the opportunity to sort the issue with the rain water drainage.
A few contractors have come to look at the job.
I want the drainage issue solved as a priority and then the drive surface comes second.
There seem to be two views with contractors.
Have a french drain around the walls of the house filled with pebbles then block pave or gravel the drive. The downpipe would go into a soakaway at 5m distant.
Or, block pave up to the wall of the house, sloping downwards to a linear drainage channel which drains along with the downpipe into the soakaway. Then block paving up to the roadside.
I can't work out whether it's better to have a french drain against the house or block paving against the house sloping downwards into the drainage channel. Both contractors say their approach will work better.
Both will be below the level of the airbricks.
At the moment I also use a water butt to re-direct some of the downpipe flow into the drain under my kitchen window (I know I shouldn't do this but otherwise the house would flood).
In this recent rain over the past month - the drain by the kitchen has overflowed with rainwater while the butt couldn't cope with the downpipe and the garden flooded too. So I definitely need to do something!
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-p....england
Mine is a semi - joined at the other side of the bay window - with a shared downpipe between the houses emptying into my garden. There must have been a soakaway when the houses were built but not any more and so I've extended the downpipe to the end of the front garden to drain the rainwater away from the house. I dug a big hole to take the water which fills to the top when it rains. The soil is quite clayish and it does take a few hours to soak in - but it does soak in eventually.
However, the front garden slopes very gently back to the house - probably about 6 inches in difference over the course of the slope - maybe a bit less.
There are airbricks level with the current concrete around the base of the house and when it rains heavily, the rain pools in the garden and runs back to the house, through the airbricks and under the floorboards - causing bad damp and condensation inside. The base of the house seems faily damp generally even when not raining very heavily.
I'm getting a new drive/dropped kerb etc and want to take the opportunity to sort the issue with the rain water drainage.
A few contractors have come to look at the job.
I want the drainage issue solved as a priority and then the drive surface comes second.
There seem to be two views with contractors.
Have a french drain around the walls of the house filled with pebbles then block pave or gravel the drive. The downpipe would go into a soakaway at 5m distant.
Or, block pave up to the wall of the house, sloping downwards to a linear drainage channel which drains along with the downpipe into the soakaway. Then block paving up to the roadside.
I can't work out whether it's better to have a french drain against the house or block paving against the house sloping downwards into the drainage channel. Both contractors say their approach will work better.
Both will be below the level of the airbricks.
At the moment I also use a water butt to re-direct some of the downpipe flow into the drain under my kitchen window (I know I shouldn't do this but otherwise the house would flood).
In this recent rain over the past month - the drain by the kitchen has overflowed with rainwater while the butt couldn't cope with the downpipe and the garden flooded too. So I definitely need to do something!
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
