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Best method..
Planning?, dimensions, is there a minimum distance from a building? Going into a gravel drive-way and car-park. The whole area is around 250 - 300m2 driveway ( alongside the house ) is around 8 meters square which is where it floods and then it opens out into a parking area around 12 x 12m which doesn't flood. I'm thinking of a 1.5m3 soak-away in the drive way bit filled with large aggregate ( sidings? ) and another in the parking bit with a channel halfway up the first one connecting the two. ( the second acting as an overflow ).
...and what would this cost to contract out. The whole area is to be regraveled, with approx 100m2 needing to be removed to a depth of 0,2m. So skips are needed.
The key to a good soak away is the ground around it. If its clay it ain't going nowhere!
[url= http://www.broxbourne.gov.uk/PDF/BRE%20DIGEST%20365.PDF ]BRE 365[/url] this is the soak away design guidance...
Put a drain where the water comes from, to divert to away to either a gulley, drain or soakaway off the parking area?
I put a 40 metre French Drain in last year with help from a local guy (where are you?), works well and has dried out the three outbuildings. As the road has raised (and metalled) its meant the water runs off onto my land rather than just soaking in.
@ b r...Banbury/ Brackley area
The area floods when it rains a lot, I think because the existing gravel has been crushed and packed down by heavy cars over the years and no longer lets the rain through.
because the existing gravel has been crushed and packed down by heavy cars over the years and no longer lets the rain through.
which is why a driveway isn't a very good place for a soakaway. Is there nowhere else it can go?
@ sharkbait..not really, I am thinking though, of using a hardier, tougher gravel...granite poss.
4" leaky pipe type land drains (french drain) from area that floods to a soak away in the area that dosnt. A soakaway in the area that floods won't help as the soil type must be impermeable. Compacted gravel wouldn't stop water passing through, there must be an impermeable layer underneath it. Soakaway must be further than 5 meters from building.
If you use crates that are rated for vehicles there is no reason why you can't put a soak away in the driveway.
Crates would be no different to granular fill if the ground around them is still impermeable. Crates are ideal when you need to retain water on site and discharge it through a hydro break or similar.
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The concrete 'step' that you can see is by the back door and floods. the area directly behind and to the right of this are to be taken down in height ( below ' step ' ). To the right is the car parking area..
@ajc....pipe into a trench say 700mm deep covered in pea-shingle then gravel?
What is the point in digging down 700 mm with your pipe? Youd be better off keeping the invert of the pipe up as much as possible against the invert of your soakaway. However all this is pointless if the ground is (for the 3rd time) impermeable. Where does all the gutter on the left run off into?
Not onto the drive. Its the sheer volume of water from the drive and the car-park causing the problem.
So could you get the water going down the exixting drainage system?
I'd have to have a look, and then wonder if the existing would cope...
Put a French Drain down the middle of the drive, and continue through the concrete and parking to a soakaway (or drain etc) as far as you can go. Obviously getting deeper all the time.
By putting it in the middle it won't get compacted.
My 40 meter's cost me just under £700 (digger, dumper, pipe, backfill gravel, diesel and a guy to drive the digger). We did it in the day. I had no spoil problem, as we've spare land.
In progress:
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I thought the point of the soak away and crates is to hold the volume of excess water whilst it slowly soaks away, as no matter how permeable the ground, a flash storm can still give way to temporary standing surface water.
The existing would cope if you could on site attenuate via the crates and then restrict the flow into the existing. It may be a case that the ground [u]will[/u] absorb the water so I'd be getting the pick and shovel out and digging a trial hole somewhere.