My back garden is split between a paved area running from the house which then meets a lawned area which is surrounded by brickwork. The paved area runs down to the lawn, although it is not a steep gradient. Where the paved areas comes up against the brick work surrounding the lawn, rain waste collects and doesn't drain away. I have heard that a "soakaway" might help. If this is true, how deep should I make it, what should I fill it with, should I replace the paving afterwards or leave it open with the fill I put into it. the width of the paved area is approx 20 feet.

Regards,

Kevin

Cormaic's site does this one

http://www.pavingexpert.com/

Anna

~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England
|""""| ~ Lime plaster repairs
/ ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc
|____| www.kettlenet.co.uk 01359 230642

On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 18:46:14 +0100, kevinspiller
wrote:


My back garden is split between a paved area running from the house
which then meets a lawned area which is surrounded by brickwork. The
paved area runs down to the lawn, although it is not a steep gradient.
Where the paved areas comes up against the brick work surrounding the
lawn, rain waste collects and doesn't drain away. I have heard that a
"soakaway" might help. If this is true, how deep should I make it, what
should I fill it with, should I replace the paving afterwards or leave
it open with the fill I put into it. the width of the paved area is
approx 20 feet.

Regards,

Kevin

You need a mini digger.

Dig trenches, fill with washed stone, then "land drain", then more
washed stone, then top with soil. You end up with lots of spare soil,
and you need to do lots of digging / shifting.

Rick

"My back garden is split between a paved area running from the house
which then meets a lawned area which is surrounded by brickwork. The
paved area runs down to the lawn, although it is not a steep gradient.
Where the paved areas comes up against the brick work surrounding the
lawn, rain waste collects and doesn't drain away. I have heard that a
"soakaway" might help. If this is true, how deep should I make it, what
should I fill it with, should I replace the paving afterwards or leave
it open with the fill I put into it. the width of the paved area is
approx 20 feet.

Regards,

Kevin

You need a mini digger.

Dig trenches, fill with washed stone, then "land drain", then more
washed stone, then top with soil. You end up with lots of spare soil,
and you need to do lots of digging / shifting.

Rick
I dug simple soakaway trenches around three sides of my rectangular lawn
(badminton court) by hand. Backbreaking work which took a long time to
complete. We live in a relatively new home where about 20 inches down there
was a compacted layer or clay and stones which was hard as concrete but only
about 8/12 inches deep, but was a complete ******* to break through - now I
wish I'd used an SDS drill.
Once I'd broken through that it was v soft Essex clay which seemed to go on
for ever (probably does) so I stopped. Bought the cheapest hardcore I could
find which turned out to be an error as there was a lot of rubbish in the
mix which we had to remove.
According the literature what we've done is: too shallow, not graded and
even if it was not has a limited life as it silts up. Five years on no sign
of water problems of any kind.

If you want terrific information and advice on this and many other DIY
outdoor projects start at http://www.pavingexpert.com/home.htm simply the
best DIY site I have ever come across.

Hope you find this of some use.
Phil

Rick Dipper wrote in message . ..
On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 18:46:14 +0100, kevinspiller
wrote:


My back garden is split between a paved area running from the house
which then meets a lawned area which is surrounded by brickwork. The
paved area runs down to the lawn, although it is not a steep gradient.
Where the paved areas comes up against the brick work surrounding the
lawn, rain waste collects and doesn't drain away. I have heard that a
"soakaway" might help. If this is true, how deep should I make it, what
should I fill it with, should I replace the paving afterwards or leave
it open with the fill I put into it. the width of the paved area is
approx 20 feet.

Regards,

Kevin

You need a mini digger.

Dig trenches, fill with washed stone, then "land drain", then more
washed stone, then top with soil. You end up with lots of spare soil,
and you need to do lots of digging / shifting.

Rick

yes, except you wont need the drain pipes, the water trickles through
the stones. And crushed concrete is cheaper. The flow rate is lower
with mixed lump sizes, but flow rate is a non issue in such a situ.
Its a good way to get rid of building rubble.

And you can always do them by hand, if you want to get fit

A soakaway is a big hole filled with stone or rubble. The lawn drains
into it, and the water can slowly soak away over hours or days while
the lawn stays not wet.


NT

Thanks to all for their valued advice on building the soak away. I dug down 4 feet in one afternoon but was still not free of the clay. The next day it rained and the whole completely filled with water and has overflowed into the garden. 4 weeks later the whole is still full of water and shows no signs of percolating. My options as I see them are to drain the water and carry on digging? (Or are there any other options?)

However, to do this I need to remove the water already in the hole. I have dug 4 feet down by approx 6 feet long and 18 inches wide. A neighbour mentioned using a stirrup pump, but the last time she saw one was during the air raids!!.

Any suggestions would be most grateful.

kevinspiller wrote:
Thanks to all for their valued advice on building the soak away. I dug
down 4 feet in one afternoon but was still not free of the clay. The
next day it rained and the whole completely filled with water and has
overflowed into the garden. 4 weeks later the whole is still full of
water and shows no signs of percolating. My options as I see them are
to drain the water and carry on digging? (Or are there any other
options?)

However, to do this I need to remove the water already in the hole. I
have dug 4 feet down by approx 6 feet long and 18 inches wide. A
neighbour mentioned using a stirrup pump, but the last time she saw one
was during the air raids!!.

Any suggestions would be most grateful.



Get a mini digger with a ditching bucket and bail it out.

PS I have the same problems, so my soakaway is now a nice pond complete
with fish.


PPS where geographically are you? Here we have to go down a long way to
get through clay to the chalk, and really surface drainage to ditches is
the only sane solution.




N. Thornton Wrote:

Rick Dipper wrote in message
. ..-
On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 18:46:14 +0100, kevinspiller
wrote:
-

My back garden is split between a paved area running from the house
which then meets a lawned area which is surrounded by brickwork. The
paved area runs down to the lawn, although it is not a steep
gradient.
Where the paved areas comes up against the brick work surrounding the
lawn, rain waste collects and doesn't drain away. I have heard that a
"soakaway" might help. If this is true, how deep should I make it,
what
should I fill it with, should I replace the paving afterwards or
leave
it open with the fill I put into it. the width of the paved area is
approx 20 feet.

Regards,

Kevin-

You need a mini digger.

Dig trenches, fill with washed stone, then "land drain", then more
washed stone, then top with soil. You end up with lots of spare soil,
and you need to do lots of digging / shifting.

Rick-

yes, except you wont need the drain pipes, the water trickles through
the stones. And crushed concrete is cheaper. The flow rate is lower
with mixed lump sizes, but flow rate is a non issue in such a situ.
Its a good way to get rid of building rubble.

And you can always do them by hand, if you want to get fit

A soakaway is a big hole filled with stone or rubble. The lawn drains
into it, and the water can slowly soak away over hours or days while
the lawn stays not wet.


NT

On Sat, 23 Oct 2004 14:04:09 +0100, kevinspiller
wrote:

Thanks to all for their valued advice on building the soak away. I dug
down 4 feet in one afternoon but was still not free of the clay. The
next day it rained and the whole completely filled with water and has
overflowed into the garden. 4 weeks later the whole is still full of
water and shows no signs of percolating. My options as I see them are
to drain the water and carry on digging? (Or are there any other
options?)

If you drain the water then it is likely to fill back up again - so it
doesn't seem like an ideal solution to me.

You might gain something in terms of knowledge if you can get some
information about the structure of the land around your property.
Perhaps someone has done surveys in the past which you could get
access to? If you keep on digging you currently have no idea whether
you are inches away from breaking thru the clay soil, or have a couple
of miles to go.

One thing you could try instead of digging with a spade is to use a
post hole borer. That might give you an indication of whether you are
close to the bottom of the clay or not.

Another possible issue that that you may be close to the top of the
water table in the area. If so then no amount of digging is going to
relieve the water arriving in your soakaway.

The only other solution as I see it would be to lay pipes from the
soakaway to a lower area so that the water can run off freely (until
the pipe silts up....).

I guess you don't have a problem with moles in your garden.

Andrew

On Sat, 23 Oct 2004 14:04:09 +0100, kevinspiller
wrote:


Thanks to all for their valued advice on building the soak away. I dug
down 4 feet in one afternoon but was still not free of the clay. The
next day it rained and the whole completely filled with water and has
overflowed into the garden. 4 weeks later the whole is still full of
water and shows no signs of percolating. My options as I see them are
to drain the water and carry on digging? (Or are there any other
options?)

However, to do this I need to remove the water already in the hole. I
have dug 4 feet down by approx 6 feet long and 18 inches wide. A
neighbour mentioned using a stirrup pump, but the last time she saw one
was during the air raids!!.

Any suggestions would be most grateful.

Hi,

A submersible mains or 12v bilge pump will pump it out. If you have a
pressure washer try boring a narrow hole at the bottom. A pipe can
then be used to take a soil sample or see if the narrow hole drains
OK. If it fills of it's own accord you've hit the water table!

May be worth doing a test dig in other areas to see how deep the clay
goes. Another possible way to bore a hole in clay is to take some
rigid pipe, cut the end at 45°, twist it in a few turns and then twist
it out and remove the plug in the end, and keep doing that. But it
would be much much easier to hire a post hole borer!

If it's all clay and there is some drainage elsewhere, it may be
better to dig a sump instead and used a double ended siphon to move
the water elsewhere. I can post some ascii to illustrate that if need
be.

cheers,
Pete.

"Nigel M" wrote in message
...
In uk.d-i-y, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

so my soakaway is now a nice pond

I've got the same problem (Kent).

I dug a hole about 5ft all round, there has been no change in the level
(except up). I bought a submersible pump to clear it while I was working
(I've always wanted one anyway) but now I've decided to abandon the idea
and take the pipe 10 yards down the hill, then let it come to the
surface and drain away.

Pump is "Wolf Dirty Water Pump with Float Switch" from Screwfix, item
number 36057, £39.99 - spend another £5.01 and get free delivery.

Hmm, 45 quid - maybe you'd be better off with a bilge pump from a
chandlers - perhaps about 15 quid (12 volts, get a battery...) will
certainly do the job as a one-off just as well, although it would have a
limited life if you 'abused' it in this way continuously! Try
http://www.pufferparts.co.uk/pumps.asp

Dave

On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 15:27:35 GMT, Nigel M wrote:

In uk.d-i-y, Pete C wrote:

If it's all clay and there is some drainage elsewhere, it may be
better to dig a sump instead and used a double ended siphon to move
the water elsewhere. I can post some ascii to illustrate that if need
be.

I'd like to see it anyway ;-)

LOL! Ok here goes:

___
_( )__
( )
~~~~~~~~
// // flow -
/ / ________________
// |.--------------.|
|| __________ ||
|| | | ||
|| | | ||
runoff - || | | || - to drain
-------------.~||~| |~||~.------
| || | | || |
| || | | || |
| || | | || |
|____| |____|


Basically the tube is primed, then any rise in level on one side will
cause flow round the loop to the other side until the levels balance
again.

This allows water from the area being drained to be emptied down a
drain some distance away despite the ground in between being higher.

cheers,
Pete.