Soakaways

[Grandad Gaz]

Was chatting to the building inspector about soakaways while he was looking at the footings to the extension we were doing.

He mentioned going down about 3m ( 1m per drain run) and filling the hole with crates and wrapping the whole lot with that membrane stuff to stop it clogging up. That's one hell of a big hole, 3m deep by about 3m square! Is that right?

The last one I did on our house was only about 1m square and full of brick rubble.

Any ideas?

Cheers

[Simpo Two]

I take it to mean 1m x 1m x 3m deep (ie 3 cubic metres not 27 as you said), but may be wrong.

[Spudler]

As a guide work on 1 cubic meter for 25m2 of roof.

[rovermorris999]

A lot depends on your soil and the level of the water table.

[DAVE-W]

have you done a porosity test for the soakaway yet?

[Grandad Gaz]

DAVE-W said:

have you done a porosity test for the soakaway yet?

A what?

I'd rather just dig the hole to whatever size the inspector wants!

Soil is very well drained. Even with all this wet weather over the last few months, the footings had no water in them at all. Very surprising.

[DAVE-W]

Link to BRE365 - soakaway design on this website

http://www.wyrebc.gov.uk/Page.aspx?PgeID=63088

Edited by DAVE-W on Friday 5th March 21:25

[Phil C]

1m3 is the normal - (1m deep x 1m wide x 1m across) unless you have a huuuge extension..... From experience - I built a 24 ft x 9 ft garage and 1 m3 was considered adequate. In fact the Inspector was very helpful explaining where I should put it, the fall levels in pipes required and how best to fill it etc..... after two cups of tea and choc biscuits...... Building inspectors (by and large in my experience) are a very useful free knowledge bank if you 'cultivate them'......