What Is a Soakaway Drainage System?

What is a soakaway drainage system?

A soakaway is a hole that is dug in the ground, filled with coarse stone and rubble to allow surface water to percolate into the earth near where it falls. As a part of the drainage system, it a low-environmental and efficient method of dealing with water on the surface; which is also called storm water, rain water, or runoff. There will also be a pipe that leads in the soakaway, from an area with excess water like the French drain, driveway, or gutter from the roof.

Construction of a soakaway is a small environmental solution to drainage since it only uses a few materials. Since this drainage deals with water on the surface from the point that is occurring, you avoid the need of adding or processing to the burdened council sewerage or drainage system. It also helps in avoiding the need to purchase chemical treatments before returning them to the ecosystem. The water on the ground will not be polluted before returning it to the ground.

Planning the construction of a soakaway

As part of the stage of designing the stage, you have to consider the composition of the ground. The soil surrounding the soakaway needs to be granular, with the desired drainage properties. It is of no use sinking your soakaway in clay as you will be building a pond.

Why should you build a pond?

In case you have areas of your garden or drive that are waterlogged, or you have water that is standing against you wall, you will have to think installing this drainage so as to eliminate surface water that will damage and damp on your building.

In case you are utilizing hard landscaping in the garden, including the construction of a driveway, you have to formulate a provision to make sure that surface water is handled as part of the project of building rather than being directed to current sewers and into effluent treatment systems. The soakaway provides a drainage system that complies with the necessary regulation.

After draining water off the ground, you will have to direct from somewhere else. It has to be directed to the storm drain or rainwater drainage system of the main drain or into a soakaway, but not into the foul water system. You do not have to direct rain water into the septic or cess tank either.

One simple water drainage system to install is the French drain that leads to the soakaway. When you want to find out more about this drain and the place where you can install it in the place of the other systems, you have to choose the French drains.

How to construct a soakaway

Plan before digging a soakaway

Simple planning will make your job easy and you need to ensure that you are not making a mistake that may be time consuming and back breaking. You have to check with local construction regulations before starting to work on the drainage system of choice.

In case you have plans for hard landscaping and have to provide a sustainable drainage system to deal with your needs, you have to note the statement of time policy dealing with flood risks in developments. It needs surface water to be treated after collection in the central location.

The soakaway has to comply with the requirement of the low environment impact solution to the issue. They have plastic channel drainage as local authorities’ state that they need to be five meters from a habitable building. It is advisable to locate it on low parts of land or garden because it means less digging down. You do not desire running a pipe that is longer than what you need, or the one with a direction change unless when you have to. All these situations will make your pipes susceptible to blocking.

Conclusion

You need to remember where the water table is lying. You need to dig the explanatory pit for checking that the table is below the chosen location. The pipe that is flowing in the soakaways need to be seventy-five millimeters in the diameter at least for the surface water drainage. It is however recommended to go for the one-hundred-millimeter pipe; therefore, when you are putting in place your pipework, make sure you choose the required pipe. The soakaway pipe has to be laid to the fall of one in forty. The slope of the trench, therefore, has to be one hundred millimeters downwards.