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With no mains water possible, we will be installing a rainwater harvester. (The harvester system is not the issue, as have done two, but with mains also available) I know we have to treat the water for drinking and for basins, showers, and baths, but not the first thing about how to do it. Then is it worth splitting the plumbing into treated and raw, to reduce the load on the treatment process? Wondering also if some harvesters are made of plastic that is not suitable.

Proposed Drainage.docxExisting Drainage.docx Proposed Elevations.pdf Hi All, I was hoping that you might be able to point me in the right direction please! Mid planning for a 5m rear extension to my bungalow. I have designed the extension myself and submitted planning and now looking at getting started and planning for building regs. I'm concerned about the rainwater/surface drainage and have prepared a couple of ideas in the existing/proposed drainage plans and elevations attached and was hoping for some advice before submitted to my BCO. The extension is 5m to the rear making the total roof size 14.55m long x 8.15m wide. The garage is 8.25m x 2.75m. I have calculated the total area to be drained at approx. 197m2 making for a 3m3 soakaway if it was just one (but I think this is far too big for 1 soakway?) A couple of questions if I can please: Is it normal to drain one side of the roof to the rear and the other to the front? I couldnt see anything online. Are my roof size/volume calcs correct? Can I drain all to the rear? Wouldn't this cause a large influx of water to the rear of the house over the 14.55m span of guttering? If all done to the rear from reading online a 3m3 soakaway is just too big for one soakaway so would need 2 one at front and one at rear? Does anyone have any other ideas please, I'd really like to not have to dig up the front garden aswell if possible! Many thanks in advance Alex

Existing Drainage.docxProposed Elevations.pdfProposed Drainage.docx Hi All, I was hoping that you might be able to point me in the right direction please! Mid planning for a 5m rear extension to my bungalow. I have designed the extension myself and submitted planning and now looking at getting started and planning for building regs. I'm concerned about the rainwater/surface drainage and have prepared a couple of ideas in the existing/proposed drainage plans and elevations attached and was hoping for some advice before submitted to my BCO. The extension is 5m to the rear making the total roof size 14.55m long x 8.15m wide. The garage is 8.25m x 2.75m. I have calculated the total area to be drained at approx. 197m2 making for a 3m3 soakaway if it was just one (but I think this is far too big for 1 soakway?) A couple of questions if I can please: Is it normal to drain one side of the roof to the rear and the other to the front? I couldnt see anything online. Are my roof size/volume calcs correct? Can I drain all to the rear? Wouldn't this cause a large influx of water to the rear of the house over the 14.55m span of guttering? If all done to the rear from reading online a 3m3 soakaway is just too big for one soakaway so would need 2 one at front and one at rear? Does anyone have any other ideas please, I'd really like to not have to dig up the front garden aswell if possible! Many thanks in advance Alex

I have a couple of box gutters that are draining internally through a cavity wall space. I know that isn’t ideal but had to be done because of various party wall conditions with the neighbour. I want to insulate this pipework to protect against acoustic potential and also to stop any potential condensation that maybe produced because of it being located in a cavity space. Has anyone used Rocklap before or an alternative product or maybe a different idea to insulate it quickly and easily? It’s soil pipe size. I attach some details on the Rocklap.

Having recently completed a self build, the land next to us has been offered for sale. It comes within the LDP but its purchase is more for extending our plot for garden/recreational use. There is a 600mm pipe which discharges onto the land, which services all the road drains from a nearby mountain road. As you can imagine, when it rains ( which it does quite frequently in Wales!) there is a stream running across the land for approximately 60 metres making it boggy before reaching a river. My question is, does Welsh Water or Natural resources Wales (Environment Agency) have responsibility for this? If so can I request that they change its course or pipe it across the land. What are my, if any rights as I would like to keep the land as drained as possible for use. Many Thanks

My drainage plan shows that I need a whopping 6.8m3 of soakaway which seems pretty enormous. According to the calculations from the drainagepipe.co.uk website I need 2.0m3 other on line sources lead me to a similar figure but I can't find a definitive calculator as opposed to these 'ball park' calculations. Does any one know what the proper calculations are? I have the results from my DIY percolation test.

So I've a couple of places where soil and rainwater pipes have to cross each other. Invert depth at the treatment plant means that the soil pipes are basically on the surface at the current working level, and will have just on 300mm cover to FGL. The rainwater pipes can be pretty much any depth below this, we've almost a meter down to our open and piped ground drains. Before I go to the BCO and groundworks guy with a cunning plan for this, any easy answers or gotchas? I'm guessing that setting the pipes on pea gravel (or whatever single-size is offered) , wrapping in polythene and then haunching with dry kerb-mix ought to be the way? Or is it concrete slab time? But what about crossings? I can't see anything in the Approved Doc about them... Is the upper pipe negated when planning for the lower one? so 100mm of gravel between them? or does there need to be a barrier of some sorts? ta.

Hi I am planning where the gutters and downspouts need to go .. ..i know the wife wants things to be as TIDY as possible at the front and back (The sides are invisible to us and anyone due to trees one side and a high fence at the other) I see how others have built SIMILAR Potton homes and where they put their downspouts ... Let me know if you think I have planned well please Also a) Do you think the downspouts either side of the Sunroom are necessary ....as there is a ceramic patio tiling going all around it and i think it might make it look messy ? b) also i was considering ...it might be daft ....but is it possible to FLIP a downspout around the corner ? basically to maintain the clean look of one side of the house ?

Evening All, Well work is about to commence on Friday ....so at LAST some soil will be shifted, as the council have "discharged" the necessary conditions. But today i received an email from Building control ...asking quite a few questions.... Some of them are straightforward regarding trees (actually scrawny bushes) and distance from foundations ..which of course i know off by heart ! Other questions about Land contamination and stuff ...I have had a soil and site report, so I guess i need to send it over (although planning already have EVERYTHING) ....strange? Soakway information ....well i need to check my calculations as the roofer said the area is 195m2 (it has a 50deg slope So I was thinking Polystorm ...but by god ....it will cost an arm and a leg ...Is there any other way ? The thing that REALLY confused me was the "Water Consumption Report" they want ...I went to some of these online jobbies and its like a maths question from 5th year ! .....and i missed that lesson I mean we have 3 toilets 1 shower 1 bath so of course 3 sinks and we also have 2 sinks in the kitchen and util room but there is only the 2 of us ...so its not like we will be draining the hoover dam How does everyone else work this out ? thanks in advance Ed

If there is a surface drain nearby, as I think there is on my plot with the surface drain being located in the approach road, is it acceptable to connect to it and discharge rain water to it, and thus avoid the need to incorporate soak-aways for roof rain-water as, for example, @JSHarris did in his build? My site is cramped so it would be nice to avoid the need for soak aways for roof rain water. I am a complete beginner in this area. I have skip-read Section H3 of the Building Regs.

When we built the basement, we needed to run a set of external stairs up to ground level. Rather than have these awkwardly appear in the garden, we built a 3x4 m box around them with the plan to put IBCs in the bottom for rainwater harvesting and to run a deck over the top and create a mezzanine level deck. it is west facing so should be a shaded sun spot in the evening. All the roof rainwater is currently piped through this area in 110mm pipe on its way to a soakaway. I now need to buy 4 1000l IBCs and plumb them together to allow the rain water to enter the top (via some kind of filter) and have excess water go to the soakaway. I've made electrical provision for a submerged pump which will be connected to an outside tap. It's now time to order the tanks and figure out how to plumb them together. Looking to buy here but quite clueless on the fittings and sundries I will need but beyond that I'm pretty clueless! Help please

Need to speak to the B/insp but what have people done about their rainwater. Initially we discounted rainwater harvesting as the cost was not worth it but we have approx 350 sq m of roof and the soakaway costs will be quite considerable. Not sure if we will have to use the plastic crates or have people used something different. Even with a harvester we would need to arrange an overflow of some description.

Hi, I've looking at the design of a driveway in a new build. The size is 6 meters deep from the street to the front of the house and 8-9 meters wide. There is a slight slope down from the street level to the front of the house. I'm planning on diverting the house gutter downpipes to an underground rainwater tank at the rear of the house. There are just two things I need advice on if someone can help me: How to ensure run off from washing a car, or any fuel/oil leak doesn't go down the downpipe drain mentioned earlier? Use of permeable paving - is the driveway too close to the house so using this would create a risk to the foundations? I'm guessing I need a separate channel (possibly where I've marked in RED) to capture any run off from the driveway and divert that directly into the storm drain, otherwise I'm risking mixing fuel/oil/detergents getting into the rainwater storage tanks. I'm keen on permeable paving but from what I've read they don't recommend it close to a house. I'm doubtful if 1.2 meters is sufficient (The wheelchair access area around the two spaces below). I'd need to understand where the water goes once it soaks through the permeable driveway aggregate so it's channeled to the storm drain correctly. I can always do a concrete driveway and build a channel into it to capture runoff but wonder about other options.....? Thanks!

So the plan is this. 3 or 4 IBCs buried under the patio linked together at the bottom with the first tank connected to the downpipes using filtered hoppers and the supply taken from the last in the line to limit the sediment transferring between them. I then plan to put a 5 micron filter and an activated carbon block in the garage before feeding the WCs, washing machine and outside tap with the supply. Question is - should I use a submersible pump or a jet pump...? Both will need some sort of pressure switch to sense a tap opening or a WC flush, but there the similarity ends. My thoughts are that a submersible pump will be cheaper and easier to maintain but by design it will pick up more sediment and that means the filters will need changing more often. Also, it will cut out at a higher water level. A jet pump will sit the clean side of the filters so will not be prone to pulling as much sediment - plan to pick up from just below the water surface with a floating pickup - but for a pump with a switch and a pressure tank it is much more expensive. Other option is to pick up from the IBC outlets and balance across all 3/4 tanks with the jet pump that slightly reduces the cost as the links will be 25mm MDPE. The commercial models tend to do in tank pumps but that means you don't get the full water capacity. They also need a separate flow / pressure switch but not too worried about that. So has anyone else used anything like this and have any thoughts ..??

Hi, Is anyone doing rainwater harvesting and what has your experience been over a few years of using such a system? I'm interested in choosing one for a new build and using it in my toilets and washing machine (less so the garden). I understand in the absence of water charges (Direct charges are currently suspended in ROI), there is no economic payback but I still feel it's the right thing to do. I would be very interested in any good or bad experiences in having such a system in place and have you found it useful or not? Does it over complicate the plumbing, are there issues with the underground tank, smells from the water in the cistern/header tank etc. Is it something you would do again and does it meet your expectations? I think the benefits may be marginal at best (especially when occupancy is just 1 person!) but there may be angles I hadn't considered. Thanks!