Minimum space needed for a soakaway...

[Ferdinand]

Not utterly sure that this is worthy of the Corner, but I am trying to identify the minimum open space required to site a soakaway.

 

As I have it the regs are (in England):

 

Edge of soakaway 5m from any boundary.

Edge of soakaway 2.5m from any building ie wall.

 

So if I have a soakaway 1m x 1m as close to the corner of a plot as possible that means that I need a minimum of (5m + 1m + 2.5m) x (5m + 1m + 2.5m) space to fit it in = 72.25 sqm. 

 

Although perhaps (he said hopefully) certain things, such as a car port corner post, may not count as a "building". 

 

On a compact site, that means putting it in the car parking area / driveway, or the middle of the private amenity space.

 

Unless there is a supervening reason such as ground conditions, impossible to fit it in (though PP might be refused), or a high water table etc.

 

Is that a fair summary?

 

Ferdinand

[Dave Jones]

Ive found BC to be very flexible with soakaways, they will let you have some scope to site it if its a tight site.

[ProDave]

Check there are not larger distances required from a watercourse and a road (there are in Scotland)

 

If you don't have enough room on your plot you need to look to other land, the soakaway does not need to be on your land.  Under a field behind your plot is common up here.  This really is one of the things you should check before buying a plot, as no drainage solution = no house.

[nod]

30 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Check there are not larger distances required from a watercourse and a road (there are in Scotland)

 

If you don't have enough room on your plot you need to look to other land, the soakaway does not need to be on your land.  Under a field behind your plot is common up here.  This really is one of the things you should check before buying a plot, as no drainage solution = no house.

As above 

Probably the most crucial part of buying a plot 

 

Our friends bought there second self build plot back in 2002 

Only to find BC wouldn’t let them locate there tank within the plot 

They went back to the seller (neighbor)

Who owned the paddock behind the plot and received a flat refusal to site the tank just inside the paddock Eventually the neighbor backed down and sold them 4m2 

For 15k 

They had a very working six months while they waited for the neighbor to come round 

[saveasteading]

1 hour ago, Dave Jones said:

BC to be very flexible with soakaways

That depends. Some don't really appreciate or understand the significance of a soakaway not working properly. Some are so used to the major developers getting away with 'relaxed' rules that they think it fair to allow it to individuals too.

Some rightly recognise that there really will not be any problem with the proposal.

 

But the last thing you need is an overflowing soakaway causing damage to your and neighbours' grounds.

 

The rules about soakaways are guidance, not strict rules, so you can argue for example that if it overflowed it would not cause damage, depending on site situation.

The 5m rule is a very blanket statement, as the ground could be any material, with or without good percolation.

My rule of thumb is to make the situation no worse than before the building. It always rained on the land and it went away into the ground or across the land. Can I design a system to replicate that? It is usually not a single hole in the ground.

[Ferdinand]

Thanks.

 

Have read up on the Building Regs and I see it is all "should" not "must".

[redtop]

Whats wrong with putting it under the driveway?

[Pocster]

Soakaway's are sometimes BS. As @Ferdinand states the distances of said soakaway from buildings/boundaries mean it's effectively impossible sometimes.

My planners insisted on it - and made it a condition. After much arguing i.e. abusive emails; they conceded they had requested something that was impossible. on 99% of builds in my city the "soakaway" paragraph is copy/pasted in - with no consideration for context.

[Ferdinand]

1 hour ago, redtop said:

Whats wrong with putting it under the driveway?

 

Nothing. It's a standard approach.

 

You just need to make sure that it can take whatever you are going to have parked or driving on it.

 

Eight wheelers? Removal vans? Hiabs from Wickes? Your rich uncle in his fatmobile? Two tonnes of bricks for the new garage just being delivered?

[Ferdinand]

57 minutes ago, pocster said:

Soakaway's are sometimes BS. As @Ferdinand states the distances of said soakaway from buildings/boundaries mean it's effectively impossible sometimes.

My planners insisted on it - and made it a condition. After much arguing i.e. abusive emails; they conceded they had requested something that was impossible. on 99% of builds in my city the "soakaway" paragraph is copy/pasted in - with no consideration for context.

 

ie Don't live in a dip in Bristol.

[TerryE]

We had to run our foulwater drainage pretty deep because of the sewer level at street.  We also had a 750mm trench for water and electricity into the house. These trenches were ~450mm  wide because that was the bucket my builder used to cut them.  He also filled these with type 3 MOT (IIRC ~3-4 cm broken gravel) -- about a 20 tonner's worth -- with about 100mm MOT 1 topping below the sharp sand bedding for the blockwork drive.  The BInsp didn't seem to care. (He had a very good relationship with my builder 😉)  It works really well, and even the worst deluges soak away happily.

Edited March 4, 2022 by TerryE