Drive Flooding

[jayc89]

We live one door down from a road T-junction. When it rains, the T-junction and the front of our driveway, where we have a drain channel, floods pretty badly, to the extent that some cars turn around at the T-junction.

 

There is a surface water culvert running under our front garden where our drain channel, and I suspect the road's storm drains discharge to, I suspect this is why both back up at the same time. 

 

The council/water company are aware of the problem, we haven't lived here long, but it seems to be an ongoing saga (since the 2007 floods)

 

Poorly drawn illustration;

 

 

My concern is two-fold;

- where the bottom of our drive floods, is pretty close to the corner of the house, which is a 1850's property, solid brick walls, no DPC etc.

- one of the SVPs still connect to an old septic tank which also discharges into the water culvert, so who knows what's in that flood water... (we were informed when we purchased the problem that this is now an illegal connection and needs changing)

 

So I'm trying to figure out if there's anything I can do. My best idea is to

- relocate to the SVP that goes into the septic tank to the mains manhole

- disconnect entirely from the water culvert and build and discharge all rain water into a soak-away at the rear of the house, somewhere. (I think I could then also claim a rebate from the water company... ?)

 

Or am I missing something? Is there anything less intrusive I can do?

 

 

[ProDave]

Best of luck getting highways to do anything.  A bit further down our road there is a blocked culvert and for much of the winter the road becomes a ford.  The council have been notified several times by each neighbour and 15 years on nothing has been done.  They did come and patch up a section of road surface that got washed away but have done nothing to fix the culvert issue.

 

Why have you still got a septic tank in use if you have a connection to a mains sewer?

[Mr Punter]

I think it would be best to connect your foul drains to the foul sewer and the surface water to the culvert.

[Roundtuit]

Rainwater; I suspect that whatever you can do with your discharge, it won't have a significant effect on the flooding issue if the rest of the street is flowing into the culvert. Sounds like a bigger problem than you can fix, but worth exploring the issue with whoever is responsible for street drainage.

 

Soil pipe;  does the soil pipe running to the septic tank exit the house above ground level? If so, could a new pipe be run across the back of the house and drop into the stack on the corner?  Not pretty, but way easier. 

[jayc89]

3 hours ago, ProDave said:

Why have you still got a septic tank in use if you have a connection to a mains sewer?

 

It's a farm house, we bought from farmers... The best part is, the original part of the building connects to the mains sewer so was upgraded at some point, it's the extension that connects to the original septic tank...

 

3 hours ago, Roundtuit said:

Rainwater; I suspect that whatever you can do with your discharge, it won't have a significant effect on the flooding issue if the rest of the street is flowing into the culvert. Sounds like a bigger problem than you can fix, but worth exploring the issue with whoever is responsible for street drainage.

 

Soil pipe;  does the soil pipe running to the septic tank exit the house above ground level? If so, could a new pipe be run across the back of the house and drop into the stack on the corner?  Not pretty, but way easier. 

 

Rainwater - my suspicion is the water's backing up through the drain channel on our drive, I was wondering whether we could do away with using the culvert entirely and install a large soakaway somewhere (we have 1.5 acres of paddock at the rear of the property)

 

Soil pipe - the one that connects to the septic tank is only used by the master ensuite (upstairs) so it exits the house in between the two floors. 

[Dave Jones]

Can you raise the front of the drive so the water bypasses you from the T junction ?

 

How is the T junction drained, are there ditches or piped ?

[jayc89]

1 hour ago, Dave Jones said:

Can you raise the front of the drive so the water bypasses you from the T junction ?

 

How is the T junction drained, are there ditches or piped ?

 

Not easily, this entire side is lower than the road itself.

 

I believe the junction's pipe drained into the water culvert, hence both the road and our drain channel backing up at the same time.

[ProDave]

21 minutes ago, jayc89 said:

 

Not easily, this entire side is lower than the road itself.

 

I believe the junction's pipe drained into the water culvert, hence both the road and our drain channel backing up at the same time.

I bet your problem is the culvert is blocked or collapsed further down, but getting anyone to do anything about it will be hard work.

 

Perhaps you can try the "it's in danger of flooding the house" argument to try and get something done?  (that's not the case with our blockage)

[Dave Jones]

job for your local councillor.