plumbing into house downpipe

[TANK]

Guys

 

just a quick one. 

I've built myself a flat roofed outbuilding (6mx3m) mainly for storage about 1.5m from the house. In short I have a problem with where to put the rainwater as the ground in clay so my initial plan for a large soakaway is a no go. 

currently I have 2 large barrels to collect it, but these need emptying every couple of weeks or so. I have been weighing up various ideas re harvesting the water from pumping it down the garden for irrigation to the raised beds, or to use for flushing the downstairs loo... 

But the most obvious solution to me seems to be to hook it up with the down pipe from the house roof which is very close (and very tempting!), but I am assuming this might be prohibited.? 

i know its prob only a quick call to the water authorities but thought I'd see what info I can get here first. 

many thanks in advance.. 

 

Tank. 

[joe90]

I would keep the barrels for watering the plants etc and fit an overflow to your house drains, nothing to say you can’t.

[TANK]

really? if so that would be amazing. I thought there midge be some regulation regarding how much roof area feeds into one pipe, but I suppose with it just being an overflow it could avoid this. 

ideally I'd like to get rid of the barrels as they're unsightly and I'm fed up of emptying them periodically, so if this is a goer I will replace them with an icb (potentially underground), have a pump feed the downstairs loo and then any excess/overflow can be directed into the house down pipe. 

[joe90]

1 hour ago, TANK said:

regulation regarding how much roof area feeds into one pipe,

Well, the downpipe on the house is a smaller diameter than the underground pipe so if you put your overflow into the drain in the ground it’s not a problem.

[Mr Punter]

You could have a water butt with a diverter to the downpipe when it is full.

[TANK]

yeah, well the two barrels I currently have are just like giant water butts. Don't look pretty though, and take up too much space. I need a nicer solution but glad to hear I can hook up to the downpipe. 

We get a really large amount of rain, and I've been surprised at how much water the flat roof collects. Must admit, being a novice builder I overlooked this aspect somewhat although before I built it there was a concrete base of the same footprint (from the prefab that was there before we bought the place), and the water was obviously going SOMEWHERE back then although I do not know where...