Patio Aco Drain Installation

[machtucker]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm building a patio from Indian sandstone slabs and have planned to install an Aco RainDrain channel drain at one end of it (see drawing). The fall is 1:80 towards the drain. The drain will be about 3.3m long. My question is do I need to have a fall on the aco drain? I wasn't planning to have a fall across the patio only towards the drain. Can someone give some advice on how this should be done? I guess I could put a small fall on the drain itself and not the patio??

 

Many thanks,

 

Ed

 

[Mr Punter]

You could put it in level but I would prefer a very slight fall.  Even 10 to 20mm over the length of drain would be fine.

[machtucker]

Hi!

 

Thanks for your post. So would you also put the same fall on across the patio too? I guess I'll have to otherwise it'll look a little weird?

[saveasteading]

The patio needs a fall or it gets puddles and the water may not run to your drain.  

The drain should fall too, although it will work without but need cleaning out more often.

 

Is there a reason that the falls are causing issues?

[machtucker]

No, not at all it's just I've started the project as a complete novice so learning as I go I guess. I had planned a patio fall towards the drain (1:80) but not along the length of the drain as I thought the rain would tend to run off the side of the patio. To stop this I guess I could install another channel drain at the side like in the attached image? What do you think?

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Ed

[saveasteading]

If you draw a line from bottom left to top right, then that will be where the peak is, and water goes the 2 ways.

But you could omit the left hand drain and slope it all to the bottom one. If you raise the left side a tad it will all run to the drain. i.e.  as your original but raised at the left.

Where is the water to go next? It is supposed to go to soakway, not into the drains, to reduce flood risk. 

You could use a french drain (gravel)  istead of the aco, or take it to a soakaway or pond.

 

 

[machtucker]

Thanks for the info.

 

Having thought about it I actually quite like the idea of having two drains with a fall on the horizontal and vertical. I think that will better catch the water. The water goes into a swale at the front of the house, which is basically a ditch.