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Soakaway or rainwater harvester


Pete

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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.

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I may be wrong but I looked into this a couple of years ago and ther are ( were) regs on how much you could store etc which can confuse the situation. As building regs are interpreted differently by different inspectors I would speak with yours and see what he would accept. I have a huge tank for collecting rainwater but admit it will get it installed after the build has been signed off so I won't get tied up with regs ?

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We have just had a very comprehensive hydrology assessment done as we have a large lake near our plot, I suggested rainwater harvesting and large tanks. It was completely dismissed,we were told what happens if all the tanks are full and it rains significantly your water will go straight out of the overflow, so we would need the soakaway as well. 

we also looked at the cost of the tanks and a pump and electricity supply and dig a big hole. 

We worked out it was easier to dig a soakaway. 

Ours is actually going to be visible and will be used as a wildlife pond. If you have the room I think this is a brilliant idea. 

We have over 300m of roof. 

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We ended up with a large concrete tubes stacked underground for the soakaway - I tink it was about 5m deep and 1m across. Heavy clay with underground water (we had a well). Cost around £10k (from memory). This was after a hydrology report and drainage calculation which covered both basement and soakaway.

 

Water stores are just that and not a substitute for a soakaway.

 

@Russell griffiths, love the idea of a pond. I would have been interested in a natural pool but unfortunately our sloping land and available space made this idea impractical.

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