Have my drains been built incorrectly, & what should I do?

[Tony L]

The builder tells me he’s finished putting the drains in for my new build, & I should pay him.

 

My drain plan is shown in picture 1.

 

I went to the site today to inspect his work.  I couldn’t get the first few IC covers off (near the house) because they’re held down with a Philips screw & I didn’t have tools with me.

 

I looked in IC4 (between house & garage). I saw sand & soil in the bottom of the drain; there was water on top of this & it was flowing very slowly.  There are no taps, etc connected.  This must just be water from the ground (storm Daragh over the weekend).  There’s a high water table at the site, so the bottom of IC4 would normally be below this in the winter, even without a recent storm.  In the video you can see water coming in where the risers join.  Also, it’s coming in through one of the redundant inlets (it’s supposed to be capped off).  Water looked like it was coming in from up stream, into the main channel, as well.

 

I removed the cover from the final IC, IC5.  This one is > 1.5m deep (I think – I should have measured).  In here things look even worse.  There’s a build up of at least 20mm of sand & soil across the bottom of the main channel.  There’s about another 20mm of water on top of this & it didn’t look like it was flowing, although it probably is flowing – just too slowly to see.  I could see water coming in at the base, where the concrete floor meets the cylindrical wall.  There’s a video that shows a buble right in the first second.  It was bubbling away, then as soon as I started recording the video clip it stopped – perhaps because of my weight on the concrete base. In this video you can see water flowing quickly, but that’s because I put a hose into the upstream IC4, to see what happened.  There are some pictures here showing a close up of what’s in the bottom.  It looks horrible, as mucky drains always do, but it’s just sand & soil – it isn’t backwash from the sewer.  I put that little, vertical stick in there, to measure the depth of the soil & sand.

 

I think the bottom of this last chamber is probably set too high in the ground & is flat, rather than with the required fall.

 

What should I do? I’m reluctant to give this builder another chance to fix his work.  I think I need to hire a competent person to take charge & do whatever needs to be done.

 

I’ve already told this builder off about his poor quality work. I objected to him leaving IC covers off for several days while he was working near the ICs & allowing debris to fall inside them.  He told me he’d clean them out.  Perhaps he did (although I doubt it).  Perhaps all this sand & soil has come since the storm.  Either way, it looks bad.  Although I know next to nothing about building, I’m of the firm opinion that the drainage system he’s built is no good.  Am I right?

 

Also he told me they’ve been airtight tested.  I’ve no idea how this test is done, but given the amount of leakage we can see, I think, if it was done, it would have showed a leak.

 

How much work do you think might be involved in correcting these problems?  Might we need to pull everything up, including down the side of the house, out & start again?

 

Picture 1

[Tony L]

IC4.  Picture 2

 

 

 

[Tony L]

IC4.  Picture 3 (a video)

 

Ah, I'm not allowed to upload the videos.  They're too big.  Don't waste your time telling me how to do a link, please: I'll feel bad if I'm too busy to follow your instructions.

[Tony L]

IC5.  Picture 4

 

 

[Tony L]

IC5 Picture 5

[Tony L]

IC5 Picture 6

 

Is it OK to have these untidy nodules of mortar at the top (red arrow)?  They could freeze & thaw a load of times then break off & end up in the channel at the bottom

[Tony L]

IC5 Picture 7

 

This shows the top cover of IC5.  I've drawn the red lines on to show where I'm imagining ground level will be once everything's tidied up.  It may lower.  I'm thinking the mortar should be a lot tidier than this.  I've never seen a IC cover poking out of the ground with anything but neat smooth mortar around the sides.  This is poo, isn't it?

[nod]

Seems like your being over critical 

Choose your words when speaking to your builder 

[crooksey]

Quite common for IC and pipes to fill with crud during the build phase, avoidable but common.

 

Usually always cleaned out, they have used concrete risers and caps, so imagine pipes been installed with a laser level.

 

Jetting and vac out of drains isn't as expensive as you would think.

[Mr Punter]

A small amount of water ingress where you have a high water table is standard.  Some of the plastic chambers have rubber seals that can be fitted between the risers, but they can be pain to fit.

 

Regarding heights, it may have been best to have proper drawings based on a topo survey, with heights and inverts marked, but you would probably be up for an extra £1.5k in fees.  Since the IC is between the back of the garage and a hedge I don't think it will matter.  Also, better higher, so it does not become buried in the undergrowth should you need to access it.

 

It may be worth you suspending work and employing a surveyor or site agent to do a fortnightly check in a Clerk of Works type role.

[dpmiller]

Pics 4& 5 is that actually mud, or have you teed him off enough that he's washed out the mixer into it?

[Tony L]

On 09/12/2024 at 09:57, Mr Punter said:

Regarding heights, it may have been best to have proper drawings based on a topo survey, with heights and inverts marked, but you would probably be up for an extra £1.5k in fees.  Since the IC is between the back of the garage and a hedge I don't think it will matter.  Also, better higher, so it does not become buried in the undergrowth should you need to access it.

 

 

Thanks, @Mr Punter. Sorry, I wasn't clear: I'm not too bothered about the top of the big IC being too high.  I'm concerned the channel at the bottom may be too high - ie not enough fall on the run from IC4.  I'm thinking, if the bottom of this big IC (IC5) was at the right height, almost all the water would drain out of it, but there's a lot in there.

 

When I said, , "This is poo...", that was supposed to say, "This is poor...".

Edited December 10 by Tony L

[Tony L]

On 09/12/2024 at 09:59, dpmiller said:

Pics 4& 5 is that actually mud, or have you teed him off enough that he's washed out the mixer into it?

 

I don't know.  Yes, he's probably upset, because I caught him out on overcharging me £7,000. It took me a while to realise, then he denied this at first (going on for over a week), but issued a credit note after I spent hours & hours doing a load of QS maths & setting it out in an email to him.  Perhaps he & the wife had booked the Maldives for the new year, with my £7k & now the trip's had to be cancelled.

 

Thanks, @nod & @crooksey for your input on this too.

[Roundtuit]

Sounds like you need a bit of a re-set with your builder.  Looking at your posts re: drains and brickwork, I'd have to say his work looks a bit $h!t, and you're obviously lacking confidence and trust in him.  Has he under-priced the job maybe, and is trying to claw some money back? Over-committed and trying to save some time?  Bitten off more than he can chew in terms of competence?  You've got a long way to go with your build, so for the sake of your sanity I'd suggest you need to get the relationship back on track or part company (as difficult as that might be either way...)