Building Control

[Ted62]

Hi

 

I hope I can get an answer here.

 

I have a self build in my side garden, unfortunately the builder was a crook and took advantage of my lack of knowledge.

 

The property that I live in has a soak away that runs into my side garden this has been there long since I moved in. The new build has been built 2 metres away from that soak away.

 

I have an issue with ground water disposal, the water company will not let me pump it into the same man hole as the foul water, and the other alternative is to connet to the pipe in the street to solve this issue, but the cost to do this would be £18'000 upwards.

 

Building control are not aware of the presence of a soak away and now I am concerned that this will also be an issue for me if I mention this soak away, idearly I would like to connect to this soak away but am not sure what building control will say if I mention the present soak away. There is not much room for another soak away on the property and the drainage is not to good as the earth is mostly clay.

 

What can I do?

 

Thanks  

 

 

[Mr Punter]

If there is a surface water sewer in the street than that may be the best option.  Did you get 3 quotes for the £18,000?  What is the soil permeability like (clay, chalk, sand etc)?

[Redbeard]

Would you have wanted to change your current (soakaway) arrangement anyway, due to the drainage not being good in your clay soil? Or, if the house had not been built would you not even have thought of changing the status quo? You say:

41 minutes ago, Ted62 said:

I have a self build in my side garden, unfortunately the builder was a crook and took advantage of my lack of knowledge.

 

So you sold the land to the builder? With Planning permission? Which you arranged? If so then the position of the house on the site may have been set by you or your designers, in which case it would have been clear that the minimum 5m distance between soakaway and the new house may not be achieved. (I see @Mr Punter has just posted, so I'll stop now and see if we have said the same thing!) Edit: No we haven't!

Edited Monday at 13:40 by Redbeard

[saveasteading]

If you built a new soakaway the maximum distance from any other buildings, how far would that be?

[ToughButterCup]

1 hour ago, Ted62 said:

...

I have an issue with ground water disposal,

...

 

How much of an issue? 

Faced with a (possibly)  analogous problem (if the issue isn't too 'large') , we built  a water garden. Since building it, all the rainwater off both sides of the roof just disappears. 

Cost £200 ish .... including the digger.

 

Insterested? Search SUDS>  Rain garden. Loads of nice designs. Not much space needed at all.

[saveasteading]

1 minute ago, ToughButterCup said:

Rain garden

Agreed IF it is big enough. A newsworthy downpour's worth plus.

And not near a building

 

 

I don't understand the question though. Are you building or have you sold the site?

Who decided to build so close to the soakaway? Where is the new building  rainwater to go?

The bco will be involved at some stage. 

With more info we can help.

[Ted62]

Ok, the building is already built, its my building. At the time I was not aware of the rules so never took a position on the matter. The building control do not know about the soakaway that already exists. The soakaway is 2 metres from my new build. The water company will not let me combine my foul water with the surface water so I cannot use the man hole for the foul water to send the surface water.

 

Distance to the point where I can connect a surface water pipe to the water companies pipe is quite far and the cost is upwards of £18,000. 

 

Should I mention to building control about the existing soak away, and risked them ordering me to also move this soak away.

 

The ground drainage rate isnt to good because it is clay based.

 

I could just get 5 metre distance for a new soak away from the new build but because of the slow rate of soakaway this may not work, could there be a case to make the soakaway much larger?

 

Thanks so far for your time to answer.

 

   

[Roger440]

This doesnt appear to be clear.

 

This house that you have built, are you saying its still under contruction, and that you need to deal with the rainwater run off from the roof?

 

How much land does it have?

 

I dont think id be telling anyone about the existing soakaway. Thats a whole can of worms you probably dont want to open. However, nothing in your post suggests its not working, so the ground conditions cant be too horrendous.

 

Where did water run off prior to building go?

[kandgmitchell]

Just to get this clear. It's your house which has just been completed by a builder who installed a soakaway 2m from the building. Has Building Control signed the work off as complete or is the final inspection still outstanding? Frankly if the BC inspection regime has gone beyond that point and nothing has been raised then I'd let sleeping dogs lie. If the rainwater backs up then I'd deal with this as a private issue after all the official inspection/certification has been done.

[Jilly]

I’m reading that:

 

1 You haven’t got surface water sorted yet on the new build, so need suggestions

2 The new house has been inadvertently build too close to the old house’s soakaway

 

I had a similar issue and so we did as @ToughButterCup suggests and detailed a new solution using SuDS suggestions (butts, 3 ponds and swale) with the final pond as far away from the house as possible for good measure, all to to slow the water down. BC don’t seem to know much about SUDs but could see what we were doing was reasonable. Crates are another (expensive) option. 
You could divert the water from both houses into there if you don’t want to use the nearby soak away. HR Wallingford have tools for the calculations. 

 

 

Edited Monday at 19:05 by Jilly

[saveasteading]

6 hours ago, Ted62 said:

could there be a case to make the soakaway much larger?

That's the way. Before the houses were built, the land was rained upon and it went away, presumably.  You can spread over the whole garden if you like, using French drains.

 

The 5m rule is there for a reason, to prevent the house being undermined.    Therefore it would be advisable to connect both houses into the new system and leave the old soakaway alone.

 

In case the drains don't cope in extreme conditions, there ca be an overflow into a pond or a crated tank. This will hold the eater until it can get away.

 

Do discuss it with the bco before starting. You might need to prove the efficacy and need some professional help on it, as the bco has to consider what happens to your and oth properties if it doesn't drain.

 

 

[ToughButterCup]

16 hours ago, Ted62 said:

...

I could just get 5 metre distance for a new soak away from the new build 

...

 

An anonymised image from Google Maps ( or Earth) with an indication of scale will help us help you.

[saveasteading]

16 hours ago, Ted62 said:

could just get 5 metre distance

It is guidance not a rule. Spread the drains all over and some relaxation should be OK.