ACO drain around whole house?

[flanagaj]

I understand that for the garage and doors with level threshold, you install some sort of ACO, but what about the areas of the house which are not entrances, but you want at the same level?  Could you for instance run some sort of ACO drainage around the whole house so that you have the exact same level?  I am trying to avoid having a 150mm step down from level threshold areas.

 

For example, I have a path that runs down the back of the house.  It has steps one end, but at the other end is our patio.  If I keep this section 150mm below dpc, I will then have a 150mm step up to the patio and will create a potential pond.

 

 

[Nickfromwales]

Lowest point gets a drian / gulley, and then ACO's drain down into those. Run the ACO's as far / long as you need to. 

[Oz07]

Aco in the potential pond then. Most bco would want to see dpc 150mm higher than external ground id have thought

[flanagaj]

9 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

Lowest point gets a drian / gulley, and then ACO's drain down into those. Run the ACO's as far / long as you need to. 

Are you saying that as long as I have the correct fall on the ACO system I can have the outside levels at dpc or a few mm under it?  

[JohnMo]

9 hours ago, flanagaj said:

I am trying to avoid having a 150mm step down from level threshold areas

Gentle slopes instead of steps. Would expect you are inviting trouble with water ingress and damp issues not following normal practice. Or you do path at what ever level you want, say at dpc level, but on the house side you have a 150mm drop and an area filled with gravel to act as a soak away, to keep water away from dpc.

 

There are plenty of ways not have ground level at dpc level.

[flanagaj]

16 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

Gentle slopes instead of steps. Would expect you are inviting trouble with water ingress and damp issues not following normal practice. Or you do path at what ever level you want, say at dpc level, but on the house side you have a 150mm drop and an area filled with gravel to act as a soak away, to keep water away from dpc.

 

There are plenty of ways not have ground level at dpc level.

The tech architect submitted our drawings to BC as follows.

I do however, want level thresholds on the entrance door, garage door and both patio sliders.  That makes it difficult to not have it at DPC level or very slightly below.

Edited 14 hours ago by flanagaj

[saveasteading]

Ground should be well below dpc. Ramps work., aided by aco  locally, but then the water has to get away to a pond or soakaway.

For the garage you can have a small hump.

[Oz07]

Can you pull your paths away from wall of house by like 2 or 300mm?

[Nickfromwales]

1 hour ago, flanagaj said:

The tech architect submitted our drawings to BC as follows.

I do however, want level thresholds on the entrance door, garage door and both patio sliders.  That makes it difficult to not have it at DPC level or very slightly below.

Nothing wrong with ACO’s etc at the above openings, that’s what they’re for!

 

I’m currently helping a client model the openings for their new MBC PH TF, so I’ve suggested a minimum change of levels vs completely flat and defo sensible to be below DPC; mostly for melting snow and leaf litter etc vs rain.

 

We’re going to allow ~20/25mm for the sliders, which should be ample to prevent ingress and not enough to be an inconvenience to step up / down / over, but for the front door it’ll likely be bang on level for access.

 

For the back door off the utility, this will likely stay as a full ~150mm step. 

 

No attached garage, but if it was then I’d go level and bond down a proper storm / bump strip.

 

The ACO’s can run near flat for quite a distance, you just choose the deeper profiles, or make a French drain under a decorative shallower ACO. Then you just make large holes in the troughs of the drain, every 1000-1500mm or so, to let the water drop down and out and soak away.

 

You can also direct the upper ACO’s at raised sections into lower ones, but in difficult ground that doesn’t promote great percolation, you’d just put more rainwater gulleys in and have the ACO’s connect directly to those.