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Soakway Cost and Water Consumption


Ed_MK

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Evening All,

 

Well work is about to commence on Friday ....so at LAST
some soil will be shifted, as the council have "discharged" the necessary conditions.

 

But today i received an email from Building control ...asking quite a few questions....
 

Some of them are straightforward regarding trees (actually scrawny bushes) and distance from foundations 
..which of course i know off by heart !

 

Other questions about Land contamination and stuff ...I have had a soil and site report, so I guess i need to send it over
(although planning already have EVERYTHING) ....strange?

Soakway information ....well i need to check my calculations as the roofer said the area is 195m2 (it has a 50deg slope :(
So I was thinking Polystorm ...but by god ....it will cost an arm and a leg ...Is there any other way ?

 

The thing that REALLY confused me was the "Water Consumption Report" they want ...I went to some of these online jobbies
and its like a maths question from 5th year ! .....and i missed that lesson :(

I mean we have 3 toilets
1 shower
1 bath
so of course 3 sinks

and we also have 2 sinks in the kitchen and util room

 

but there is only the 2 of us ...so its not like we will be draining the hoover dam

 

How does everyone else work this out ?

 

thanks in advance

 

Ed

 

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I assume you're on a rural site and not on a new estate with separate foul and surface water sewers?

 

Regarding the soakaway, have you done a percolation test on your site?  http://www.pavingexpert.com/drain08.html

 

I'd keep the water usage figures fairly general If you look at your water supply company website they should give usage figures for each of the items as having in your wet system.

 

There is a calculator http://sites.wrcplc.co.uk/partgcalculator/Calculator.aspx

Edited by Triassic
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Be careful regarding trees, as even if small, if you intend to keep them you will need use the fully mature height when working out your foundation depths.

 

Planning do not communicate with Building Control.

 

The Water Calculator is a spreadsheet which you can download.  Normally you need to consume less than 125l per day by specifying taps, baths, WCs and showers that are low consumption.  A paper exercise but some tap and shower manufacturers have stuff that mixes air into the flow, so it still feels like a powerful flow but reduces the consumption.  Makes no difference how many WCs, taps etc in the house, just how efficient.

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hmm.. thats a fair point Mr Jurassic sir.

I wouldnt say its rural ....

 

My issue is I am on a road (where I am the only building for on THAT side) for 500 yards each way :(

There a new estate (circa 7 yrs) across the road, but i am told that it is "unadopted" and so I would need to seek
permission to connect to ANYTHING over there.

So we decided to connect ALL our services via our parents property/land ...which we effectively back-onto.

This has the benefit (for them) of getting them OFF the cesspit and onto the mains in the road, but thinking about it there
is also rainwater drains in the road ...

 

The only think that scares me with that is the HORRENDOUS cost of connecting on the main road for Sewage already!
as its 20m from their house across a road ....with all the red tape and stuff attached to that 

Edited by Ed_MK
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thanks Ferdy,

 

i did think that the incline may add to the volume per second ...or something,

but i understand what you are saying.

My roofer tells me the "area" of tile is 195m2

 

But the WHOLE area of my house footprint RECTANGLE is 12.5m x 12.5m
Basically the whole grey square below ..and there is lots of cutouts too

 

 

roof_topdown.JPG

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13 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

Be careful regarding trees, as even if small, if you intend to keep them you will need use the fully mature height when working out your foundation depths.

 

 

Well the trees are on the OTHER side of my fence ...They are Hawthorn bushes (in honesty about 4m high at most  ..they have been there years )  ..scraggy and some are even dead ..choked with Ivy. But they are on council land ...so...But i think they are as big as they are ever going to get ...if they win the fight with the ivy that is !

 

The side of my house runs along this fence for about 12m and the finished masonry is planned to be no closer to the fence that 1.5m. the bushes vary on the other side from about 50cm to 1m away from the fence.

So the foundations will sit at LEAST 2m from the trees

 

How does that sound?

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I worked out that I would need 4m3 of soakaway 

Building control were good and suggested 4 at 1m3 to avoid having to properly design it. 

Split the roof into 4 areas and are today funnily enough digging them. 

They were also happy with clean hardcore in dummpy bags with several slits 

 

Run a T at the end above the bag and fit a cap at ground level so that they can be rodded 

 

 

 

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Just now, dogman said:

I worked out that I would need 4m3 of soakaway 

Building control were good and suggested 4 at 1m3 to avoid having to properly design it. 

Split the roof into 4 areas and are today funnily enough digging them. 

They were also happy with clean hardcore in dummpy bags with several slits 

 

Run a T at the end above the bag and fit a cap at ground level so that they can be rodded 

 

 

 

 

So no crates ?

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9 minutes ago, Triassic said:

Rain falls straight down unless wind driven hence the plan area being used rather than the slope area.

 

ok :)

 

so forget the roof "tile area" of 195m2 ?

 

If i look "top down" on my house "squared " it is 12.5m x 12.5m give or take the odd cm
so 156.25 m2

 

But then if i remove the areas that dont have the building on it ...thats taking off 37.75 m2

 

So the total AREA of the building (and i suppose roof too) is about 118.5 m2

 

Does that make sense ?

 

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10 minutes ago, Ed_MK said:

Well the trees are on the OTHER side of my fence ...They are Hawthorn bushes (in honesty about 4m high at most  ..they have been there years )  ..scraggy and some are even dead ..choked with Ivy. But they are on council land ...so...But i think they are as big as they are ever going to get ...if they win the fight with the ivy that is !

 

The side of my house runs along this fence for about 12m and the finished masonry is planned to be no closer to the fence that 1.5m. the bushes vary on the other side from about 50cm to 1m away from the fence.

So the foundations will sit at LEAST 2m from the trees

 

How does that sound?

 

Does not sound good.

 

Have a look at http://info.labcwarranty.co.uk/foundation-calculator

 

If you are on clay you may have problems.  The calculation assumes the tree will reach 10m.

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9 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

 

Does not sound good.

 

Have a look at http://info.labcwarranty.co.uk/foundation-calculator

 

If you are on clay you may have problems.  The calculation assumes the tree will reach 10m.

 

No, thankfully not.

Its great draining ground

 

its 6-12 inches of loam / dark soil ...grading to a gravelly stony soil below ...pretty much all the way
from what I have dug.

 

Its the same with all the ground around here ...zero clay, zero sand 

but plenty of BIG bloody stones to bend a shovel on

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We are on clay and during the garage build ( whilst fighting planning for the house) the B.I. Asked about a soakaway and I said you mean a swimming pool!, anything dug in our clay will just stay full of water, he shrugged in agreement and nothing more was said. I built a French drain and connected it too a ditch just outside. It was signed off with no further word. I just hope he does the same with the

house?.

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Watch out for hawthorn near to anything to do with the build as it had a really high water consumption, pretty much top of the list for that kind of thing. It may not be a big tree but it's the equivalent of a much larger but less thirsty species.

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Thanks,

 

I have re-jigged the footprint to move it slightly more AWAY from the fence (and hence the bushes)
so 2m on this side of the fence and at LEAST 0.6 over there ....so 2.6 from the bushes.

I cant go any more as it will then be too close to the fence on the other side .

 

By the way ...

does anyone have an EXAMPLE of what they think BCO will expect for

a) Percolation Test

b) Water Consumption Figures 

 

I have tried the energy company ones and the on-line calculators ...
but they either seem too basic ...or far too tricky to fill in 

 

thanks in advance
 

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Hi All,

 

Well i have dug a bloody big hole!

its 2m deep and almost 2m long

and about 50cm wide.

 

But it is as i thought ....the further you go down .,..the sandier and grittier it gets.

I used the hose to fill it half way up ...which took ages ....and then i realised its because 

water just DISAPPEARS on this ground!

 

The groundworker says its some of the best ground he has seen in 10 years ...

but i think the BC will want something a bit more ....well official :)

 

 

i keep seeing the below formula ....and talk of a 30cm hole ...but it goes down so fast, I am not sure the numbers make any sense,

or is it my maths !

 

i mean inflow, outflow ...I am really confused. I take it they are looking for the values at "f" and "O".
Does anybody know what these numbers should look like ? 

 

Please

 

f= 10-3
    
 2Vp

 

O = as50 x f x D

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Well i have left the hole there for them !

fenced it off of course as i nearly fell in it twice LOL

 

What you say makes PERFECT sense ....but it doesn't seem to work that way here 

 

1. They won't send out (or even allocate you) a BCO until your application has been reviewed and validated.

2. To validate it you must complete the application (which includes questions and plans) and pay your fee.
 

3. Then you must ALSO answer any follow-up questions they have BEFORE the deadline BEFORE you get allocated a BCO
and can have a site visit

 

The application process takes about 6 weeks (after that you have to apply and PAY again, as its deemed EXPIRED)

In that time you have to satisfy the BC department that the application is valid

 

FIVE AND A HALF WEEKS AGO I submitted my app, and last week 20/04  I got asked for 6 more bits of information.

My original application expires TODAY

 

(sigh)

 

 

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Are there any new builds near by? If so, could you find out how they approached the problem? 

 

Do tell anyone but but I found a near neighbours online planning documents included the percolation test results,  a quick cut and paste, job done!

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1 hour ago, Ed_MK said:

FIVE AND A HALF WEEKS AGO I submitted my app, and last week 20/04  I got asked for 6 more bits of information.

My original application expires TODAY

 

(sigh)

 

 

Just an educated guess but I’m assuming your build is in Scotland?

 

The system there can be a nightmare and is very different to the one operating in Wales & England.

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Here is a link to the official percolation test method and the calculations you do to get the Vp figure https://www.wte-ltd.co.uk/percolation_test.html

 

You don't need a hole as deep as you have. You dig a big hole to the depth your soakaway will be (usually about 1 metre) and in the bottom of that dig the 300mm cube hole which you fill with water and time how long it takes to go down.

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