I have just undertaken a percolation test on some ground to establish its suitability for a soak-a-way system.

I dug my hole and previously filled it, then later filled it with 300mm of water. the water drained at an average of 1.9mm per second. based on SEPA guidelines, anything below 15 seconds per mm drop is fast and may render the ground unsuitable for a Soakaway.

I can understand the problem if the ground drains too slowly, but I cannot for the life of me work out why a fast drainage rate would be bad!!

Does anyone know why ground that drains very quickly might be bad for a soakaway system?

Thanks in advance.

In case it helps I am located in Scotland and have been following the guidelines indicated on a site dedicated to Scottish drainage plans.

How do I clear a partially blocked drain without causing a drainage problem? I heard there is some liquid I can pour down the drain to unblock it. Will this cause any damage to the drain or the environment. Does anyone have any experience of tackling this sort of drainage problem successfully?

I have a drains question and wonder if anyone can help. I need to channel water away from my garden and really need a garden soakaway.

There isn’t a drain near by and i need advice on what sort, how big and where to put in a garden soakaway… Can I route it into the drains at the end of my garden?

I am to construct a soakaway for a new 4 bedroom house that is to handle surface/storm water only, and is to serve an area of 155sq.m.

I have performed a percolation test which has returned a value of 1mm of water draining away every 2 seconds (half mm drop per second!), quite fast.

The thing is, does anyone know how to transfer these values into a suitably sized soakaway?

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I am based in Scotland, and for building regulation purposes have identified the following formula:

(A x 0.0145) – (a x f x 15 x 60) = S

Where:

A is the area to be drained in m2;

a is the internal surface area of the soakaway to 50% effective depth, excluding the base in m2 (this has to be assumed for initial calculation purposes)

f is the soil infiltration rate, in m/s, determined in accordance with… Read to the end…

the soakaway in my garden drys out completely in the summer months. When it does you can see the out line of the soakaway and the grass is dead where the soakaway is. Even when the grass does grow you can still see the outline as the grass is trying to grow.

Any help pls

I have a blocked drain, the manhole cover i need to lift is very heavy, it has a metal handle and i need something to lift this. i am trying to find in uk a manhole hook type lifter with no luck, anyone know where i can get one or any advice please. Are these drains tools found at homebase or do I need to go to a specialist drains / tool shop ( or hire a specialist drainage company).

I am the maintainance supervisor at an apartment complex. We have had a water problem in the basement crawlspaces for some years. The owner has now agreed to fix the problem. My question is can a soakaway (drywell) be built successfully in clay soil? We had a landscape contractor come in and say yes if the soakaway is large enough. But we have also had a general contractor come in and say definitely no. We have had several other contractors come in but all with different ideas.

If you know of any websites that would be great too. Any help with this is appreciated.
We have installed a sump pump in the basement but we are trying to prevent the water from even entering the crawlspace.

I’ve got a cesspit which is probably about 50 years old but over the last 6 months or so the soakaway has stopped working, so i need to replace it with a new one as I have a blocked soakaway. Various people have suggested using perforated pipe / slotted pipe which is fine but how long do i need to make the run of pipe and what do i need to pack around the pipe to create the soakaway?.

How much of a fall do i need to put on the pipe? I do get the cesspit emptied regularly so this is only for the waste water and the land I’ve got drains really well, any advice would be great, cheers. Really need to fix this blocked soakaway soon.