Drainage

Drainage is an issue that needs to be tackled in many gardens; flooding or ‘boggy-ness’ is something that can render a garden unusable for large parts of the year.
We can provide many types of drainage to suit local conditions in your garden.

  • Soakaway drains, or sumps to deal with water from/at a specific source/area (eg patio)
  • SUDS, sustainable Urban Drainage Schemes where provision is made under an impermeable surface (paving) for water to drain to ground rather than sending through the sewer / storm drain system. This is a far more sustainable way to get rid of run-off water and saves massive water teatment costs.
  • We can construct man holes/inspection chambers, insert linear/channel drains, rodding eyes or additional gullies.

It is essential that all drainage elements, including soakaways are correctly designed – Just throwing a load of old bricks/rubble in a hole will not work and will create more problems in the longer term due to detritus infiltration and settlement!

Legislation

Since October 2009 it has been illegal to build or renovate any paved area in the front of your property (without planning permission) that allows surface water to drain into the surface water drainage system, whether it goes through a gully of your own or drains onto the highway and subsequently into a gully.

This legislation is designed to reduce the impact of heavy rainfall and should, in time, help to alleviate flash flooding.  The principle is that water is drained to the ground below the paving.  This means that the rainwater takes longer to reach watercourses, the intervening earth/rock acts as a buffer, storing a large proportion of the deluge, releasing it more gradually, over time to our streams and rivers etc.

Practically this can be relatively simple to implement and not very expensive.

We are able to advise on the best solution for your particular situation.

Don’t believe any contractor that says not to worry about this, or that the paving/jointing is permeable!  The Local Authority could order the drive/path/terrace to be ripped up and built correctly.