driveway drain problem

[tushingham]

Hello all,

Can someone help with some advice for my neighbour and I? Its an ongoing saga so apologies in advice for the long story but i hope it helps.

We live in detached house with attached garages with attached driveway in front. The driveway has a drain for rain water.

This drain keeps overflowing during wet weather and the water level becomes so high that the driveway floods and water seeps under the garage door. There are also two drains at the front of each house which overflow. These are from the sinks in our downstairs loos. Theres quite an offensive smell outside too but only when it floods/is raining and theres no evidence of sewer type waste.

The drain itself is always nearly full of water since this started happening. It used to sit empty and was a chamber with small partition at the bottom and an exit going off in the direction of the road at the bottom. There is no rubbish to be felt in there and we can rod along to 3-4, before it seems to get stuck. When we put a running hosepipe on down the drain it doesnt flood even on full pelt. When we have the hosepipe and both of our sink taps on it does eventually flood slowly but takes 15-20mins or so.
We've had some professional guys with a camera come along and they can get to 8metres but no further and told me all they could see is the pipes full of water and they couldnt go any further due to the weight of the water rather than because of a blockage.

Our houses are part of 6 houses which are all close together in one local area. We think all of the gutters and driveway drains from all of the houses may drain to the same point. Today the driveway flooded again but there was no rain. We found one of our neighbours had his hosepipe down his driveway drain which was 20-30 metres away and off at more than a right angle away from our driveways. Neither he nor any of the other neighbours gets and flooding or overflowing.

My question is whether anyone knows whats likely to be causing the problem (a pipe blockage or saturated soakaway etc?)? What type of system of drainage is this likely to be? (a soakaway?)
How do we find out what the problem is in the cheapest and quickest way?
How do we fix the likely problem if anyone knows what it is?

Thanks in advance for any help as this is getting frustrating and expensive.

T

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

How old are the properties?

 

[tushingham]

How old are the properties?

they're either late 70's or v early 80's properties.

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

It may be worth getting onto the council or water authority to see if any plans are available of the drainage layout, (or if the builder/developer is still in business they may be able to supply drawings), which would give you an idea of where to look. It is likely all the drainage from paved areas and roofs commons into one sewer, which would drain to either a nearby surface water sewer or a soakaway, although I would imagine it was connected to the nearest available storm sewer at the time of construction, (if practical).

If a soakaway is the culprit, then there's no real option other than to dig it out and create a new one. However the feasability of any soakaway depends on the porosity of the ground, putting a soakaway in clay soil is about as much use as a chocolate teapot..... CCTV survey is usual practice for determining whats going on, but if they cant get the camera along the pipes then this doesnt help much.... I would think though as drainage professionals they should have some idea of where the site drains to by looking at the pipework layout and proximity to mains drainage in the road.

Water will always find its own level, and will collect at the low point, i.e. your driveway, no matter which point of the system it enters.

I am concerned however that the drains from the sinks in the downstairs W.C.'s are overflowing as these should be connected to the foul sewer which should be entirely separate from the surface drainage.

 

[tushingham]

It may be worth getting onto the council or water authority to see if any plans are available of the drainage layout, (or if the builder/developer is still in business they may be able to supply drawings), which would give you an idea of where to look. It is likely all the drainage from paved areas and roofs commons into one sewer, which would drain to either a nearby surface water sewer or a soakaway, although I would imagine it was connected to the nearest available storm sewer at the time of construction, (if practical).

If a soakaway is the culprit, then there's no real option other than to dig it out and create a new one. However the feasability of any soakaway depends on the porosity of the ground, putting a soakaway in clay soil is about as much use as a chocolate teapot..... CCTV survey is usual practice for determining whats going on, but if they cant get the camera along the pipes then this doesnt help much.... I would think though as drainage professionals they should have some idea of where the site drains to by looking at the pipework layout and proximity to mains drainage in the road.

Water will always find its own level, and will collect at the low point, i.e. your driveway, no matter which point of the system it enters.

I am concerned however that the drains from the sinks in the downstairs W.C.'s are overflowing as these should be connected to the foul sewer which should be entirely separate from the surface drainage.

Thanks for your swift response Hugh. I actually managed to get a council guy to come look at it for me and he didnt think it was connected to any surface water or storm sewer. He looked out on the road where there is a drain just near to the start of my drive by the flat curb. I also had the water company check their drains but they found no probs. The council guy initially thought it was a soakaway but i wasnt too convinved and I dont think he was sure either. He kindly got one of his own contractors to do us a favour and do the CCTV but they ony gave a verbal report without an indication of where the problem might be.
The council guy didnt seem too bothered about the sinks draining there and told me that can be normal. I cant see any other way they could come into it, so they must drain to the same point.

Do you know how i could find out which building company built my house.
Im getting frustrated by this going on and on. Even if we find the problem i wonder if it might be off our properties but we'll be hit with the cost.

Thanks again

T

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

It is possible there's a soakaway there, but usual practice at the time was to connect to the sewer, unless it proved too expensive. (e.g. sewer too far from development to make a connection cost effective against number of units built.) A connection must have been made to the public sewer for foul drainage, common practice was to run the storm sewer parallel to the foul in the same trench.

IIRC you could connect to a public sewer within 100m of the site boundary, regardless of its ability to accept the flow from the development. It was down to the statutory undertaker to upgrade the infrastructure as necessary if the existing pipe was unable to accept the flow. (A great deal of work was done in my area alone to upgrade Victorian drainage to accomodate the flows from new development proposed at the time.)

Property deeds may show the Builder's details as the original vendor, or the council may have records of planning applications and Building control records. (These may show sewer plans, as B.C.O. would have to approve connections to existing sewers.) Whilst the Council guy may not have been bothered about the sink waste entering the surface drainage, it is actually illegal IIRC, and certainly not normal!

I am wondering if there is a problem between your properties and any connection to the public sewer. A soakaway problem i'd have thought would have manifested itself slowly as the soakaway began to fail, although without being on site it is difficult to diagnose what the setup might be.

Costs BTW are jointly liable between all properties using the drain, maybe worth speaking to relevant insurance companies to see if they will entertain a claim. Responsibility for the drains will lie with households concerned though up to the point the pipes join the main.

 

[Betdo]

You will or should find the builders name on your deeds

 

[Newboy]

lets hope after 4 years the problem has been resolved!