Storm Drain

[nickyb]

Hi, I did post a question about this a while back but I’m after some more info on it...

At the bottom of my garden i am told there is a block / broken storm drain (we have only been there 3 months so a neighbour told me about the issue) whenever it rains all of the water from the neighbours houses and street and up in my garden as a big pond like puddle!

Luckily it’s at a much lower level to the houses (with no houses behind) so it does not affect anyone other than me and makes the garden unusable.

When we moved in the garden had not been used for years, last weekend i cleared all the brambles etc and i now have a flat (ish) garden ready to start digging!

The problem i have is the access to the garden, the only option is me a friend and 2 shovels! I’m going to have a dig this weekend to see what i can find, i think i have the right area as the earth here was very wet soppy mud, can anyone tell me roughly how deep these drains / pipes are usually laid?

Am i ok to dig this up and try to re-connect pipes etc.... if worse comes to worse would i be able to dig a large hole whole corner of the garden and lay decking over this as a natural soak away.
I only ask this as i don’t have the money to pay someone to fix the problem so i need to find some ways of sorting it myself.

Thanks everyone

 

[wotan]

Are there any inspection hatches along the length of the damaged pipeline?
If so perhaps you could lift the cover to determine anticipated depth.
If you find and break into, this storm drain, depending how far it's backed up, then you might be inundated with a big flood, the blockage might not be on your property, might be a fair distance away.
I don't envy your problem.

Wotan

 

[nickyb]

I have not seen any covers etc... i am told the previous owner tried building somthing in the garden before and may have collapsed the pipe!

 

[wotan]

I have not seen any covers etc... i am told the previous owner tried building somthing in the garden before and may have collapsed the pipe!

That being the case, then I don't suspect it will be very deep, an exploratory trench across the line of the drain, might uncover what you are looking for.

If the damage is found, you might be able to dig the blockage out and effect a repair using a similar section of pipe, big job don't envy you!

Wotan

 

[nickyb]

thanks Woton, i must say i am not looking forward to this but i'll be glad when i find out whats going wrong down there.
I also expect i'll be digging for a while as i am only now finding old broken walls and an old path that would have been the correct level of the garden going back 50 or 60 years, looks like theres been quite a bit of mud coming through in to the garden as the area of concern seems to be a good 3 foot higher than the rest of the garden!

 

[Mickymoody]

Is this not an issue for the local water board to sort? Pipes to the property might be under the control of the local water authority?

 

[wotan]

Is this not an issue for the local water board to sort? Pipes to the property might be under the control of the local water authority?

I was under the impression that the water board were only responsible up to the boundary of the property, anything on your side then it's down to the occupier.

Wotan

 

[digdilem]

There are mini-mini diggers around that can fit through a standard house doorframe. If manually digging is not sounding so fun, might be worth sourcing a hire for one of those.

 

[RedHerring2]

Is this not an issue for the local water board to sort? Pipes to the property might be under the control of the local water authority?

I was under the impression that the water board were only responsible up to the boundary of the property, anything on your side then it's down to the occupier.

Wotan

An excellent explanation of responsibility:
http://www.pavingexpert.com/drainage.htm
Basically, those built before 1937, drains serving only your property are your responsibilty, when they serve more than one property they are the responsibilty of the LA, Local Water Authority or similar.
Those built after 1937, seving only your property are the same, i.e. still your responsibility. If they serve more than one property they are either the responsibility of all the properties (prvate sewers) or, if mapped and adopted, the responsibilty of the LA, Local Water Authority or similar.

 

[nickyb]

Thanks everyone, unfortunately due to the location / access and drop from the rear of the house to the garden, a digger of any size just would not be possible.

On another note: if I ring the local authority / water board for advice, I would be afraid that they may insist I fix the problem, I obviously could not afford to do that hence having a weekend with shovels.
Am I best saying nothing just incase I make them aware of this and it causes further problems for myself.

Many Thanks
N.Ball

 

[RedHerring2]

If it's a shared drain, i.e. water from other properties, it's not your sole responsibility. It's a responsibility shared by all the properties that discharge into it. Unless, as previous post, it was constructed prior to 1937 or it's been mapped and adopted by the LA, Water Authority or similar. In which case it's their responsibility.

 

[nickyb]

well i thought i would have a go myself, i did manage to find a blue plastic corrugated pipe. see photo:

I was however a little supprised by this, the house is 60 years old so i was not expecting a platic pipe, i also thought it would be straight along the bottom of the garden.

As you can see i have quite a bit more digging to do to follow the pipe, but i have noticed 1 hole in the pipe (will there be more of these meaning this is a soakaway pipe? or do you think this hole would be the problem)

on the bottom of the photo this pipe is arround 3 foot deep but on the top of the photo its only arround 1 foot deep

Untitled

• nickyb
• 29 Mar 2011
• 1

Untitled

• nickyb
• 29 Mar 2011
• 1

 

[wotan]

from the first picture it looks like holes alternating with slits, this is definitely a land drainage pipe, and being made of plastic can't be all that old.

Wotan

 

[nickyb]

Its only the one hole i can see so far, the rest is earth on the pipe that looks like holes.
I will have a go at following this a bit further up the pipe on the weekend (if the rain stops that is)

 

[RedHerring2]

This could be anything from a piece of old pipe buried in the ground to an attempt at a soakaway for your or even other houses.

Only by further investigation will you discover what it was supposed to be.

If it was some amateur attempt at a soakaway, it wasn't worth the effort.

A little more information about the complete picture might help;
Which way to the house?
How many other houses and what configuration?
What happens to rainwater from the roof/roofs?
You say there are no other houses behind yours. What is the lay of the land?
You say in your first post that water from the street and other houses ends up at the bottom of your garden. What makes you think that? If it's true it's not your sole responsibility.
You say the one end is only about 12" deep. How far from the house is that?