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Submit plansHi, I wonder if you can assist please. We are building our first four bed detached timber frame house, which is part of a development of four new builds in total. We are project managing our own house and a builder is developing the other three plots.
The builder has proposed to connect all four plots to one sewage pipe going along the front of the developments, connecting to a new manhole chamber on the front of our drive/property, which would then go in a straight line out to the sewage chamber located in the road.
My question is, as we also need to install a soakaway at the front of our house, are there issues building a soakway close to sewage connection? How far from our property should the new chamber for the sewage connection for the four properties be?
We are not sure of our finished ground levels yet either and am worried about the depth the new chamber needs to be and what impact this may have on our future development potential at the front of the house or any sewage issues with the other three plots?
Thank you!
Taking up the offer of connecting all 4 houses into the same run is a sensible one as it will be the most cost-effective solution. You need to ensure a fall of between 1:40 and 1:80 which your developer should be able to achieve even if you don’t know the exact finished levels of your house yet. He will dig and install the chamber with the correct invert (depth) to suit all four properties.The sewage system will be sealed and pipes buried in trenches lined with pea gravel so will have no effect on any soakaways although clearly, they can’t be in the same place.
The variable in all this is the soakaways which are used to dispose of surface water and here there are some rules to follow. Soakaways are usually simple pits (sometimes lined with concrete rings) filled with hardcore and covered over, usually by your lawn. These act as a repository for water from your roof, patios or driveway and rely on having suitably porous surrounding material to allow rainwater to disperse. Because of this, the surrounding soil can become saturated so it is good practice to locate soakaways at least 5m from your foundations and 2,5m from any boundaries.
I looked at the guidance from the Buildings Research Establishment (BRE) regarding soakaways and there is no specific guidance on the location of soakaways with regard to drainage systems so common sense should be used. Use your local Building Control Officer to check that what is being proposed by the developer is acceptable and mark the proposed location of your soakaway before starting work as they are the ones who will sign everything off. If Building Control are happy, you should be, too.
– Mike Hardwick, Build It expert