Do you recognise the first steps in soakaway installing
Before you undertake DIY plumbing and drains soakaway work it is essential to understand the national rules and rules formulated by the local authority.
The local authority will definitely require you to submit complete drawings of the proposed changes or replacement of your existing drain and sewage system to ensure that your work is in conformity with local rules. The requirements are less stringent for a garden soakaway. If you are simply replacing damaged sections of the sewage, in most circumstances they do not need to be informed.
Surface water is basically water from rain and is handled differently from dark waste water in a modern drainage development. An earlier method was to directly discharge this surface water into the sewage drains, but modern homes use a surface water sewer or watercourse or soakaway to drain or absorb rainwater. In a system combining both functions, the rainwater pipes clear out into the dirty water drains through the gully traps that prevent fetid air from sneaking out of the drains. However, modern systems are designed to keep the foul water and the surface water apart. If you have a modern system including a soakaway it is very essential that you make sure that you do not accidentally integrate the foul water to a surface water drainage system. The Building Regulation Department will be able to guide you on any details or procedures you may require for repairs or replacement of your drainage.
Before you begin, you will need to plan the route of the waste pipes. The basic thing which you have to care about is to keep the route as straight and short as you can while designing the route of a waste or soil pipe, this will help to reduce the likelihood of stoppages. Steep pipes should be avoided during the path design. With the help of a surveyor’s site level, you will be able to determine the fall of a drain over a distance to the soakaway. If you do not have one of these available, establish a datum point and use a hose filled with water to establish levels and calculate the fall from the datum this way.
The stability of the existing home is of prime importance it should be not compromised while the drain trench is being installed so check you are not impacting on the existing structure. If placing a sewer alongside the home, you need to make sure any foundations are not damaged.
Do not dig the ditch too long before laying the pipe when installing a new drainage system. Get the pipes laid quickly and, as soon as they have been tested, fill the ditch back in.
Be wary of the depth and soil conditions and if necessary add extra support to the ditch. It is advisable to take proper precautions. If you are not entirely confident of the stability of the trench you should add support. Keep the trench as narrow as you can but of course make sure that there is enough room to work in the ditch including any plan, machinery or tools you require. The base of the trench should be clean and even and free from protruding stones or bricks etc. The base should be good so you may need to import material if the existing soil structuire is not up to the mark.
The pipe present in the ditch should not be supported using bricks or other such materials. In fact they should be never used as support as they can damage the pipe as they will focus pressure into a small area. The bedding should be made compact to fit around the pipe joints. You will need to provide a continuous and uniform support for the complete length of the pipe.
It is very important that the design of the drainage system and the soakaway should be constructed in such a way that all parts of the pipework are accessible to a set of drain rods for future maintenance. So that is why a run of drains should be as straight as possible between two points or inspection chambers. Always make sure that rodding access is allowed in an inspection chamber at any point where the direction of the pipework changes.
DIY plumbing, soakaway and drainage construction is certainly within the bounds of most DIY enthusiasts if you follow the guidelines.