Anyone know anything about soakaways?

[vbus]

Having new extension built. Building control have advised that rainwater from new roof cannot go into drains. It can either go in exsiting soakaway or need to build new soakaway. Builder estimates this will cost £1400 which may be a fair price but seems like a lot of money to me. He said not much cheaper to use existing soakaway as still need to dig up all the pipes etc.

Before we commit wondered if anyone had any experience of this costwise and from perspective of better to build new one or not?

TIA

I'm afraid that it seems quite reasonable to me - we've had to spend quite alot of money on ours over the years as well.

Wow that seems an awful lot of money for essentially a hole in the ground..

We dug our own, but they're relatively small. Is that not an option?

I'd say existing soakaway probably cheapest option, but you need to check adequacy (based on total roof area). Also a new one has to be 5m from any building.

whereas three years ago we were told we could NOT use the existing soakaways and HAD to go into the drains

I think my dh dug a whole in one of the flowerbeds and built a soakaway for our extension.

Alemci - I think this is essentially what our builders will do and charge us for the privilege

TalkinPeace2 - Yes it's strange that the rule even varies from Council to council

Thanks all, will do a bit more research with surveyor before deciding what to do

Some authorities will let you go into foul drain if you can't resolve it another way (we do).

We were told that we had to have a soak away when we did our extension. So the builders dug a huge hole in the garden, which then filled with water and refused to drain - we have clay soil. So we got building control out who agreed that the soak away was pointless and let us use the existing drains.

From what I remember, the soak away was a metal box filled with stones and had lots of little holes in the metal, so the water would go in then gradually trickle out.

vbus is there anyone who can dig the soakaway for free. don't want to make assumptions and say OH. would save you alot of money.

that might be a good option but DH couldn't do it right now, but maybe we could find someone else to help for a lot less money.

Lived in one ground floor flat with a soakaway in the middle of the courtyard outside the front door - It was essentially a hole in the ground about a foot square (30cm x 30cms) and about 3 feet deep (90 cm). It was lined with a clay/pottery pipe - same appearance as a chimney pot and had a metal grille over the top to stop people getting their feet caught. At the bottom (I put my hand down - it curved gently into clay.
It coped fine with the roof/gutter rainfall from a very large two storey building and lots of rainfall. Think it filled up to the top a few times then gradually 'soaked away'.
Have just dug a soakaway for the gutter from a small bungalow. The owner had buried the gutter pipe straight into the lawn and the weight of the water backing up had yanked the gutter pipe off the wall. So far the hole is only about a foot deep and about a foot square. Haven't put the gravel in yet but it seems to be coping fine with rainfall over the last month or so.
I wouldn't pay someone that much to dig one, but if you've got builders and the council, and building regs inspectors involved ... and it's all official and so on... still seems really expensive.

Even if it has to be 5metres from the extension (as someone else says) allowing for a trench to be dug, 5 metres or so of drain piping and then a deeper hole at the end... what's that? Couple of hundred pounds worth of materials (absolute max), day's work with a digger (maybe hire cost) and spade for one person (maybe £200 for an expensive labourer). Perhaps they'll line the trench with concrete but the water still goes into the earth at the end.