Thread: soak well installation

Davo,
i would never have thought to do it that way, but anything to do a bit less digging has to be good.

Paul

From information gathered by speaking to people who live in bushfire prone areas in NSW it is now law that when building new houses that they must have an underground storage pit of at least 20000 litres.No rainwater can be discharged into gutters as well. apart from this they must have stainless steel insect screening on windows there must be a cleared area of at least sixty metres around the house etc etc
Could this be the way of the future ?
What a good idea, you would not be reliant on draining dams, as at present ,when you want to water your garden,wash your car,etc

Originally posted by PaulS
Davo,
i would never have thought to do it that way, but anything to do a bit less digging has to be good.

Paul

Hi

Keep in mind though, that it is a little awkward digging inside the soakwell. Your movements are somewhat restricted when you are about halfway down.

Regards

Peter

Peter,
Having restricted movement might be a good thing, it might be a good arguement to get my wife to dig the hole..

Paul

Paul

Let me know if you have any success - I have tried many times but SWMBO just won't be in it!

Geoff

yes does get a little restricted in the hole, equip the missus with a post hole shovel that’s the tool for the job I’ve found.

Cheers


Dave

I came across this page with an extremely handy calculator applet for downpipes thanks to Ken Sutherland of Construction Hydraulic.

http://www.conhyd.com/DPcalc.html

Would anyone know where to download the AS 3500.3.2 "Stormwater Drainage - Acceptable Solutions" for free?

(So far only found https://www.standards.com.au/catalog...=stds000020843 which charges for the PDF download).

Paul,

While your in the digging mode it always pays, especially when you buy an established house, to dig up one or two of the soakwells that are near trees or bushes. About the only thing that can go wrong with them is they get choked with roots. All you do is dig up the lid and lift it. Use a steel rod to locate. Watch the gas, water, phone lines.

BTW when I use plastic I dig the hole with about a 50 mm gap around the outside and backfill this (gap) with bluemetal or clean gravel. Tends to stop the roots actually choking the soakwell itself, as well as the infilling discussed. Be accurate with your hole or the blue metal will cost more than the soakwell

BTW2 Paul DIG NOW after the rain, its much easier while the sand is damp. (use this argument with SWMBO)

Oh and for Mick

Here's my front yard - see plenty sand mate, drains good and soakwells are cheap. Also good for mixing up some mud - free yellow sand on site.

My house is lower than the road so no storm drains available unless I go about 110 metres through two other houses, and its a no no. In the photo (you can't see it) but there is a soakwell on the corner of the house.

squizz,
Having put that post a few months ago, do you think I have done anything yet?

No I haven't! You know what they say, i am still in the planning process.

One of these days i will get around to doing it. But i fear that now we are in August, and in a couple of months there will be no more rain, it might be a job that gets rescheduled if you know what i mean. And anyway the timber is coming up, so we must get our priorities right.

Paul

Paul, You can't rush into these things Mate. Well done but you really need to do a bit more planning. Its taken me 3 years to plan the front yard and I've only got stuck into that because if its all dug up I don't have to mow it.

Cheers

Does anyone know what to do when a soakwell is permanently overflowing even when there is only little rain? We have that problem at our rental place and the tenants aren't impressed as there is always(after rain) a little lake in front of the main entry.

That house is in Mindarie WA and it seems the soil is not draining the water away fast enough. Sometimes the little lake stays there for another two days after the rain stoped. I am not an expert but the soil looks like a lime stone sand mixture.

Our tenants are moving out soon and then I'm planing to dig the soakwell up to see if there is anything wrong with it. If not then the problem must be the soil and I would like to know what to do before the next tenants moving in.

There are only a couple roses near by, so I don't think root are the problem.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

jsandso

jsando, if its not roots then it will be one of two things:

1. A blockage in the drain pipe which runs from the bottom of the downpipe to the soakwell, or

2. The soakwell has collaspsed or is full of sand.

I'm afraid its a matter of digging the soakwell up and having a look. Being in Mindarie I assuming its not that old so it could be a plastic soakwell and these will collaspse if any considerable weight is put on them.

Cheers

I agree with Squizzy dig the b**tard up. I've dug a few in the Mindarie area and can attest to the soil being lime stony. This reduces the drainage but doesn’t usually cause such an extreme overflow problem.

It really is worth a look though as it could have caved in, or as in one similar case the naughty builder hadn't actually put one in at all, just a pipe going into the sand. I guess the ground was too hard and it was beer time late on a Friday or something.

If the soak well is as it should be and the pipe isn't blocked you may need to dig another soak well beside it and connect the two.

Cheers

Dave