BladeRunner
Member
- Messages
- 11
Hi all, I have a Victorian terraced house with a patio in the back garden and along the side return, and would like to pick your brains about drainage issues.
Where the patio meets the wall of the rear annexe of the house, there is a broken old concrete channel leading to a circular gully on the corner where the side return wall meets the gable end wall. The rim of the gully is higher than the channel, plus, the concrete channel is cracked and broken, so rainwater is pooling there and then, I presume, draining into the soil along the edge of the house wall. I have become quite paranoid that this might cause subsidence, so as a temporary measure I have put some plastic sheeting along the channel to try to keep rainwater out of it (as you will see in the attached images).
I had a builder over to come and look at it and he suggested either creating another concrete channel to replace it, or installing an ACO drain to run directly alongside both walls of the rear annexe, both of which would drain into the gully on the corner. Along the side return wall, there is a soil pipe about half way along, and there isn't enough of a gap to run the ACO drain between the soil pipe and the wall, so the builder said he could use a pipe to connect ACO drains either side of the soil pipe.
I went out afterwards with a spirit level and from what I can see, the patio in't sloping towards the house/channel, and when I leaned an old door against the gable end wall I noticed that the channel was no longer full of rain, which makes me think that there is not a significant amount of water running from the patio into the channel. Rather, I'm wondering if what I'm seeing is just rainwater that has landed in or around the channel pooling there due to it being surrounded by the wall and the channel edge.
I'm wondering if an ACO drain is therefore overkill for my needs, also, I'm a bit concerned about him digging down to install an ACO drain right up against the walls as I know that Victorian houses are known for having shallow foundations. The last thing I want is to cause structural movement!
I have been looking at other terraced houses in my area and notice that most seem to do OK without an ACO drain along the walls. I know it may not be ideal, but most houses on my street seem to have concrete right up to the walls. I have started wondering if I may be better off just filling in the channel with concrete up to the level of the patio slabs, and then any excess rainwater on the patio will surely just evaporate from the surface, or if there's a lot of it, end up flowing into the gully. After all, I've been here for a year now and haven't noticed any major issues with pools of water.
I have attached some images - as mentioned, on one of the walls I have put some plastic sheeting down to reduce the amount of rainwater going into the channel as I am quite paranoid about it causing subsidence.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated! Money is very tight due to other work I'm having to carry out on the house, so I am trying to avoid any solution that involves digging up the entire patio if possible.
Where the patio meets the wall of the rear annexe of the house, there is a broken old concrete channel leading to a circular gully on the corner where the side return wall meets the gable end wall. The rim of the gully is higher than the channel, plus, the concrete channel is cracked and broken, so rainwater is pooling there and then, I presume, draining into the soil along the edge of the house wall. I have become quite paranoid that this might cause subsidence, so as a temporary measure I have put some plastic sheeting along the channel to try to keep rainwater out of it (as you will see in the attached images).
I had a builder over to come and look at it and he suggested either creating another concrete channel to replace it, or installing an ACO drain to run directly alongside both walls of the rear annexe, both of which would drain into the gully on the corner. Along the side return wall, there is a soil pipe about half way along, and there isn't enough of a gap to run the ACO drain between the soil pipe and the wall, so the builder said he could use a pipe to connect ACO drains either side of the soil pipe.
I went out afterwards with a spirit level and from what I can see, the patio in't sloping towards the house/channel, and when I leaned an old door against the gable end wall I noticed that the channel was no longer full of rain, which makes me think that there is not a significant amount of water running from the patio into the channel. Rather, I'm wondering if what I'm seeing is just rainwater that has landed in or around the channel pooling there due to it being surrounded by the wall and the channel edge.
I'm wondering if an ACO drain is therefore overkill for my needs, also, I'm a bit concerned about him digging down to install an ACO drain right up against the walls as I know that Victorian houses are known for having shallow foundations. The last thing I want is to cause structural movement!
I have been looking at other terraced houses in my area and notice that most seem to do OK without an ACO drain along the walls. I know it may not be ideal, but most houses on my street seem to have concrete right up to the walls. I have started wondering if I may be better off just filling in the channel with concrete up to the level of the patio slabs, and then any excess rainwater on the patio will surely just evaporate from the surface, or if there's a lot of it, end up flowing into the gully. After all, I've been here for a year now and haven't noticed any major issues with pools of water.
I have attached some images - as mentioned, on one of the walls I have put some plastic sheeting down to reduce the amount of rainwater going into the channel as I am quite paranoid about it causing subsidence.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated! Money is very tight due to other work I'm having to carry out on the house, so I am trying to avoid any solution that involves digging up the entire patio if possible.