I am a cheesehead from NE Wi USA. When I built my house I did something similar. But I used drain tile. Using a trencher I dug a 50 foot trench out from each downspout. Then placed 50 foot of 6 inch drain tile in it. Drain tile is black plastic with slots cut in it for the water to drain away. At the end of that using a posthole shovel dug a 12 inch wide 5 foot deep hole which I then placed a 4 foot piece of 10 inch drain tile vertically then ran the 6 inch into it and covered it all up. So I had a lot of water storage, though not as much as the plastic crates as described here. It has worked well for the past 22 years I have lived here. Though I only deal with 35 40 inches of precipitation a year.
A warning to anyone who is thinking of doing this with crates, the hole he dug there is nowhere deep enough he only had about 8 inches of soil on top of the crates and I can unfortunately tell you from experience that's not enough. I paid a fortune about 6years ago to have 40 crates installed by a builder, and with about 12 inches of cover over the crates which are empty in summer, I would not have to show anyone where the soakaway is because it looks like a giant shredded wheat every summer because it dries right out and is solid because any rain drains straight through into the empty crates, the crates are a good idea but you need plenty of coverage or maybe some membrane on top of them that will hold the moisture in the soil .
sorry mate for the bad experience. minimum 20-25 inches of top soil above the crates. Definitely not the way how it was done here. But they will find out in summer. He also said no one will know it is there lol
Have a little bet that you are wrong. The moisture across that area will be uniform because the water from the sides feeds it. I have done loads of soakaways and you won't find them.
@@SkillBuilder I am very skeptical about that if they are done the same. When you put the crates in I thought, no way, will that grass be ok in summer. Especially since the soil is so light.
What I truly appreciate about projects that people are thick skinned enough to post is that the comment section is chock full of very helpful bits of information in addition to what was posted. That’s why I also read “Letters to the Editor’, lot of good stuff in there. Anyway, appreciate you posting your content and keep on keeping on, we all have things to learn and this is one of the best venues for learning.
I'm always extremely jealous when I see videos of guys digging easy soil like this. I've only ever had the pleasure of digging uber sodden dense clay up here in my part of the North East, that can only be manually penetrated with picks & spits & it absolutely loves to stick to the spit when you chuck it so puts your shoulder out. Thats not even mentioning the abundance of bone shattering rocks you seem to hit literally every time you try to break ground 😂
Haha, mines the same in the north east. My wife can't understand why I don't enjoy gardening. I spent a whole day just trying to dig and level a small area to put a 6 flag stones down for an Arbor seat. It's awful, exactly as you describe
Less obvious to many, but I see so many so-called professionals get this wrong: while your barrow is empty, point it in the direction you want it to go when it's full.
Brilliant, we have just moved into a bungalow in the hills of Holmfirth, the conservatory and one side of the house runs into large tubs - now I have a plan. Cheers and well done 👍
Roger; this is exactly what Skill Builder channel should be all about, excellent video thank you Sam & Jan for this educational video very informative bless you both.
Skill Builder is about many things, you don't need to watch stuff you don't like. That is how I approach life. Just look at the numbers on our videos and you will see what people like.
100mm is not plenty, you will get grass discoloration with structures a meter down let alone a few mm, in the summer, water wicks up far more that is obvious, put something like that in the way it wont so unless you're going to water it daily in the summer, you will end up with a yellowed patch at best, or dust at worst.
For grass to establish properly and have healthy roots, it needs to be at least 300mm into the soil. In some cases roots can go down to 1m . I’ve seen many a job where crates have been sunk not far enough into the ground and you will see that the grass grows thicker healthy around the crate and it is shorter and not healthy directly above the crate.
Nice neat job & all that (for rain water only). Personally, I would have added more barrels instead for free water collection & use it in the garden in summer. Each to their own.
@@Infiniti25 yep. Can't complain for a literally unlimited supply at a reasonable-ish cost. Just wanted to make the point that it is definitely not cost free as no doubt some up here would like to imply in their literature. I didn't know how expensive it was in England until my workmate from Teesside informed me how he keeps an eye on his meter and rations his consumption. Never knew that was a thing
I would put all stone under the crate to increase infiltration, and only cover the sides of the hole and the top of the crate with geotextile. Water goes downwards, sometimes carrying a few particles and the geotextile under the crate could slowly become non-permeable not releasing water into the ground. And stone on top of the crate is not necessary, instead a thicker layer of soil is better for the grass.
spot on , the crate system is great but this isnt the right way to do it , I have 6 of these crates put in by a builder with the same 1000 top sole as done here and in 8 years ive never got grass to grow and im going to have to take it all up
As someone who inspects SuDS systems, I'm not sure you have enough cover in all honesty, and to be sure the soakaway works you should work to BRE 365 and test it properly. Also if you use the correct graded aggregates for filling you have quite a bit more than 10% voids for storing water whilst it percolates.
It rained heavily overnight and there was zero water in the hole. How much of a percolation test are you looking for. This is not new technology, it predates SUDS and the BRE.
@@SkillBuilder I know this is old technology, but I just think that it might be helpful for your viewers to explain that there is a correct way to test.
Hello it’s Jan here. Referring to your reply on the issue of percolation, what a load of old bolloks, a percolation test??!! Absolute no need for that in this situation, this is a perfect example of the “box ticker”, pedantic and irrelevant, pretty much sums them up. Bureaucrats, where talent and imagination go to die, 😂. Is this you Roger? You’re also correct when you tell the clown that this technology predates stupid World. On the issue of ground cover, it will make very little impact on it drying out if it’s much deeper, I can tell you this from experience. Apologies but most of the comments are bloody stupid, could they not have said something positive & decent??!! Pathetic, well done to the bloke & his missus they have done a perfect job. 👍
Where the crates are located would make a nice spot for a tea patio. A few pavers or such to extend beyond the perimeter of the crates and voila! (presuming the crates are able to support the weight?)
We always used random rubble in soak aways and perforated pipe, drained just fine and saves on getting rid of rubble as waste. Burying plastic is the “future”.
The capacity is far smaller this way so the excavation needs to be double the size if not more :/ if you can use the spoil elsewhere and have load of hardcore to get rid of its ideal I guess
Great to see you and Jen back in 2024 whatever is said your both hard grafters, so hope you had a great new year and will have plenty of work to keep you busy in 2024.
I've never seen a hole that deep in my life which didn't have large boulders and heavy clay and all sorts of crap that would take days to get through. You are super lucky.
That ground looks AMAZING for both digging and a soak away👊 I'm on heavy clay, and with all the rain lately, my storm drains that fall into a culvert, have been overwhelmed causing groundwater to reach such a leval that its higher than the top of my block and beam floor in my house extension😢 (nice and lively in the comments😉)
A good sharp shovel I agree with you is essential when hand digging and you had to however, I would recommend a Double or treble O style shovel with a Tee type handle. D handles are so dangerous and most professional builders don't use them. The crate system you used is brilliant if the soil type is clay or loam but in the sandy soil where you were digging in I am sure an old bulk bag filled with rubble would be just as good. Like wise if I am putting sewer drainage in a trench, geotextile fabric would go along the trench before putting a layer of pea gravel ( reclaimed type) then set the pipe into the correct fall requirements before back filling with more gravel and wrap the fabric over the top and back fill with the soil. However for a soak away pipe using pea gravel is un-nessasery and add a huge expense to the project cost. As a few people have pointed out your soakaway really should have been a little deeper as in dry conditions the grass above will suffer.
Thank you for your advice, I have come under a lot of criticism about the soil coverage on the top. I calculated that the roof needed 4 crates 1000 litres so as I used 6 crates 1500 litres I could remove the top two to gain that extra coverage! But I want to see if the 100mm of top soil I put in is enough! Time will tell so there will be a follow up to the saga! regards Sam.
@@SJWardBuilders I like to think that I give constructive criticism and it is obvious to me that you are trying to do things to the book which is good but can be costly in places where it's not needed. I am lucky because being a third generation builder I had some very good teachers who would marvel at some of the new materials and new ways of construction. Even I have to keep updating as the registrations also involve. We might not instantly see why but, with a little thought sometimes it becomes obvious. Anyway I hope you don't have to remove the top layer of crates but, as you say time will tell. Regards David of J Doré and Son ( Builder's)
When I dig a hole in my garden it is an adventure in what I'll find. Living in the Welsh valleys everyone seems to have buried their waste rather than take it to landfill, also rocks, lots of rocks!
yup I had the ame thing dne when my extension was built, no where near enough top soil and my grass has never grown. The whole lots got to come up, this ISNT the way to do it
Sam ,digger del here ,I noticed a tracked dumper in the background ,you coulda given me a call ,my machine would have got down your alleyway 😂 also l cut the end of my pipe that is in the soak away at 45 degrees so absolute no blockages ,especially if you do the old fashioned way of filling up with hardcore ,atb
@@SkillBuilderHave only got 50mm to 75mm of top soil over them? There isn't even 100mm of topsoil over them crates once the gravel was put on top as well.
I can imagine the SB team sitting in hot tubs with AI and robots doing everything for them. Or cloning themselves! Giving the wives footrubs, hugging their kids, replying to TH-cam comments...
I dug out an area behind my retaining wall and back filled it with gravel and hardcore and a drainage soaraway pipe beneath this. It works great however it works so well that the whole area struggles to grow grass especially when the wet weather ends. Then it's a dry no grass area. Not sure what to do except dig out and put more soil in.
This is so cool and will do the job. Perfect soil. Did you hit stone soil in the bottom? I like a in ground silt trap clean-out access and gutter pre-filter for debris, easily added later. Clay soil I had to use well sharpened round point shovels. I wish shovels had durable Teflon like coating to keep wet clay from sticking!
I'm considering doing one, but not on a lawn. Our patio has a wet patch, I suspect due to rain water runoff as it is in a basin, surrounded by raised terraces and driveway. Coincidentally I have a crate that my wife brought home with some food before Christmas. There's a drainage system already in place that might be able to serve it as well. We'll have to see whats revealed when digging starts I suppose, although poor health means it might be slow progress. However I still like to challenge myself and do things that I really shouldn't rather than just sit there lol
erf, just checked Building Regs, and soakaways need to be located at least 5m from any buildings or roadways, and at least 2.5m from the curtilage. I was thinking of putting a soakaway at the front of my house, as I'm intending to have the driveway runoff into a drainage channel, and the only drain is to the rear of the property (and very shallow). Might have to have a rethink, as the only place that meets the 5m & 2.5m restrictions would be in the centre of the driveway.... and I'm not enamoured by the idea of putting a soakaway *underneath* a driveway intended for vehicles.
I want to do something like this but our soil is very clay heavy. I'm confused why you don't keep the water butt there (or a few) and just have it so they overflow into the soakaway... that way you have water for essential watering in case of a hosepipe ban.
I only put geotex around the sides and over the top so the bottom drainage is better just on gravel and also if any grit and moss gets down the pipe the geotex blocks at the bottom.
I am just about to do a soakaway in my back garden for my 60m2 flat extension roof. Did you use a silt trap during your installation? Reading that they’re necessary to stop debris build up within the crates but I don’t know which one I’ll need ? Could you please shed abit of light on a silt trap ? Thanks and keep up the great content 👏👍
bit confused he said there was a big downpour and the hole he dug didn't fill up due to good drainage so why the need for a soak away? I think I would have re connected the water barrel and put the overflow into the soak away
When they did something similar at my dad’s house it finally stayed dry in the winter but we had dead grass there in the summer. How do you make that part of the grass hold water during the summer
You won't. Ground water wicks up from deep down to keep roots alive, this will cause all sorts of problems growing grass, that's why you can see buried old fortifications from Ariel photos. The foundations / structures prevent groundwater rising causing discoloration compared to the grass around it
The Only way I seem to be able to do it is to do the soak away (whatever type AorB), then a dpm sheet over the top, so now there’s 1&1/2 ft to go till u hit floor level…. Then 6””concrete or rock base then followed by topsoil The long and the short of it you need a spade deep worth of mud for a grass to be able to hold water and drain
Funnily enough I was there the other day and, due to no rain in August the whole lawn is looking a bit parched and you can clearly see where the soakaway is because it is slightly less parched than the surrounding grass. We will make a short video.
The pea shingle is a free flowing material. If the ground under the pipe sinks the pea shingle flows into the void and supports it. Some people don't use pea shingle but it is essential to stop low spots forming in the pipe run.
Mate you got nowhere enough soil on top of them crates. Your grass is never going to grow properly and you will always see the outline of the soak away. You want at least 300mm of topsoil.
For grass to establish properly and have healthy roots, it needs to be at least 300mm into the soil. In some cases roots can go down to 1m . I’ve seen many a job where crates have been sunk not far enough into the ground and you will see that the grass grows thicker healthy around the crate and it is shorter and not healthy directly above the crate.
Thanks for the video mate it has been the most informative one I’ve found regarding the soakaway I’m doing for my garden cabin. I will be doing the cheaoer option sans crates. What is the better alternative- pea gravel or hardcore and would you fill it to the same height? Also I’ve heard from various builders that you can drill holes in the pipe once it’s past the building to allow some porosity before it reaches the soakaway. Any feedback gratefully received. Thanks 🙏!
boxes look great, but any alternative for soakhole that will be under a farm yard that machinery will be driving over? Old soakhole from washing machine is now blocked and had hardcore in it so its probably blocked up with gunk. Plan is to get mini digger and redig it and the pipe that goes into ditch about 5 feet under. Is there a new/modern day way of doing a new soakhole that won't get blocked over time or is this something that just happens over time. Thanks
I would need 20+ inches of topsoil above that thing to keep grass alive through our 110°f (43.3°C) summer temps. I’m guessing this is in a very moist, and temperate climate?
If you read the installation guide to the crates, it will tell you! Its normally around 300 to 400 mm on top of the gravel layer in landscaped areas. You can work out how big it needs to be to cope with the amount of water, instead of guessing! also a slit trap is a good idea, it will stop the crates clogging up!
Our garden lawn is really sodden and squelchy throughout winter, because of poor drainage (clay soil), would this kind of soakaway solve our issue? Would there need to be a certain size/ number of these crates?
no Time Team finds?! Also, it'd be a good idea to lay down a bed of packed gravel before you put down your long pipe. Make sure it's at a 1% grade or more from the house to the field then fill with more gravel.
When he had the level on the pipe he said plenty of grade. So I assumed he was above a 2% grade. So he only did rock every meter or so to support the pipe instead of the entire way.
Could have done with this a month ago when I did my own soakaway, happily it looks like I did it correctly :D I did however bury mine much much deeper, partly due to intending to grow fruit/veg above the area and our water table is a LONG way down.
I have a question about the volume you chose. Younstartd of with a 1m^3 gravel soakaway that would of given you 10% capacity, i.e 100 litres, but then went even bigger at 1.3m^3 with 90% capacity. Why not put only 2 levels of crates? Is there a calculation fornthe volume you need? 1m^3 per 100m^3 of roof for instance? Thanks!
Where's the catchpit or filter to prevent leavs/debris from entering the soaraway and reducing its function over time? For any crates (soakaway/attenuation) you need a method of making sure *only* clean water gets in. SDS have a good system where you have a perforated pipe running through the crates.
If you cut a dpm into strips about 1M wide you cam create a temporary grass protector to run for wheelbarrow it will stop grass from turning into a bog during winter time.
Every single year, in summertime, I can see a big oblong patch of brown in the middle of my lawn. It puzzled me for a few years until one day I dug down to find out what was there. About 8 inches down was a big slab of concrete. Thinking some idiot had buried it, I whacked it with a sledgehammer to break it up. It was then that I discovered that someone had made his own homemade concrete manhole cover, covered it with soil and grassed it over. Anyhow my point is that by not having a decent depth of topsoil there's a good chance that you'll end up with an ugly brown oblong dead patch in the middle of your lawn every year!!
Well that is our summer season of videos right there. Once we have watched the paint dry we can watch the grass die. Also it doesn't die, we have had a brown lawn most summers and it always comes back to lush green in weeks.
I put mine in 40years ago takes 2 down pipes from main roof and one from doulble garage, none of this membrane and crate nonsense just clean stone and still works efficiently 40 years on.
An honest question here - not attacking...What is the purpose of a soak away in ground that already soaks away..? If there's a low water-table, and the ground is free-draining, why would you need to install that and provide somewhere for water to gather and then slowly soak into the ground?
It is possible to leave the pipe on the surface but it has to be 5 meteres away from the building so ybury ou would be stepping over it. So if you bury it and leave it to run into an area of ground you will have a soggy bit of ground, especially if you have all the water from a house roof running into it. A soakaway is like a buffer, it collects water and lets it run away over several hours or even days depending on the percolation.
shame the customer wouldn't let you use their muck truck (next to the garden room), it would get rid of the soil super quick. and it'll bring a bulk bag of pea gravel round the back in 2 loads (saves the legs and the back, win win).... Keep up the good work guys n gals :)
I would've added an extra layer of geofabric between the top layer stone and topsoil on top. In time all that topsoil will crumble inbetween the stone layer
Are these crates a legal requirement? The last soakaway we made was a pit filled with builders rubble and various crap from the site. Covered it up and five years later still works well and is invisible.
My water table is at that same level. So I have to pipe the water to an actual storm drain. Our gutters are already connected to one so it wasn’t hard to connect our French drain to the same. Without that I have no idea what I would have done.
@@ecospider5 The thing is you can’t connect a French drain into the storm,as the French drain is taking the over flow away from a septic tank.. This summer I’m going to put in a treatment plant so as I CAN connect to a water course/ditch
That’s good to know. Where I am we are all connected to a sewer system so my drain is only grabbing rain water and probably fertilizer from my neighbors. I have a mostly chemical free yard.
Hi Roger Hoping you can help, I’m being given the cold shoulder by Severn Trent for a repair job on a surface water drain pipe that is definitely one of their assets but they are trying to deny it is. Without writing an essay to explain the situation, could you possibly tell me if you have ever came across a garden rain water soak away where the very top of the soakaway is over 6ft below the ground in a heavy clay area? Hope you can help Thanks
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I am a cheesehead from NE Wi USA. When I built my house I did something similar. But I used drain tile. Using a trencher I dug a 50 foot trench out from each downspout. Then placed 50 foot of 6 inch drain tile in it. Drain tile is black plastic with slots cut in it for the water to drain away. At the end of that using a posthole shovel dug a 12 inch wide 5 foot deep hole which I then placed a 4 foot piece of 10 inch drain tile vertically then ran the 6 inch into it and covered it all up. So I had a lot of water storage, though not as much as the plastic crates as described here. It has worked well for the past 22 years I have lived here. Though I only deal with 35 40 inches of precipitation a year.
A warning to anyone who is thinking of doing this with crates, the hole he dug there is nowhere deep enough he only had about 8 inches of soil on top of the crates and I can unfortunately tell you from experience that's not enough. I paid a fortune about 6years ago to have 40 crates installed by a builder, and with about 12 inches of cover over the crates which are empty in summer, I would not have to show anyone where the soakaway is because it looks like a giant shredded wheat every summer because it dries right out and is solid because any rain drains straight through into the empty crates, the crates are a good idea but you need plenty of coverage or maybe some membrane on top of them that will hold the moisture in the soil .
sorry mate for the bad experience. minimum 20-25 inches of top soil above the crates. Definitely not the way how it was done here. But they will find out in summer. He also said no one will know it is there lol
came here for that comment - grass will die every summer
Have a little bet that you are wrong. The moisture across that area will be uniform because the water from the sides feeds it. I have done loads of soakaways and you won't find them.
Yeah, like you saw, could you not just put some plastic coal bags on top of it to hold in the moisture somewhat?
@@SkillBuilder I am very skeptical about that if they are done the same. When you put the crates in I thought, no way, will that grass be ok in summer. Especially since the soil is so light.
What I truly appreciate about projects that people are thick skinned enough to post is that the comment section is chock full of very helpful bits of information in addition to what was posted. That’s why I also read “Letters to the Editor’, lot of good stuff in there. Anyway, appreciate you posting your content and keep on keeping on, we all have things to learn and this is one of the best venues for learning.
Well said! It takes guts to put your work up for srutiny
I'm always extremely jealous when I see videos of guys digging easy soil like this. I've only ever had the pleasure of digging uber sodden dense clay up here in my part of the North East, that can only be manually penetrated with picks & spits & it absolutely loves to stick to the spit when you chuck it so puts your shoulder out. Thats not even mentioning the abundance of bone shattering rocks you seem to hit literally every time you try to break ground 😂
My boots are an inch higher reading your description
🤣@@fairgolfer I could always get on the big fairground rides after a days digging
Same here in notts mate it's fkn awful
Haha, mines the same in the north east. My wife can't understand why I don't enjoy gardening. I spent a whole day just trying to dig and level a small area to put a 6 flag stones down for an Arbor seat. It's awful, exactly as you describe
Would this system work in a clay based soil? No idea how deep it is in the back garden 😮
Less obvious to many, but I see so many so-called professionals get this wrong: while your barrow is empty, point it in the direction you want it to go when it's full.
They all seem to be point upward...
Absolutely right. Saves you tipping it over as you turn.
That’s why I always use a doubled ended wheelbarrow!
Lol - I learnt that by trial and error. I kept forgetting until pain taught me the lesson.
This is so obvious, but I just finished moving a huge pile of wood chips doing this wrong.
Brilliant, we have just moved into a bungalow in the hills of Holmfirth, the conservatory and one side of the house runs into large tubs - now I have a plan. Cheers and well done 👍
Roger; this is exactly what Skill Builder channel should be all about, excellent video thank you Sam & Jan for this educational video very informative bless you both.
Skill Builder is about many things, you don't need to watch stuff you don't like. That is how I approach life.
Just look at the numbers on our videos and you will see what people like.
I think you could have done with leaving the top soil a bit deeper over the top! You'll be looking at 1.2m yellow square in the dry weather!
100mm of topsoil is plenty!
@@SJWardBuilders I beg to differ! 100mm is not plenty, that will soon dry out.
100mm is not plenty, you will get grass discoloration with structures a meter down let alone a few mm, in the summer, water wicks up far more that is obvious, put something like that in the way it wont so unless you're going to water it daily in the summer, you will end up with a yellowed patch at best, or dust at worst.
Was thinking the same thing. Plus he put gravel on top so didn't even look like 100mm of topsoil anyway 😂
No where near enough
For grass to establish properly and have healthy roots, it needs to be at least 300mm into the soil. In some cases roots can go down to 1m . I’ve seen many a job where crates have been sunk not far enough into the ground and you will see that the grass grows thicker healthy around the crate and it is shorter and not healthy directly above the crate.
Brilliant! I had never heard about those crates but I will be using them just. The perfect solution to my drainage for my new workshop.
And that's how it's done. It's a bit incorrect though, did not see one brew start to finish haha 👍
Nice neat job & all that (for rain water only). Personally, I would have added more barrels instead for free water collection & use it in the garden in summer. Each to their own.
Free water? Do you have water meters where you live?
Here in Scotland everyone gets unlimited / unmetered
@@isyt1 By "free water" I mean rain water.
@@isyt1it's not free though unfortunately. £335 this year
@@nickmacdxstill cheap though!
I’m still on the pay per month for unlimited but it’s now something close to £80/month
@@Infiniti25 yep. Can't complain for a literally unlimited supply at a reasonable-ish cost. Just wanted to make the point that it is definitely not cost free as no doubt some up here would like to imply in their literature. I didn't know how expensive it was in England until my workmate from Teesside informed me how he keeps an eye on his meter and rations his consumption. Never knew that was a thing
I would put all stone under the crate to increase infiltration, and only cover the sides of the hole and the top of the crate with geotextile. Water goes downwards, sometimes carrying a few particles and the geotextile under the crate could slowly become non-permeable not releasing water into the ground. And stone on top of the crate is not necessary, instead a thicker layer of soil is better for the grass.
spot on , the crate system is great but this isnt the right way to do it , I have 6 of these crates put in by a builder with the same 1000 top sole as done here and in 8 years ive never got grass to grow and im going to have to take it all up
@@Stunl3yor make a raised bed over the top of it. Or pour some gravel and make a feature
As someone who inspects SuDS systems, I'm not sure you have enough cover in all honesty, and to be sure the soakaway works you should work to BRE 365 and test it properly. Also if you use the correct graded aggregates for filling you have quite a bit more than 10% voids for storing water whilst it percolates.
It rained heavily overnight and there was zero water in the hole. How much of a percolation test are you looking for.
This is not new technology, it predates SUDS and the BRE.
@@SkillBuilder I know this is old technology, but I just think that it might be helpful for your viewers to explain that there is a correct way to test.
Hello it’s Jan here. Referring to your reply on the issue of percolation, what a load of old bolloks, a percolation test??!! Absolute no need for that in this situation, this is a perfect example of the “box ticker”, pedantic and irrelevant, pretty much sums them up. Bureaucrats, where talent and imagination go to die, 😂. Is this you Roger? You’re also correct when you tell the clown that this technology predates stupid World. On the issue of ground cover, it will make very little impact on it drying out if it’s much deeper, I can tell you this from experience. Apologies but most of the comments are bloody stupid, could they not have said something positive & decent??!! Pathetic, well done to the bloke & his missus they have done a perfect job. 👍
Yep, I’d start that and still be digging next summer. :)
I'm jealous of that soil. I've got clay about 6 inches down which seems to go on forever. I've got serious drainage issues!
Same.
Same. And yet a 'soakaway' is the only option.
Same, zero soakage, luckily there's a stream nearby🤐
As like some have said got clay so was hoping to see plan B
Me too! What’s plan B?!
Where the crates are located would make a nice spot for a tea patio.
A few pavers or such to extend beyond the perimeter of the crates and voila!
(presuming the crates are able to support the weight?)
We always used random rubble in soak aways and perforated pipe, drained just fine and saves on getting rid of rubble as waste. Burying plastic is the “future”.
Burying plastic is madness. It's crazy how foolish mankind is. Mankind has destroyed the earth with plastic, should've been illegal to ever make it.
The capacity is far smaller this way so the excavation needs to be double the size if not more :/ if you can use the spoil elsewhere and have load of hardcore to get rid of its ideal I guess
Archaeologists will be scratching their heads in the future digging up our junkfilled holes😂
Fantastic video. You make it look so easy.
As a gardener it has made me think of putting in 1000litre tanks for use in dry summer's, thanks for info
Done loads of soak always you were pretty professional 👍
Remember to put it at least 5m away from the building too 👍
6m for building regs
And the neighbours building! 😂
Great to see you and Jen back in 2024 whatever is said your both hard grafters, so hope you had a great new year and will have plenty of work to keep you busy in 2024.
I've never seen a hole that deep in my life which didn't have large boulders and heavy clay and all sorts of crap that would take days to get through. You are super lucky.
That ground looks AMAZING for both digging and a soak away👊 I'm on heavy clay, and with all the rain lately, my storm drains that fall into a culvert, have been overwhelmed causing groundwater to reach such a leval that its higher than the top of my block and beam floor in my house extension😢 (nice and lively in the comments😉)
If its heavy clay with no infiltration, a soakaway will not work.
great video , that`s what we need 1000000`s more soakaways
A good sharp shovel I agree with you is essential when hand digging and you had to however, I would recommend a Double or treble O style shovel with a Tee type handle. D handles are so dangerous and most professional builders don't use them. The crate system you used is brilliant if the soil type is clay or loam but in the sandy soil where you were digging in I am sure an old bulk bag filled with rubble would be just as good. Like wise if I am putting sewer drainage in a trench, geotextile fabric would go along the trench before putting a layer of pea gravel ( reclaimed type) then set the pipe into the correct fall requirements before back filling with more gravel and wrap the fabric over the top and back fill with the soil. However for a soak away pipe using pea gravel is un-nessasery and add a huge expense to the project cost.
As a few people have pointed out your soakaway really should have been a little deeper as in dry conditions the grass above will suffer.
Thank you for your advice, I have come under a lot of criticism about the soil coverage on the top. I calculated that the roof needed 4 crates 1000 litres so as I used 6 crates 1500 litres I could remove the top two to gain that extra coverage! But I want to see if the 100mm of top soil I put in is enough! Time will tell so there will be a follow up to the saga! regards Sam.
@@SJWardBuilders I like to think that I give constructive criticism and it is obvious to me that you are trying to do things to the book which is good but can be costly in places where it's not needed. I am lucky because being a third generation builder I had some very good teachers who would marvel at some of the new materials and new ways of construction. Even I have to keep updating as the registrations also involve. We might not instantly see why but, with a little thought sometimes it becomes obvious.
Anyway I hope you don't have to remove the top layer of crates but, as you say time will tell.
Regards David of J Doré and Son ( Builder's)
When I dig a hole in my garden it is an adventure in what I'll find. Living in the Welsh valleys everyone seems to have buried their waste rather than take it to landfill, also rocks, lots of rocks!
you might find some coal there too
@@SkillBuilder 🤣
Id like to see a few photos in the summer of that lawn. Something tells me you're going to have trouble keeping it alive over that soakaway and trench
yup I had the ame thing dne when my extension was built, no where near enough top soil and my grass has never grown. The whole lots got to come up, this ISNT the way to do it
As a professional 'Hole & Trench-Digger' in the PAST! ... You Can't BEAT a good 'Pic-Axe' to make life So Much Easier ..... 👍🤠
Be careful when hollow time aerating, as the pipes where pretty close to the thatch layeri think 2-3 inches .
Wow Sam that ground was lovely for digging , it’s clay 4 inch down up here 🥵🥵🧱👍🏼
At least you can make bricks from clay. It will save you a fortune at the merchants.
Sam ,digger del here ,I noticed a tracked dumper in the background ,you coulda given me a call ,my machine would have got down your alleyway 😂 also l cut the end of my pipe that is in the soak away at 45 degrees so absolute no blockages ,especially if you do the old fashioned way of filling up with hardcore ,atb
That will be a lovely patch of brown dormant grass during the summer and long dry spells, make sure you water the grass the grass in a heatwave
I have two soakaways in my garden and I defy anyone to tell me where they are. Even in a drought there is no sign of them
@@SkillBuilder with only 6 inches of soil under the grass ??
@@SkillBuilderHave only got 50mm to 75mm of top soil over them? There isn't even 100mm of topsoil over them crates once the gravel was put on top as well.
Great step-by-step video and the additional text information under the video is very informative! Thanks Skill Builder!
Assume its generated by AI by TH-cam?
spoilsport
I can imagine the SB team sitting in hot tubs with AI and robots doing everything for them. Or cloning themselves!
Giving the wives footrubs, hugging their kids, replying to TH-cam comments...
😁😋
I dug out an area behind my retaining wall and back filled it with gravel and hardcore and a drainage soaraway pipe beneath this. It works great however it works so well that the whole area struggles to grow grass especially when the wet weather ends. Then it's a dry no grass area. Not sure what to do except dig out and put more soil in.
Nice job only problem I have is different parts of the uk have diffenrent soil / sub soil make up . Try doing that with hand tools in cornwall
You just need a West Country shovel, the handle is so long you can dig a hole while you sit in the pub
Great video, good to see you back.
This is so cool and will do the job. Perfect soil. Did you hit stone soil in the bottom? I like a in ground silt trap clean-out access and gutter pre-filter for debris, easily added later. Clay soil I had to use well sharpened round point shovels. I wish shovels had durable Teflon like coating to keep wet clay from sticking!
I'm considering doing one, but not on a lawn. Our patio has a wet patch, I suspect due to rain water runoff as it is in a basin, surrounded by raised terraces and driveway. Coincidentally I have a crate that my wife brought home with some food before Christmas. There's a drainage system already in place that might be able to serve it as well. We'll have to see whats revealed when digging starts I suppose, although poor health means it might be slow progress. However I still like to challenge myself and do things that I really shouldn't rather than just sit there lol
This is a top knotch DIY video!! Thanks for Posting!!!😊
erf, just checked Building Regs, and soakaways need to be located at least 5m from any buildings or roadways, and at least 2.5m from the curtilage.
I was thinking of putting a soakaway at the front of my house, as I'm intending to have the driveway runoff into a drainage channel, and the only drain is to the rear of the property (and very shallow).
Might have to have a rethink, as the only place that meets the 5m & 2.5m restrictions would be in the centre of the driveway.... and I'm not enamoured by the idea of putting a soakaway *underneath* a driveway intended for vehicles.
Planning on a follow up video soon to see how it looks in summer?
We haven't had a summer
@@SkillBuilder I'm jealous, Australia had a ripper!
I want to do something like this but our soil is very clay heavy. I'm confused why you don't keep the water butt there (or a few) and just have it so they overflow into the soakaway... that way you have water for essential watering in case of a hosepipe ban.
Great video, more like this please, love the practical ones, learn something every time :)
Love the idea of a soak away or crates. Once installed, do the crates hold up when someone mows or drives over it? How much weight can it withstand?
you get different grades for lawns or drives with car traffic
Try that with the yellow clay up here in Yorkshire 😅😵
I’m think I’ve found a new favourite TH-cam channel. Thanks for these! 🙏🌍🌱
I only put geotex around the sides and over the top so the bottom drainage is better just on gravel and also if any grit and moss gets down the pipe the geotex blocks at the bottom.
I am just about to do a soakaway in my back garden for my 60m2 flat extension roof.
Did you use a silt trap during your installation?
Reading that they’re necessary to stop debris build up within the crates but I don’t know which one I’ll need ?
Could you please shed abit of light on a silt trap ?
Thanks and keep up the great content 👏👍
bit confused he said there was a big downpour and the hole he dug didn't fill up due to good drainage so why the need for a soak away? I think I would have re connected the water barrel and put the overflow into the soak away
When they did something similar at my dad’s house it finally stayed dry in the winter but we had dead grass there in the summer. How do you make that part of the grass hold water during the summer
You won't. Ground water wicks up from deep down to keep roots alive, this will cause all sorts of problems growing grass, that's why you can see buried old fortifications from Ariel photos. The foundations / structures prevent groundwater rising causing discoloration compared to the grass around it
The depth of this soil is so thin, it will likely turn to dust unless watered a lot.
The Only way I seem to be able to do it is to do the soak away (whatever type AorB), then a dpm sheet over the top, so now there’s 1&1/2 ft to go till u hit floor level…. Then 6””concrete or rock base then followed by topsoil
The long and the short of it you need a spade deep worth of mud for a grass to be able to hold water and drain
@SkillBuilder please update with what the grass looks like now that it's had time to grow
Funnily enough I was there the other day and, due to no rain in August the whole lawn is looking a bit parched and you can clearly see where the soakaway is because it is slightly less parched than the surrounding grass.
We will make a short video.
Layperson here. When the membrane (that looks quite flimsy) disintegrates, wont the soil flow into the crates and create a sink hole around it?
Great instructional video!👍
Nice work Sam.
Can’t help thinking Jen done all the digging when the camera wasn’t rolling..
😆🙌🏻
your right I was drinking the tea though!
@@SJWardBuilders 🤣🙌.
If that’s your Mrs on the barrow ? She a keeper you lucky man
Amazing video! Why do you add stone on top of the solid pipe and not just backfill with dirt? Thanks!
The pea shingle is a free flowing material. If the ground under the pipe sinks the pea shingle flows into the void and supports it. Some people don't use pea shingle but it is essential to stop low spots forming in the pipe run.
Mate you got nowhere enough soil on top of them crates. Your grass is never going to grow properly and you will always see the outline of the soak away. You want at least 300mm of topsoil.
100mm of topsoil is plenty and that is what we put back here!
@@SJWardBuilders it isnt
For grass to establish properly and have healthy roots, it needs to be at least 300mm into the soil. In some cases roots can go down to 1m . I’ve seen many a job where crates have been sunk not far enough into the ground and you will see that the grass grows thicker healthy around the crate and it is shorter and not healthy directly above the crate.
Thanks for the video mate it has been the most informative one I’ve found regarding the soakaway I’m doing for my garden cabin. I will be doing the cheaoer option sans crates. What is the better alternative- pea gravel or hardcore and would you fill it to the same height? Also I’ve heard from various builders that you can drill holes in the pipe once it’s past the building to allow some porosity before it reaches the soakaway. Any feedback gratefully received. Thanks 🙏!
boxes look great, but any alternative for soakhole that will be under a farm yard that machinery will be driving over? Old soakhole from washing machine is now blocked and had hardcore in it so its probably blocked up with gunk. Plan is to get mini digger and redig it and the pipe that goes into ditch about 5 feet under. Is there a new/modern day way of doing a new soakhole that won't get blocked over time or is this something that just happens over time. Thanks
I would need 20+ inches of topsoil above that thing to keep grass alive through our 110°f (43.3°C) summer temps. I’m guessing this is in a very moist, and temperate climate?
If you read the installation guide to the crates, it will tell you! Its normally around 300 to 400 mm on top of the gravel layer in landscaped areas.
You can work out how big it needs to be to cope with the amount of water, instead of guessing! also a slit trap is a good idea, it will stop the crates clogging up!
Thanks for all your lovely comments, they all help the video get more recommendations.
Tell your cameramen to point the camera at the work area when explaining things as we have to guess.
Otherwise good job 👍
Soakaway crates simply the best solution.
Our garden lawn is really sodden and squelchy throughout winter, because of poor drainage (clay soil), would this kind of soakaway solve our issue? Would there need to be a certain size/ number of these crates?
In clay it will fill up. You are better off with a wind pump
th-cam.com/video/ADqs3draLxM/w-d-xo.html
no Time Team finds?!
Also, it'd be a good idea to lay down a bed of packed gravel before you put down your long pipe. Make sure it's at a 1% grade or more from the house to the field then fill with more gravel.
When he had the level on the pipe he said plenty of grade. So I assumed he was above a 2% grade. So he only did rock every meter or so to support the pipe instead of the entire way.
Could have done with this a month ago when I did my own soakaway, happily it looks like I did it correctly :D I did however bury mine much much deeper, partly due to intending to grow fruit/veg above the area and our water table is a LONG way down.
I have a question about the volume you chose. Younstartd of with a 1m^3 gravel soakaway that would of given you 10% capacity, i.e 100 litres, but then went even bigger at 1.3m^3 with 90% capacity. Why not put only 2 levels of crates? Is there a calculation fornthe volume you need? 1m^3 per 100m^3 of roof for instance? Thanks!
In gravel like that water flows away fast
Where's the catchpit or filter to prevent leavs/debris from entering the soaraway and reducing its function over time? For any crates (soakaway/attenuation) you need a method of making sure *only* clean water gets in. SDS have a good system where you have a perforated pipe running through the crates.
If you cut a dpm into strips about 1M wide you cam create a temporary grass protector to run for wheelbarrow it will stop grass from turning into a bog during winter time.
Every single year, in summertime, I can see a big oblong patch of brown in the middle of my lawn. It puzzled me for a few years until one day I dug down to find out what was there. About 8 inches down was a big slab of concrete. Thinking some idiot had buried it, I whacked it with a sledgehammer to break it up. It was then that I discovered that someone had made his own homemade concrete manhole cover, covered it with soil and grassed it over. Anyhow my point is that by not having a decent depth of topsoil there's a good chance that you'll end up with an ugly brown oblong dead patch in the middle of your lawn every year!!
What do you do if it's solid clay?
What is the best way to do a soak away if your water table is super high?
very well explained indeed
that grass patch will die every summer - you don’t have enough soil for for it to retain moisture
Well that is our summer season of videos right there. Once we have watched the paint dry we can watch the grass die.
Also it doesn't die, we have had a brown lawn most summers and it always comes back to lush green in weeks.
That chick is hard core. Good on ya lass!!!
I put mine in 40years ago takes 2 down pipes from main roof and one from doulble garage, none of this membrane and crate nonsense just clean stone and still works efficiently 40 years on.
👍 In 40 years time they’ll all be falling through them plastics things lol
40 years from now a lot of things will happen.
silly question, how do you know if you need one? or can it be an afterthought?
Nice job!
How much gravel did you put on top?
No where near deep enough, should be 700mm of soil above crates. He'll have a lovely brown patch in lawn in summer.
An honest question here - not attacking...What is the purpose of a soak away in ground that already soaks away..? If there's a low water-table, and the ground is free-draining, why would you need to install that and provide somewhere for water to gather and then slowly soak into the ground?
It is possible to leave the pipe on the surface but it has to be 5 meteres away from the building so ybury ou would be stepping over it.
So if you bury it and leave it to run into an area of ground you will have a soggy bit of ground, especially if you have all the water from a house roof running into it. A soakaway is like a buffer, it collects water and lets it run away over several hours or even days depending on the percolation.
shame the customer wouldn't let you use their muck truck (next to the garden room), it would get rid of the soil super quick. and it'll bring a bulk bag of pea gravel round the back in 2 loads (saves the legs and the back, win win).... Keep up the good work guys n gals :)
Great job!
I would've added an extra layer of geofabric between the top layer stone and topsoil on top. In time all that topsoil will crumble inbetween the stone layer
👍👍👍.Thanks both
Could you put a french drain to it for a sodden garden?
yes but if the ground is clay the soakaway will fill up.
Are these crates a legal requirement? The last soakaway we made was a pit filled with builders rubble and various crap from the site. Covered it up and five years later still works well and is invisible.
I think the rubble technique is just a more traditional way of doing it but does the same job.
Unfortunately for us in Staffordshire is the water table has been 150mm below the grass level since early November..
My water table is at that same level. So I have to pipe the water to an actual storm drain. Our gutters are already connected to one so it wasn’t hard to connect our French drain to the same.
Without that I have no idea what I would have done.
@@ecospider5
The thing is you can’t connect a French drain into the storm,as the French drain is taking the over flow away from a septic tank..
This summer I’m going to put in a treatment plant so as I CAN connect to a water course/ditch
That’s good to know. Where I am we are all connected to a sewer system so my drain is only grabbing rain water and probably fertilizer from my neighbors. I have a mostly chemical free yard.
Done on residential development, on scale? Put sidewalks over them?
where to buy the crates please can you give url or source of purchase?
Super....😇😇👍🏼
Good job but i would of wanted triple the depth of topsoil over that gravel, time will tell 👍
Can’t see how the grass above the soakaway won’t dry out in the summer given how little topsoil is there
Hey man, I'm thinking of using these for a water feature. I was wondering do you have any suggestions where I could place the water pump ?
Who makes the crates and are they only available where you are? Do these crates have a name? (Writing from the US.)
Hi Roger
Hoping you can help, I’m being given the cold shoulder by Severn Trent for a repair job on a surface water drain pipe that is definitely one of their assets but they are trying to deny it is.
Without writing an essay to explain the situation, could you possibly tell me if you have ever came across a garden rain water soak away where the very top of the soakaway is over 6ft below the ground in a heavy clay area?
Hope you can help
Thanks
Good job 👍