Ascertain whether or not your soakaway site is in an area designated by the Environment Agency as a Groundwater Source Protection Zone. If it is, then it means that the groundwater underneath your soakaway is used for drinking water and you will not be allowed to pollute it with sewage effluent from a soakaway. Contact us and we will be able to determine this on the phone.
Perform a Trial Site Assesment Hole (TSAH) This is a hole a minimum 2.1 metres deep. If you hit groundwater, signs that the groundwater reaches into this level in the winter ('mottling' on the soil in a band which disappears as you go down) or rock, then a soakaway is not permitted at all.
Percolation Tests If the water soaks away either too fast or too slowly, then a soakaway is not permitted. In general, clay soils will fail and it is not worth performing the tests.

Sizing of a soakaway - Length of drains

The length of the soakaway drains is determined by the number of bedrooms in the house and the porosity of the soil. The new regulations state that for any house up to and including 3 bedrooms, the minimum size sewage system that can be installed is for 5 persons, with one extra person added for each extra bedroom.

The porosity can only be determined by a percolation test which measures the time it takes for water to drop 1mm. in the percolation test hole. From this time, known as a V value, the length of drain required can be calculated.

Discharging sewage effluent to ground

Soakaways for septic tanks and sewage treatment plants

The Environment Agency have corfirmed to us that DEEP BOREHOLE soakaway solutions and RAINWATER SOAKAWAY CRATES AND TUNNELS etc. are not allowed for foul water drainfields as they do not comply with either Section H2 of the Building Regs. or BS6297 2007 +A1 2008. BEWARE of adverts on the internet.

Minimum soakaway distances

Soakaways are required to be a minimum of:

10m from a watercourse or ditch.
50m from water abstraction points.
15m from any building, and sufficiently distant from any other soakaway, including roof water.
2 metres from a boundary.

Other Regulations

The soakaway or drainfield area should be downslope of groundwater sources.
No water supply pipes or underground services should be within the soakaway area.
No access roads, driveways or paved areas should be within the soakaway area. This includes fields with tractor and agricultural vehiclular traffic.
The water table or bedrock must not, at any time, be within 1.2 metres of the bottom of the soakaway trench.
No rainwater must be allowed to enter the system - consider a rainwater harvesting system instead.

Construction of Soakaways and Drainfields

Use SOLID perforated foul drainage pipe, with the slots/holes at the bottom, laid in trenches of a uniform gradient not steeper than 1:200. Perforated 'Flexicoil' type pipe is NOT allowed nor are soakaway crates or tunnel systems. These are allowed for SURFACE ROOF WATER ONLY.
Pipes should be laid at a minimum depth of 200mm and a maximum depth of 700mm. to enable aerobic contact between the effluent and the soil particles.
The Maximum length of a single trench is 30 metres.
Pipes should be laid on 300mm of clean shingle, gravel or broken grade 1 stone ( 20mm – 50mm ).
Soakaway trenches should be filled to a level of 50mm above the pipe and covered with a layer of geotextile membrane to prevent silt entry.
The remainder of the soakaway trench can be filled with topsoil.
Drainage trenches should be between 300mm and 900mm wide with areas of undisturbed ground of minimum 1m wide between parallel trenches.
An inspection chamber should be installed between the septic tank and the drainfield.
The soakaway layout should be set out as a continuous loop fed from the inspection chamber, NOT a straight pipe run with an 'end'.
The soakaway pipes should be fed by a distribution chamber.
The area of the soakaway is calculated after carrying out a minimum of three percolation tests in the proposed drainfield area, over three consecutive days and applying a formula as detailed on the Percolation Test page.

Design of drainfields - FLAT SITE

Soakaway Drainage Trench Specifications

SLOPING SITE

Soakaway on a hill

A foul water soakaway or drainfield is NOT a ‘Pit filled with stones’ or 'Crates' etc. These types of sewage effluent soakaways are built by 'Cowboys' who don't know the regulations. They are ONLY allowed for surface roof water, NOT sewage effluent.

The reason for this is that it does not rain every day. Soakaway pits fill up when it rains and drain when it is not raining, but sewage effluent discharges EVERY day, with no dry days to allow the pit to drain. The pit becomes full and the sewage either 'backs-up' the pipes or bursts through the surface of the ground.

It is not a serious matter if rainwater bubbles to the surface of the ‘pit’ during extreme weather, but sewage effluent surface contamination is an entirely different scenario. Please visit Sewage Problems if you have soakaway issues with your current system.

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Discharging sewage effluent

Discharging sewage effluent to ground

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