Is there any reason that after 6 months a sump hole would stop working? I
have tried putting things down the hole to several feet and its damp down
there. The greenhouse is 6inches above the ground that falls down further on
one side and goes up on the other. Down the hill is the house which has no
problems with drainage (including putting water on the patio). The only
thing that has been done recently is we have had an earth spike added. I
have hovered out the water and the stones/gritting sand is damp.

I did have it done for me but the guys were not helpful so I want to check
its not something silly. In the Summer I used a hose in there with no
problem, this was from a watering can that still hasn't drained.


thanks
amber

Is it a soak away,try rodding with drain rods.

--
Thanks Keith,England,UK.
"Amber Ormerod" wrote in message
...


Is there any reason that after 6 months a sump hole would stop working? I
have tried putting things down the hole to several feet and its damp down
there. The greenhouse is 6inches above the ground that falls down further
on
one side and goes up on the other. Down the hill is the house which has no
problems with drainage (including putting water on the patio). The only
thing that has been done recently is we have had an earth spike added. I
have hovered out the water and the stones/gritting sand is damp.

I did have it done for me but the guys were not helpful so I want to check
its not something silly. In the Summer I used a hose in there with no
problem, this was from a watering can that still hasn't drained.


thanks
amber

Is it a soak away,try rodding with drain rods.


It is. I drove a stike 2 foot into it. Its really hard going with the
mallet.

"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Amber Ormerod" contains these words:


Is it a soak away,try rodding with drain rods.


It is. I drove a stike 2 foot into it. Its really hard going with the
mallet.

Drain rods are for clearing a blocked pipe, so that water can run away
to a sewer or wherever the pipe leads.

A soakaway is a hole in the ground filled with stones or large
gravel, that leads nowhere. It works by collecting water then letting
it slowly percolate out into the surrounding soil. Rodding a soakaway
with drain rods is pointless.

If a soakaway stops working, it usually means that there's more water
than usual running into the soakaway, or that the surrounding soil is
less able to absorb it. Causes could be, months of heavier-than-normal
rainfall saturating the ground, a change in the water table (from nearby
construction works) or a very old soakaway having filled up with fine
silt.

This has been an exceptionally wet winter in many areas.

Janet.

Hi,

this is the first 'use' since last season and it was only a watering can
full. The ground here is very dry. We have hovered out some of the stones
and its almost like mud and stones. Its less than a year old. It got too
dark to try and futher down so going to try again tomorrow but nothing at
all is draining. Its very weird cos it worked fine in November - when it was
last used in any way.

"Amber Ormerod" wrote in message
...

Hi,

this is the first 'use' since last season and it was only a watering can
full. The ground here is very dry. We have hovered out some of the stones
and its almost like mud and stones. Its less than a year old. It got too
dark to try and futher down so going to try again tomorrow but nothing at
all is draining. Its very weird cos it worked fine in November - when it
was
last used in any way.



Well we have pulled out what we can (two foot down) but its still all
squidget and there is more sandy type material than grit in there. Looks
like the top layer is sharp sand as we are only just getting down to the git
after all this distance. Could the base have 'settled' onto it? Just seems
weird and another thing to go wrong this week - thankfully these things only
come in threes?

Amber Ormerod wrote:
"Amber Ormerod" wrote in message
...

Hi,

this is the first 'use' since last season and it was only a
watering
can full. The ground here is very dry. We have hovered out some of
the stones and its almost like mud and stones. Its less than a
year
old. It got too dark to try and futher down so going to try again
tomorrow but nothing at all is draining. Its very weird cos it
worked fine in November - when it was last used in any way.



Well we have pulled out what we can (two foot down) but its still
all
squidget and there is more sandy type material than grit in there.
Looks like the top layer is sharp sand as we are only just getting
down to the git after all this distance. Could the base have
'settled' onto it? Just seems weird and another thing to go wrong
this week - thankfully these things only come in threes?

If I'm reading you correctly, it looks as though the sump is silted
up from the surrounding soil. If that's right, then to make it work
as a soakaway again you'll have to dig it all out and refill with
good lumpy rubble: maybe it needs to be a lot bigger, too, to stop it
happening again.

I wonder if it would help to put a few old plastic sacks on the
rubble before adding the final soil and turf layer. Not enough to
retain water and make the new surface squidgy in wet weather, but
enough to stop it all subsiding into the soakaway.

Maybe a rubble-filled drainage trench all the way round the
greenhouse, too? Would the lie of the land make it possible to forget
all about the sump, and just lead a drain off down the garden, or to
the rainwater drain from the house?

--
Mike.

If I'm reading you correctly, it looks as though the sump is silted
up from the surrounding soil. If that's right, then to make it work
as a soakaway again you'll have to dig it all out and refill with
good lumpy rubble: maybe it needs to be a lot bigger, too, to stop it
happening again.


I think I would go along the same lines, BUT, before putting lumpy rubble
in, I would get one of those perforated drain tubes, used for land drainage,
say a metre long and drop that into the hole the put the rubble into that.
This way the soil is less likely to silt up/clog up the 'workings'

I think you can get them about 300mm diameter

Mike

A good soakaway has a 4 inch soil pipe going into the point were there are
lots of rock/aggregate to soakaway.The soil pipe can also have holes in the
bottom with sharp sand around the soil pipe.Done this way you should never
get problems with water backing up.The soakaway area should also be quite a
big area and deep,I would say around 1m square min.

--
Thanks Keith,England,UK.
"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Amber Ormerod" contains these words:


Is it a soak away,try rodding with drain rods.


It is. I drove a stike 2 foot into it. Its really hard going with the
mallet.

Drain rods are for clearing a blocked pipe, so that water can run away
to a sewer or wherever the pipe leads.

A soakaway is a hole in the ground filled with stones or large
gravel, that leads nowhere. It works by collecting water then letting
it slowly percolate out into the surrounding soil. Rodding a soakaway
with drain rods is pointless.

If a soakaway stops working, it usually means that there's more water
than usual running into the soakaway, or that the surrounding soil is
less able to absorb it. Causes could be, months of heavier-than-normal
rainfall saturating the ground, a change in the water table (from nearby
construction works) or a very old soakaway having filled up with fine
silt.

This has been an exceptionally wet winter in many areas.

Janet.

"keith ;-)" wrote in message
...
A good soakaway has a 4 inch soil pipe going into the point were there
are
lots of rock/aggregate to soakaway.The soil pipe can also have holes in
the
bottom with sharp sand around the soil pipe.Done this way you should never
get problems with water backing up.The soakaway area should also be quite
a
big area and deep,I would say around 1m square min.



I would say this is what we have atm but I am not sure they did 1m square -
probs a couple of foot? Not sure how deep.

i have an idea on how to possibly resolve this without excavating the entire
greenhouse base - i'm not overly keen on this except as a last resort, as it
looks very similar to what you describe, and i'm concerned that this may
become an annual job, and also that exavating under the greenhouse base
could cause instability etc.

the base at the end of the greenhouse where the drain is, is built up with
breezeblock to around 8 inches, so my idea was to drill diagonally from the
outside up into the soil pipe currently used for the drain, using say 4 19mm
holes, and then join these up with a chisel to make a reasonable sized hole,
put a pipe in this hole and channel the water from the original drain
outside of the greenhouse to an external soakaway that we can then monitor
and change as required.

Not as neat a solution, but anyone see any real problems with this approach?

obviously first port of call would be to the guys who did the job, but
after 10 months, i don't think they will want to know....

Amber Ormerod wrote:
"keith ;-)" wrote in message
...
A good soakaway has a 4 inch soil pipe going into the point were
there are lots of rock/aggregate to soakaway.The soil pipe can
also
have holes in the bottom with sharp sand around the soil pipe.Done
this way you should never get problems with water backing up.The
soakaway area should also be quite a big area and deep,I would say
around 1m square min.



I would say this is what we have atm but I am not sure they did 1m
square - probs a couple of foot? Not sure how deep.

i have an idea on how to possibly resolve this without excavating
the
entire greenhouse base - i'm not overly keen on this except as a
last
resort, as it looks very similar to what you describe, and i'm
concerned that this may become an annual job, and also that
exavating
under the greenhouse base could cause instability etc.

the base at the end of the greenhouse where the drain is, is built
up
with breezeblock to around 8 inches, so my idea was to drill
diagonally from the outside up into the soil pipe currently used
for
the drain, using say 4 19mm holes, and then join these up with a
chisel to make a reasonable sized hole, put a pipe in this hole and
channel the water from the original drain outside of the greenhouse
to an external soakaway that we can then monitor and change as
required.

Not as neat a solution, but anyone see any real problems with this
approach?

obviously first port of call would be to the guys who did the job,
but after 10 months, i don't think they will want to know....

Ah, right. A two-foot diameter soakaway isn't a soakaway at all
unless you're on the kind of broken rock that doesn't need it anyhow.
Tell all your friends who did the job.

What actually happens at present? Do you get puddles, or squidgy bits
of ground where you don't want them? Where I'm heading is, does it
actually matter? Most people don't have separate drainage for their
greenhouses, and never notice any inconvenience. A minor patch of wet
ground could be cured simply by laying a deepish gravel path. How
often do you have so much water coming _out_ of the greenhouse?

--
Mike.

"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
Ah, right. A two-foot diameter soakaway isn't a soakaway at all
unless you're on the kind of broken rock that doesn't need it anyhow.
Tell all your friends who did the job.

What actually happens at present? Do you get puddles, or squidgy bits
of ground where you don't want them? Where I'm heading is, does it
actually matter? Most people don't have separate drainage for their
greenhouses, and never notice any inconvenience. A minor patch of wet
ground could be cured simply by laying a deepish gravel path. How
often do you have so much water coming _out_ of the greenhouse?

Hi,

the problem is a little bit more severe than that, as the sump whole isn't
draining at all, the water is just sitting in the pipe.

it doesn't get used very often, only for a bit of watering etc....but as the
sink is underneath the concrete base of the greenhouse, its difficult to
work on - hence the idea for the work round

very low volumes i agree, but still gotta go somewhere - sorry if previous
post was unclear.

cheers

Amber Ormerod wrote:
"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...
Ah, right. A two-foot diameter soakaway isn't a soakaway at all
unless you're on the kind of broken rock that doesn't need it
anyhow.
Tell all your friends who did the job.

What actually happens at present? Do you get puddles, or squidgy
bits
of ground where you don't want them? Where I'm heading is, does it
actually matter? Most people don't have separate drainage for
their
greenhouses, and never notice any inconvenience. A minor patch of
wet
ground could be cured simply by laying a deepish gravel path. How
often do you have so much water coming _out_ of the greenhouse?

Hi,

the problem is a little bit more severe than that, as the sump
whole
isn't draining at all, the water is just sitting in the pipe.

it doesn't get used very often, only for a bit of watering
etc....but
as the sink is underneath the concrete base of the greenhouse, its
difficult to work on - hence the idea for the work round

very low volumes i agree, but still gotta go somewhere - sorry if
previous post was unclear.

cheers

So you get water lying on the floor of the greenhouse? The floor
should have had a gentle slope built in, but that can't be helped
now. I'd consider breaking up the concrete down the middle of the
greenhouse and making it into a self-draining path, forgetting about
the sump altogether. Or a neat duckboard, or a row of those rubber or
plastic grid-type doormats: this would make sterilizing easier.

--
Mike.

"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
...

So you get water lying on the floor of the greenhouse? The floor
should have had a gentle slope built in, but that can't be helped
now. I'd consider breaking up the concrete down the middle of the
greenhouse and making it into a self-draining path, forgetting about
the sump altogether. Or a neat duckboard, or a row of those rubber or
plastic grid-type doormats: this would make sterilizing easier.



The water is in the pipe, but if I were to add enough I supose it would
flood the greenhouse. I am not sure I am up for breaking the base,
especially as most of it is the dept of a breeze block. I might have a go
with the drill or think something else up. Thanks for the ideas....

Janet Baraclough wrote:

www.expertpaver.com is a fount of useful information and tips.

Hmm. I get a "domain name doesn't exist" when I try that. Was it a
thinko for www.pavingexpert.com which is indeed a fount of useful
information and tips?