Soakaway Advice

Hello!

I was wondering if anyone has experience of installing a downpipe with soakaway in a tenement flat? We're a mid-terrace tenement with 8 flats, and our guttering has been blocked by very unhelpful neighbours which is causing water ingress in our flat as we're top floor. In heavy rain the gutter overflows and floods our living room around the bay window.

At the moment we're getting quotes for a downpipe to be installed, but I'm not sure what the protocol is for a soakaway. We have a very small front garden in the block of flats (approx 2 metres by 5 metres), and I've read that the soakaway should be about 5 metres away from the property. The garden only goes 2 metres away, then we have pavement and road.

I'd like the companies to provide us with a specific breakdown of their soakaway plans, so was wondering if anyone know of standard practise and/or solutions when the garden is pretty small.

Thanks very much in advance

 

Hey Glad its Friday...thanks for replying. The gutters have been unblocked and this seems to make it even worse; we had a connecting pipe to the gutter for a bit (which, by the look of the gutter and other flats around us, was there before) and this solved the problem, until the people next door removed it. The gutter around the corner of the bay window seems to take the bulk of the water and it overflows. So a downpipe appears to be the only solution. I'm mainly concerned about the proximity of a soakaway to the foundations of the flat!

 

Because in the driest summer ever, apparently they were getting more water in their gutter. Seemingly our factor should have asked their factor to put the connecting pipe on the gutters. I think realistically, we're responsible for our own gutter and should tamper with next doors, but other flats in the area seem to have the connecting pipe. Not all of them though. To make sure they don't do it again, we'll just have to go for the downpipe option I think.