Soak away.

Hi All,

I want to put some guttering on the chicken run and plumb in a water butt. The problem I have is where the downpipe would come off would mean that if there is an excess of water that the ground could not cope with it would run into the run. Would a soak away help. I am thinking of digging a hole and filling with rubble stone etc and standing water butt on this with the down pipe running undernearh onto the gravel that will top the soak away.

The problem I see is that the soil is clay like and I am worried it will not soak away quick enough. The down pipe off the shed is onto bare soil and sometimes gets a bit of standing water.

Any advice welcome.

Rusty

 

From what I have read, soak aways need to be in ground that really can soak away; if its clay then its unlikely to work, plus their size is often much larger than you imagine, eg 1 cubic meter !

It sounds like your run is on the lowest point of your land ?

What I have done to prevent winter floods in the garden is sink a large tub into the lowest point and install an automatic pump via a long garden hose to a drain pipe near the house; is that an option for you ?

 

It's a possibility, but I was hoping to put something in so that I could do the job and leave it. Rather than having to mess around with it to empty.

Rusty

 

Rusty, could you please post a photo of the chicken run in its immediate surroundings. I think you could make good use of the opportunity to create something a bit more exciting here..

 

I will do tomorrow. It's a bit murky and damp out there at the moment. I like the sound of something more exciting

Rusty

 

Don`t we all luv.....don`t we all

 

So this is where I plan on putting soak away on the left of the tree to the path and to the cone. There will be a slim line water butt that is plumbed in standing on top withe the down pipe outlet sitting underneath into soak away.
The gutter will wrap around so that the down pipe is on the corner post.

View from other side of coop, picture doesn't show it properly but the whole garden slopes away from house to the bottom end chickens and veg patch are.


View across front of run.


Rusty

 

Tree roots? They have a habit of the biggest ones on the tree running through the middle of just where you want to dig.

If the low point of the roof is at the front, can't you run a sloping downpipe to the rear and locate the soakaway adjacent the fence and partially under that slabbed path?

 

Evening! Ah, as Scrungee says - shame about the tree. Which way does the roof fall? All that ''something more exciting'' has dwindled slightly now, as I was thinking of the overflow maybe filling a natural wildlife pond with a bog garden, and I see you obviously have a small child/children.
Maybe then, to make life a bit easier, you might be able to add further water butts, and connect them with a little sneaky plumbing and have a bigger and better water supply.
A bog garden is still an option of course. ..........

 

If the gardens fall is to the rear of the run, then I would just place your water butt where you want it , but fit a large diameter overflow pipe and lay a pipe down towards the rear of the garden so it floods down there rather than into your run.