Oh... and wait till we get the rain around lunch on Tuesday. Have a look at which of your down pipes captures the most water. Not all will have lots of water coming down.
The ones that have lots, have two flotanks (or similar) the ones that have a only a bit, have one tank.
and of course as mentioned if you can run storm water pipe between each one, then you pretty much bullet proof your drainage set up.

by stormwater pipe do you mean AG Pipe?

and where do you get those atlantis flow tanks? i cant see a Perth distributor.

Crap, now I have to go through all my stuff
You can use ag drain too but then you need way more work with the blue metal and bigger trenches. Just 90mm or 100mm storm water pipe. Its cheap.

That's why, it's global synthetics that do the ones I use
The Pro Tank
http://www.globalsynthetics.com.au/prod ... ainage.php

Thanks Fu, i want to do this first time and do it right without blowing budget.

So in summary:

- Atlantis tanks are a good choice.
- One per downpipe is sufficient, although 2 at downpipes where there is heavier flow.
- Do not directly connect downpipe to soakwell.
- connect soakwells together using 90mm or 100mm storm water pipes.
- allow at least 300mm cover above soakwell.

do you recommend blue metal to be used under the soakwells (or around)?

When using the protanks you don't have to.
Just wrap the geotextile around them.
http://www.globalsynthetics.com.au/file ... rotank.pdf
http://www.globalsynthetics.com.au/file ... RIA_13.pdf

The other details are spot on

The crate ones from soakwell solutions are good too. Just weigh up the budget and what you need for the money.

DIY SOAKWELL INSTALL:

viewtopic.php?f=31&t=48722

Fu, any chance of a sticky.

Its currently int the building a new house section, not sure if it should be in the landscaping area.

Fu, what do you mean by this??

(And how long is the standard roll of 90mm ag pipe?)

As I understand, this thread only deals with soakwells for roof rainwater run-off?? What about water that collects behind retaining walls? How is the volume of that water calculated?
We'll have some 8m3 of soil to drain from behind the walls. Could we get away with just some ag pipes to drain that area, or do we still need some absorption pit??

Is this established or are you doing this before turf etc goes down?

Before turf ...

Hi Fu/everyone....

Been reading this entire thread with interest because we need to look at installing some sort of system to capture our rain/stormwater. Thing is, we are in Melbourne so not sure what products are available here but that's another question.

My question is... with regards those plastic cubes (the first ones you recommended from Global Synthetics)... on their website that you provided the link to... it says that they are 'stacked into a matrix of cells to create the desired storage volume'. So I was of the understanding that perhaps you connected all your downpipes to one point (or two - or whatever) and then funnelled those one or two pipes into the one 'matrix of cells'. But it seems that you recommend one separate cell per down pipe?

We currently have our downpipes connected to pvc piping that flows into what might be considered an ancient type of soak pit (a small bricked 'well' type of thing) which we found under our deck. About 3 or 4 downpipes on one side of the house are all connected to one pipe and flow in to one side of this 'pit' and about 2 or 3 downpipes on the other side of the house are connected and flow in to the other side. It all collects in this 'contraption' and then all flows out of that into an old terracotta pipe that leads to nowhere in the middle of our back yard. However with any decent rain, it isn't adequate and our backyard gets sodden as well as under our deck and under our entire house getting overflowed from this small inadequate collection point.

We didn't have anything to do with this system, we just inherited it (yay!). Our backyard is currently half dug up due to trying to figure out what was happening with our drainage and now that we've gotten to the bottom of that, the next thing is to rectify it and make our drainage for more capable of dealing with heavy rain. It is our very next priority and hope to spend tomorrow formulating a plan.

But essentially, I am wondering if the two pipes that collect the water from all the downpipes and lead into this ancient soak pit contraption could still be left 'as is' but instead of going off into a terracotta pipe to nowhere, redirected to a 'matrix' of these cells out in the yard - or under the deck (where the current pit thing is. Or..... do we need to put one cell in at each downpipe point as you seem to suggest in all the other posts?

Thing with that is, most of our downpipes are just into soil/garden - not paving. But one or two are under already under the concrete driveway so difficult to put a cell in there for eg. And I'm not feeling overly confident with the notion of just having the downpipe separate from the grate or whatever. We already have issues with damp around our house, and the last thing I need is for water to rush out of downpipes and flow into soil around the house creating more damp. I really need ALL water collected and 'dealt with' even if we have to put in extra pipes or cells or agi pipe or whatever it is we choose for us.

Anyway,hope my explanation is clear so that you can understand my question. Any thoughts??

HHCIB

Link it all into one. They used to have a great shot on the website where they adapted these drainage cubes into a huge underground water storage tank.
Essentially using a massive liner, a geotextile, a heap of cubes stacked for integral strength and the back filled it became an underground water tank.

Feel free to email them about the details of what they did. They have been a big help to me over the years.

Also PM Bradtez here on the forum or go to the link for his business. He maybe a help also.

I'm no expert but I would check the soil in the pit and see if the top layer needs removed to make water entering it enter the ground better. I would then replace the terracotta with pvc cause terracotta is not fantastic against root attacks between the cemented joins. I would have the pipe sloped so water flow away from the house direction. From there I would install the soakwell of your choice at the end of where the terracotta use to end..

Thanks duke... that all sounds very reasonable. Might keep that as an option - we are still weighing up all of our options.

Thanks Fu... I hope you don't mind, I have PM'd you.

HHCIB

Fu and/or others.
Thank God for sites like these and Googs

I am about to build a small home on a small block in the Dawseville area WA and guess what the good old reliable Council have changed the rules on the siting of Soakwells. They used to have to be 2M from any structure but now it seems its 4M and this I cannot do. So whilst my existing plans show a 1500x1200 and a 1200x1200 for 9 downpipes off a 200m2 roof area at a PS of $4,000 they now advise they need to go to fully blown Engineering Drawings to overcome this horrendous development at a very realistic cost of $900 plus.
What Crap.
So I have been reading these threads to find a solution. Am I correct in assuming that the use of 90mm Agri Pipe of suitable lengths connected by Poly Pipe to say 3 Down Pipes is a satisfactory solution given that my set backs are 1M on the side and 2M to the rear plus the required Open Space???
Or is there a better combination.
Any assistance/advice welcomed as would be capable trades in the Mandurah area.

House Trained

that's like my lot. They basically interconnected all the downpipes' polypipes and brought it to the front (which has the most open space) and put soakwells of your choice and size.

If they are saying a soak well must be 4m from a home then, the ag drain won't be able to be used either. You will need to use 90 or 100mm (use 100mm if you can) between each outlet of the down pipe and then direct all of them to a central drainage point that is more than 4m form the home, such as a small front court yard or similar.

any recommendation of soakwell supplier in perth?