Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Jun 30, 2009 5:18 pm Im after an average price of getting soakwells installed for our new house. The sizes are 1500 x 1500 and 1200 x 1500, price for 2, we were quoted $3425 but SC says he can do it our self cheaper thanks Building the Pegasus New Generation Bletchley Pk, Southern River Land purchased 03/2009 Contract 06/2009 Prestart 09/2009 Land cleared/sand Pad 10-12-09 Fittings done 17-12-09 SLAB!! 18-12-09 Brickies started 27-1-10 Roof Started 2-3-10 Lock Up 13-5-10 Re: cost of soakwells 2Jun 30, 2009 7:33 pm Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a soakwell just a hole in the ground, with drainage gravel! If I'm right.... Then... An excavator would take 1/2 day max - $400 (provided you can get access!) Getting rid of the excess soil - Skip bin - $300 Drainage gravel - 5 m3 max - $300.... Add a bit for some turf to finish it off!!! Electrical Engineer... Don't hold that against me... And keen owner builder... Mainly the building part!! Re: cost of soakwells 3Jun 30, 2009 11:58 pm i think it includes the pipes the go around the house and connect to the gutters? Building the Pegasus New Generation Bletchley Pk, Southern River Land purchased 03/2009 Contract 06/2009 Prestart 09/2009 Land cleared/sand Pad 10-12-09 Fittings done 17-12-09 SLAB!! 18-12-09 Brickies started 27-1-10 Roof Started 2-3-10 Lock Up 13-5-10 Re: cost of soakwells 4Jul 01, 2009 3:07 am We got ours done by an independant person...we had 4 small ones (900mm), installed at 4 corners of our block, it was around $2250. They supplied/delivered everything needed. It was done in no time. I couldn't imagine doing it ourselves, as the ground was rock hard in places, and they needed a drill thingy to dig some of the holes out. chuth77 this is a soakwell.... http://www.soakwells.com.au/index.html you need to connect the rainpipes from your house to them. Re: cost of soakwells 5Jul 01, 2009 12:39 pm If you're like most of coastal WA, then you have sand as far as the eye can see. if you are vaguely fit, you should be able to dig this yourself (think of digging a hole on the beach). I dug 6 or 8 a few years back. Get the kits from Bunnings. Easy as. Re: cost of soakwells 6Jul 01, 2009 1:08 pm 3timesbuilda If you're like most of coastal WA, then you have sand as far as the eye can see. if you are vaguely fit, you should be able to dig this yourself (think of digging a hole on the beach). I dug 6 or 8 a few years back. Get the kits from Bunnings. Easy as. That's what I plan on doing! Not exactly looking forward to it but better than having to pay someone else to do it and it won't be too much work. New beginnings. Re: cost of soakwells 7Jul 02, 2009 1:20 am I recall doing a garden and they had just paid an enormous amount to have the soak wells dug and put in. I had to redo the lot because they were only centimetres deep! They couldn't track down the mob who did it either. It is expensive for what it is, but getting cheap prices won't happen. Check the work straight away. Gravel base, gravel up the outsides and a layer of gravel in the base. They need to be a minimum of 300mm deep but I suggest deeper. The Ag drain is much more efficient than a soak well. They will drain over a much greater area and are easier to install. Don't join the down pipe to the soak well. Have them separate. This will avoid the soak well pressurising in heavy rain and forcing the sand through the pavers. It also prevents the eves from flooding. If the soak well over flows, flooding is a non issue. It will drain away in nothing flat. Too much sand around here for flooding I'd do it yourself and interlink the down pipes using ag drain. Pick it up from Bunnings. easy as. Re: cost of soakwells 8Jul 02, 2009 1:33 am ...or a tank too right Fu, and away from trouble, possibly good for the garden or animals/fish etc I never liked a troublesome inground nonfunctional blocked nonsoakbads particularly lined with clay and 100 sq mtrs of roof attached to a sealed downpipe. :hunnywhatsthatnoise?Ohabouta100ltrsaminute: onc Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: cost of soakwells 9Jul 02, 2009 11:36 am Fu Manchu The Ag drain is much more efficient than a soak well. They will drain over a much greater area and are easier to install. Don't join the down pipe to the soak well. Have them separate. This will avoid the soak well pressurising in heavy rain and forcing the sand through the pavers. It also prevents the eves from flooding. So you'd have ag drain running off all of the downpipes and into soakwells, or just a bunch of ag drain? New beginnings. Re: cost of soakwells 12Jul 11, 2009 10:15 pm No No An ag drain will do more than one soak well. (here in WA) They out perform them If you have clay soil, I'd go and agdrain running to two soak wells joined. I will often say to link ag drain in wa to each other. Why? Because often the distance between down pipes is about the that of the ag drain. it also compensates for the drains that have more flow than others. It is never even I'll post photos of what i mean. Don't link the drain pipe directly to the ag drain or soak well. This will cause flooded eves and damaged paving. (To storm water, that is different ) Re: cost of soakwells 13Jul 11, 2009 11:03 pm Joining direct to drain pipe... not cool (for soak wells) Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Separating the soak well from drain/down pipe... very cool Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ This is mine out the front. It is as above but I have hidden it below pebbles and native violets. The water just disappears into the ground cover Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ This way if the soak well fills, it will just softly over flow onto the surrounding soil and pavers. It will drain away in no time (because we are on a massive sand plain ) and the gutters don't flood into the eves or water pressure doesn't build and force sand out through paving I used soak wells because they were already there when we moved in. I redid them with ag drain leading to the soak wells below the grates you see. Others out the back that were causing trouble I just did agdrain off them and also linked all the soakwells together ina network and not a problem since. From scrtch, I'd just be doing ag drain from 300mm to deeper. When paying money for soakwells and agdrain to be laid, for gods sake, please check that they are 300mm deep. i have done gardens and discovered they just covered over the top with sand, leaving me to redo them all as they should be and at cost to the customer...again due to the job not being done right the first time. I hate digging these Re: cost of soakwells 15Jul 11, 2009 11:44 pm Thanks Fu. That does make it easier to understand. And you have a pretty corner of garden! I will no doubt be asking everyone heaps more questions when mine are ready to go in! What is your job? You said you do heaps of these. Are you a landscape designer? Or is that a secret too? My tac-home-ter: Been in 8 months! Re: cost of soakwells 19Jul 22, 2009 1:32 pm As has been said above when the water hits the ground here in Perth it soaks into our sand plain very quickly. When I dug up the old soak wells around the old house (now demolished and a new one built) that had been in for 50 years they were completely silted up. I have not and will not be installing soak wells to the new house as thet are really not needed for our sandy location. So save yourself some money and don't worry about them. Alternatively, you can sign a contract with pre-defined known amount you pay to the builder for management and warranties and then you just pay the invoices their provide… 2 5237 Hi Marko The best thing to do is to have a look at your contract and see how the variation clause is worded. We use the NSW Fair trading contract and the way that is… 1 5046 |