Question 1

Where is driveway water legally allowed to go?

Accepted Answer

Into the ground first, then a watercourse, then a surface-water sewer with the water company's agreement — that is the hierarchy in Part H of the Building Regulations. It must never go into a foul sewer, and it should not be discharged onto the public highway. In a front garden there is a further planning rule on top. The rule people most often break without knowing it is the foul sewer one. Surface water must not be connected into a foul drain. It overloads the system, it can cause backing up elsewhere, and it is exactly the sort of thing that surfaces on a sale or when the water company investigates a problem in the street. Establishing which chamber is which — by lifting the cover and looking — comes before anything is connected. The preferred answer is infiltration: a soakaway or a permeable build-up that puts the water back into the ground where it fell. Whether that works is a question with an actual answer, established by a percolation test rather than assumed. On free-draining ground it is straightforward. On heavy clay a soakaway may be the wrong solution entirely, and something with storage and a controlled overflow is needed instead. Discharging onto the pavement or into the road is not a solution, though it is extremely common. It is a nuisance, it can be an offence, it freezes into a hazard in winter, and it is precisely the pattern the 2008 planning change exists to discourage. It also puts more water into a network Cheshire East already describes as under pressure in this town. On top of all that, the front garden rule. Since 1 October 2008, more than five square metres of impermeable surfacing in the front garden of a house needs planning permission unless the water is directed to a permeable area within your own property — a lawn, a border, or a soakaway. Lay a permeable surface, or drain a solid one properly, and no application is needed. Rear gardens are not caught by the rule. The practical answers are unglamorous and mostly cheap if they go in with the drive rather than after it. Falls set away from the house. A linear channel where a drive falls towards a garage or a door. A soakaway sized for the area and sited at least five metres from foundations. Or a permeable build-up, which sidesteps most of it. Retrofitting any of them into a finished drive costs several times more and leaves a visible line on most surfaces.

Question 2

Can I drain my driveway into the road?

Accepted Answer

Into the ground first, then a watercourse, then a surface-water sewer with the water company's agreement — that is the hierarchy in Part H of the Building Regulations. It must never go into a foul sewer, and it should not be discharged onto the public highway. In a front garden there is a further planning rule on top. The rule people most often break without knowing it is the foul sewer one. Surface water must not be connected into a foul drain. It overloads the system, it can cause backing up elsewhere, and it is exactly the sort of thing that surfaces on a sale or when the water company investigates a problem in the street. Establishing which chamber is which — by lifting the cover and looking — comes before anything is connected. The preferred answer is infiltration: a soakaway or a permeable build-up that puts the water back into the ground where it fell. Whether that works is a question with an actual answer, established by a percolation test rather than assumed. On free-draining ground it is straightforward. On heavy clay a soakaway may be the wrong solution entirely, and something with storage and a controlled overflow is needed instead. Discharging onto the pavement or into the road is not a solution, though it is extremely common. It is a nuisance, it can be an offence, it freezes into a hazard in winter, and it is precisely the pattern the 2008 planning change exists to discourage. It also puts more water into a network Cheshire East already describes as under pressure in this town. On top of all that, the front garden rule. Since 1 October 2008, more than five square metres of impermeable surfacing in the front garden of a house needs planning permission unless the water is directed to a permeable area within your own property — a lawn, a border, or a soakaway. Lay a permeable surface, or drain a solid one properly, and no application is needed. Rear gardens are not caught by the rule. The practical answers are unglamorous and mostly cheap if they go in with the drive rather than after it. Falls set away from the house. A linear channel where a drive falls towards a garage or a door. A soakaway sized for the area and sited at least five metres from foundations. Or a permeable build-up, which sidesteps most of it. Retrofitting any of them into a finished drive costs several times more and leaves a visible line on most surfaces.

Question 3

Driveway drainage rules

Accepted Answer

Into the ground first, then a watercourse, then a surface-water sewer with the water company's agreement — that is the hierarchy in Part H of the Building Regulations. It must never go into a foul sewer, and it should not be discharged onto the public highway. In a front garden there is a further planning rule on top. The rule people most often break without knowing it is the foul sewer one. Surface water must not be connected into a foul drain. It overloads the system, it can cause backing up elsewhere, and it is exactly the sort of thing that surfaces on a sale or when the water company investigates a problem in the street. Establishing which chamber is which — by lifting the cover and looking — comes before anything is connected. The preferred answer is infiltration: a soakaway or a permeable build-up that puts the water back into the ground where it fell. Whether that works is a question with an actual answer, established by a percolation test rather than assumed. On free-draining ground it is straightforward. On heavy clay a soakaway may be the wrong solution entirely, and something with storage and a controlled overflow is needed instead. Discharging onto the pavement or into the road is not a solution, though it is extremely common. It is a nuisance, it can be an offence, it freezes into a hazard in winter, and it is precisely the pattern the 2008 planning change exists to discourage. It also puts more water into a network Cheshire East already describes as under pressure in this town. On top of all that, the front garden rule. Since 1 October 2008, more than five square metres of impermeable surfacing in the front garden of a house needs planning permission unless the water is directed to a permeable area within your own property — a lawn, a border, or a soakaway. Lay a permeable surface, or drain a solid one properly, and no application is needed. Rear gardens are not caught by the rule. The practical answers are unglamorous and mostly cheap if they go in with the drive rather than after it. Falls set away from the house. A linear channel where a drive falls towards a garage or a door. A soakaway sized for the area and sited at least five metres from foundations. Or a permeable build-up, which sidesteps most of it. Retrofitting any of them into a finished drive costs several times more and leaves a visible line on most surfaces.

Where is driveway water legally allowed to go?

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