New Homes

When building a new house, it is essential to install soakwells to contain your stormwater. Indeed it is currently law in WA, that all householders must provide adequate drainage to contain their own stormwater. It is the responsibility of ALL homeowners to contain any rainfall within their own boundary. If you allow your excess water to flow onto your neighbours' property, then that person may choose to sue you for any damage to their house, or property, that this may cause. Therefore installing soakwells is something that needs to be taken very seriously, and treated with some urgency. The way most people go about achieving this is by engaging our services, we will then either study your plans, if you choose to send them in by email, which is our preferred option, or we will conduct an onsite visit. Providing us with your plans is the very best option, as this then allows us to calculate the exact amount of capacity that will be required to safely drain your property. Many Shires have a ''1 in 20 year storm event'' ruling. This means that although you might feel your soakwells will service your needs on almost every day of the year, should a huge storm hit, then they need to be able to cope with that too. Consequently installing soakwells is something where bigger is definitely better. Beware of companies offering to install small plastic soakwells on a one soakwell per downpipe basis, this is completely ridiculous, and in no way meets any Shire requirements, doing that will probably only give you around a third of the capacity you require.

Positioning soakwells in limited space

This photograph, is a great example of two new houses that don't actually have any space to install soakwells. Both these houses have below ground garages, and the way the soakwells were installed on this particular job, was by actually locating them below the garage floor. This isn't an issue, and actually happens quite often, especially where outdoor and garden space is at a premium. All the pipework from each downpipe is then piped with a gentle fall, towards the soakwells. The pipe is then sealed into the soakwell to stop sand leeching back into the soakwell, finally the lid is sealed on too, for the same reason. Providing the soakwell meets with the relevant Shires requirements, this will last a lifetime, and will be able to cope with any weather that comes its way. Where one soakwell is not enough, then two can be situated side by side. Once the work is fully complete, the garage floor can be poured, and the soakwells forgotten.

Installing soakwells at slab stage

Installing the soakwells at slab stage, is probably the most effective way to get the job done. By doing it this way, there are no underground cables or water pipes to work around, as all of those are laid later. This is particularly a good option for smaller blocks where there is a shortage of space. Before undertaking this method you are advised to contact your builder to check with them that this is OK. Most of the builders will be more than happy to allow this, as it makes their lives a little easier. When we install this way, we work from the plans, supplied by either the client or builder. We are then able to locate all of our pipework correctly, then once the house is completed, we return to actually connect all the downpipes, to our existing prelaid pipes. The soakwells can also be installed at the end of a build, indeed several home builders will not allow outside contractors on site until after handover, so this could be your only option.

A tidy site left behind

Installing soakwells often leaves the owners with an excess of sand to deal with. Once the soakwells are installed and some of the sand is compacted back around the soakwell, there is some excess sand to deal with, but not as much as you might imagine. Many owners use this excess sand to distribute around their block to level off areas, that need a little building up. Many owners of existing properties use the sand to top dress their garden or lawn, with a little fertilizer combined it can provide a real boost for your lawn. As a general rule of thumb we don't remove the sand, as we don't operate vehicles with the capacity to remove sand. As mentioned previously, the majority of owners have more than one use for their new supply of sand, so it is always worth holding on to. What we will do, on request, is level the block as best we can, distributing as much of the excess sand as we can, to leave an almost flat block, as you can see in this photo.