subject: Standard Home Drainage Solutions [print this page] After years in the industry, the team at Plumlink have realised that good plumbing involves more than just leaky dripping tap and blocked sinks. A truly efficient and effective plumbing system involves controlling the flow of water both inside and outside the home. This includes everything from guttering to drainage solutions.
Today, wed like to talk to you specifically about drainage.
First things first, why drainage?
Well, to put it simply, drainage systems are vital in the garden for healthy plants, to stop waterlogging, and protect the integrity of your homes foundations. If you have no drainage in place or have an ineffective system, you will start to see signs of damage after heavy downpours.
With its various forms, drainage is something that can be adapted to suit your situation. The main types of drainage are:
Surface:
This is a fairly common drainage type, especially in flat or arid areas. This approach entails making small furrows that lead to larger ditches around the land's outskirts. These ditches feed into streams and other tributaries, eventually into larger rivers and out to sea. There is some seepage of water through the soil to the ditches. Smoothing and flattening of land is beneficial for this type of drainage, which is especially important in flat areas where no natural sloping aids drainage.
Subsurface:
While technically an alternative to surface systems, subsurface systems are usually needed in conjunction with surface setups. This option is comprised of pipes and drains laid underneath the soil. Using gravity, water flows into smaller pipes at the higher end of the water table and into increasingly larger pipes and drains until it reaches the main drains, a sump or a water-receiving body like a river or lake.
Land:
Land drainage works by providing an open conduit for groundwater to follow to a point where it can be disposed of. Dispersal drains lead to a dispersal area or leach field. The disposal point a soak away, leach field or manhole, or connection to the stormwater system is always at the lowest point of the system. This is because water will always flow downhill.
Secondary:
Every good drainage system has a failsafe or backup to ensure efficiency, which is where this potential solution comes in handy. With low-permeability soils, methods including sub-soiling, tillage and mole drainage can be employed. Tillage is the breaking up of surface soil by methods like troweling or ploughing. Sub-soiling breaks up soil at much deeper levels than tillage. Mole drainage is the creation of small channels between rows. Biological methods include cropping with deep-rooted legumes and crop rotation. Deep-rooted trees can also be used to lower the water table.
In the end, regardless of which drainage solution you choose, an effective drainage system must be able to self-clean to ensure the wastewater passes freely through the system to the authority sewer.
Get your drainage assessed for effectiveness by calling Plumlink on 1300 000 237 today.
