Hi there , looking at a late 1950's house in upperhutt , on the plans I see it has 3 soak pits , does anyone know how far the distance should be from house to pits ? And opinion in general , I'd much
Rather the roof water went
Through drainage pipes but it seems quite common
In upperhutt , any info would
Be much appreciated .. thanks

daz1968 - 2021-10-27 22:14:00

Soak pits of that age will probably be stuffed . get a quote to do proper drains to the street from a drainlayer .

martin11 - 2021-10-28 07:42:00

martin11 wrote:

Soak pits of that age will probably be stuffed . get a quote to do proper drains to the street from a drainlayer .

Thanks Martin I did wonder if that was a possibility , lots of houses in upperhutt seem to have soak pits , the next one that comes along I will get a drain layer to give an estimate or do a subject to .... thanks for your advice it backs up my uneducated ideas on it

daz1968 - 2021-10-30 08:07:00

Volcanic or sandy, no problems, wouldn't worry me at all. Good idea if fact as it helps not overload the storm water pipes. Each to their own.

msigg - 2021-10-30 09:38:00

The member deleted this message.

sparkychap - 2021-10-30 09:48:00

I had downpipes not flowing and never heard of soak pits...rang the local plumber they said they can clear my soak pit for 2 k...I decided to do it myself....it was about 8-10 feet from house...Basically its a deep hole full of loose large rocks or boulders ...if you have 1 thats blocked you can follow the downpipe i used a grubber and spade .... Mine got blocked...(its quite common for them to silt up over time where the downpipe enters the pit... they actually work surprisingly well ...garage (big double) had a separate soak pit as well same problem it had silted up...dug up following the pipe and ended up at the pit...cleared away silt left plenty of space around where pipe enters (above and around)covered with doubled over black plastic (pond plastic?) some folk use corrugated iron...put soil back in place...worked a dream... house was in Masterton...

Edited by phalanax at 10:29 pm, Sun 31 Oct

phalanax - 2021-10-31 22:17:00

I did about 6 in Rotorua for a house, same thing, free draining pumice country, except these were 8 meters deep, 950mm in diameter and had solid and porous pumice soak rings, to act as a tank, I had to drill a 1.200mm hole and lift a steel casing in so the holes wouldn't collapse, then once the rings were in place, lift the casing back out carefully so it gradually backfilled around the rings, bit more than a home handy man type of job.

mrcat1 - 2021-10-31 23:32:00