DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

The downpipe at the front of our house has been overflowing for a while so we got a local handyman to come and take a look. He has determined that the soakaway is completely blocked and the only option is to dig a new soakaway. NOTE: he did get a local drainage expert to come round with his kit to try and 'blast' the crap out but it did not help and this appears to be the only option now.

I'm just looking for a bit of advice on how much this is likely to cost (I dont want to get ripped off). The guy says that they will need to dig down approx 1m and approx 5m away from the house.

Can I ask the experts out there to give an approx cost for this work? We live in Berkshire if that helps.

Thanks.

Did you manage to get a quote? I have the same problem and am wondering how much it will be.

If it's any help to you guys I had same problem 2 years ago

Water from our roof and neighbours roof at front of property flowed through single downpipe and drained into dividing flower bed between the 2 houses

Was in the process of having front drive paved and landscaped and this meant loosing the dividing flower bed
Company paving the drive installed a soakaway on my property to drain the water from both roofs (also to comply with the new "water run off" laws I believe)
This was approx 5m from the house x 1m deep x 1m sq
Cost was £300 (2 years ago)

Hope that this helps

the best thing to do is to get a few quotes then you can make a comparison. with regard to the £300 paid by toplondonchef i'd imagine that they were only able to do it for that price because they were onsite already and the driveway was already up and so it constituted very little extra work.

some of the additional cost of accessing the siting for the soakaway plus the making good afterwards would have been incorporated already in the cost for the driveway.

i'd expect the actual cost to be at least double though of course it's difficult to say without looking at the job. would the soakaway be under the lawn, for instance, or would it involve removing paving/digging through concrete?

as i say get a few quotes and try to get recommendations, check out credentials etc to avoid getting ripped off.

if they can dig it straight out you should only be looking at 1 max 2 days re pipe aprox £500- £600 you could do it your self in same time and save £400 in labour