Soakaway Installations
A soakaway takes the rainwater off your roof, drive and garden and lets it drain away into the ground instead of pooling on the surface. Anytime Drain Solutions designs and installs soakaways for homes and businesses across Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire. We test how your ground drains first, size the soakaway to match, and give you a free no-obligation quote before any digging starts.
We are rated 5 stars on Google and answer the phone 24/7, covering Bournemouth, Poole, Southampton and the wider region.
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- Rated 5 Stars on Google Reviews
- City & Guilds engineers
- Fully insured
- Same-day and 24/7 callouts
- Free no-obligation quote
What a soakaway does
A soakaway is a buried pit or chamber that collects surface water from your roof, driveway or yard and lets it soak slowly back into the ground. It gives rainwater somewhere to go when there is no surface water sewer to connect to, which is the case for a lot of properties across Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire. Done right, it keeps water off your patio, away from the house and out of your neighbour’s garden.
We fit soakaways using modern crate systems, perforated chambers or a traditional stone-filled pit, depending on how your ground drains and how much water it has to take. Building regulations expect roof and surface water to disperse this way where mains drainage will not accept it, and the soakaway has to sit at least five metres from the building so it never undermines the foundations. If we find the real problem is a collapsed run or a failed old pit, we will tell you and talk you through a drain repair or a fresh drainage installation instead.
Roof, driveway and surface water dispersed into the ground
Percolation test first, then sized to your ground
Domestic gardens and commercial yards both covered
Sited the safe distance from your foundations
Signs you need a soakaway
If rain has nowhere to drain, it shows up around the property. Any of these usually means the surface water needs somewhere to go:
- Standing water on the lawn or patio for hours after the rain stops
- Puddles pooling against the house wall or by the back door
- A downpipe or gully that overflows and runs across the drive
- A waterlogged garden that stays soft and boggy between downpours
- An old soakaway that has silted up and stopped taking water
Water sitting against the brickwork is the one to act on quickly, because it works its way into the footings and the walls over a wet winter. If you are seeing any of this in Poole or across Dorset, call 0330 043 4305 and we will come and look.
How we install a soakaway
Three stages on every job: test how the ground drains, dig and build the soakaway, then connect it up and check it clears.
Step 1: Test the ground
We dig a trial hole and run a percolation test to measure how fast your soil takes water. That number sets the size and type of soakaway, so it is built for your ground and not guessed.
Step 2: Dig and build
We excavate the pit the right distance from the building, set in crate units or a stone-filled chamber wrapped in geotextile, and lay the pipe run that feeds the surface water in from your downpipes and gullies.
Step 3: Connect and check
We fit an inspection chamber so the system can be rodded later, backfill and reinstate the ground, then run water through and watch it clear before we leave.
Your ground decides the design
The percolation test comes first
We dig a trial pit, fill it with water and time how fast it drains. Free-draining sand and gravel take water quickly, so the soakaway can be compact. Heavy clay drains slowly, so it needs to be bigger, sometimes spread across more than one pit.
Sandy and gravel soils
Common around the coast near Bournemouth and Christchurch. Water disperses fast, so a standard crate or stone soakaway usually does the job in a modest footprint.
Clay and chalk ground
The heavier soils inland around Salisbury and parts of Wiltshire hold water. We size the soakaway larger to give it the time it needs, and where the clay simply will not take the volume we look at an alternative outfall rather than build something that floods.
High water table
If groundwater sits close to the surface, a deep pit fills up and stops working. We check the water level in the trial hole and design around it, keeping the soakaway above the wet line.
Commercial volumes
Large roofs, car parks and yards shed far more water than a house, so we calculate the storage from the catchment area and the rainfall, and build a chamber system that copes with a downpour rather than backing up across the site.
What does a soakaway cost to install?
There is no fixed price for a soakaway, because the ground does most of the deciding. We test your soil and quote the job before any digging starts, so you approve the price first. What it comes to depends on a few things:
- How fast your soil drains, clay needs a bigger soakaway than free-draining sand to take the same water.
- The roof and surface area feeding it, a small porch is a different job to a full house roof plus a driveway.
- How deep we have to dig and what we hit, tree roots, rubble or a high water table all change the work.
- Whether we are fitting one pit or spreading the storage across several, and how far the pipe run has to travel.
- Access for a mini-digger, and how much of the lawn or drive needs reinstating afterwards.
If the percolation test shows the ground will not take a soakaway at all, we tell you before you have spent anything and talk through the alternative, rather than building something that floods next winter. You get a free no-obligation quote and the price you agree is the price you pay.
Get a free quoteWhere a soakaway sorts the problem
Most of our soakaway work falls into a handful of situations. If yours is one of these, it is a job we do regularly across the three counties.
Keeping a soakaway working
A well-built soakaway runs for years with very little attention, but the surface water feeding it carries grit and leaves that eventually clog things up. A few habits keep yours clear:
- Fit leaf guards on gutters and a grate over the gully so silt and leaves do not wash straight into the pit.
- Clear the inspection chamber out now and then, it is there so the run can be rodded and checked.
- Keep heavy vehicles off the ground above a soakaway, the weight can crush crate units that were not built for traffic loading.
- If water starts pooling again after years of working fine, the pit has probably silted up, and a camera check tells us whether it needs jetting or rebuilding rather than guessing.
Why people choose us for groundwork
A soakaway is dug-in groundwork, so it has to be designed properly the first time, getting it wrong means standing water and a job done twice. We test the ground before we quote, build to what the percolation result tells us, and site the pit the safe distance from your foundations. You get a written, free no-obligation quote first, and the price you agree is the price you pay.
We are a local Bournemouth team, rated 5 stars on Google, run by City and Guilds qualified engineers and fully insured to £1 million. Because we also do CCTV drainage surveys and drain repairs, if the digging turns up a broken pipe or a deeper fault we can sort it there and then instead of sending you to someone else.
- Percolation tested and sized for your ground, not guessed
- Free no-obligation quote in writing before any digging
- Phone answered 24/7, including nights and bank holidays
- City and Guilds qualified, fully insured engineers
- Ground reinstated and left tidy when we finish
- Drainage repairs handled on the spot if we find a fault
The rest of your drainage, sorted too
A soakaway often comes up while we are sorting a wider drainage problem. Here is the related work we handle on the same visit if the ground throws something up.
Drainage Installation
New drain runs, gullies and pipework laid from scratch for extensions, driveways and new builds, connected up and tested before we backfill.
Learn more
CCTV Drainage Surveys
If a failed soakaway or pooling water points to a hidden fault, a camera survey shows exactly what is going on underground before we dig.
Learn more
Drain Repairs
Cracked, leaking or collapsed pipe feeding into the soakaway? We repair the run so the water reaches the pit instead of soaking into the wrong place.
Learn more
Drain Clearing & Unblocking
Gully or surface drain blocked with silt and leaves before the water even reaches the soakaway? We jet it clear and get it flowing again.
Learn moreSoakaway installation FAQs
How much does a soakaway cost to install?
What is a percolation test and do I need one?
How far does a soakaway have to be from the house?
Can you fit a soakaway in clay soil?
My old soakaway has stopped working. Can you fix it?
Will you dig up my whole garden to fit one?
Do you install soakaways for commercial sites?
What areas do you cover for soakaway installation?
Soakaway installation near you
We are a Bournemouth-based team and most of our groundwork is within an hour of home. Across Dorset we install soakaways in Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch, Weymouth and Dorchester, and right across Dorset. Over in Hampshire we work in Southampton, Totton, Portsmouth, Havant, Waterlooville and Lymington, with full coverage of Hampshire. North into Wiltshire, we cover Salisbury, Warminster and Chippenham, and the rest of Wiltshire. Not sure if you are in our patch? Call 0330 043 4305 and we will tell you straight away.
Got standing water to sort out?
If rainwater is pooling on your land or an old soakaway has given up, contact Anytime Drain Solutions today. We test the ground, design the soakaway around what we find, and cover Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire for both domestic and commercial groundwork.
0330 043 4305
anytime.drain.solutions@gmail.com
Free no-obligation quote, fully insured engineers, and ground tested before we dig.
Get your free no-obligation quote or call 0330 043 4305
