Cheap Soakwell
Whoever built our house was a little remiss in not installing a drain across the foot of the driveway — it slopes down all the way to the garage, so when it rains very heavily the water forms a big pool in front of the garage door. It’s not really too much of hassle since it drains away eventually, but it’s not much fun to step in the puddle on your way to the front door.
I was out working in the front garden this weekend, so I decided to install a little soakwell to drain the water away. It doesn’t need to be a big soakwell like the ones that take the water from downpipes off the roof, so I decided to use an old bucket and save myself some cash. The volume of the puddle that forms on the rainiest of days is no more than a bucket of water, so an old red bucket should provide more than enough well space.
Here’s everything I need ready to go. I’ve lifted some pavers next to the driveway at the lowest point (pretty much in the middle of where the water pools) and dug a hole deep enough for the bucket and the height of the drain (in the background).
Next, the bucket goes into place in the hole. It has to be deep enough so that the drain can sit on top of it and be level with the surrounding pavers. I drilled a bunch of holes in the bucket to let the water get through into the bucket. Hopefully they’ll also form a bit of a sieve for large leaves and stuff that I can clean out, rather then having them go through and fill up the bucket.
Next I backfilled around the bucket to hold it in place. The bucket now forms a little well that will hold all the run-off water from the driveway while it slowly seeps into the ground.
Next the drain goes on top, positioned over the holes in the bucket and level with the pavers around it. Actually it’s slightly lower than the pavers, just to make sure the water flows into it.
The last step is to fill the rest of the hole around the drain with concrete and to seat the pavers back in place in the concrete. The concrete under the pavers and around the drain is about 10cm thick, so it shouldn’t move anywhere even if someone stomps on it. Whenever it rains now the water will flow down the driveway, into the drain and fill up the bucket and then slowly seep into the ground.
I’ve also added a new wooden edge to the garden bed after putting the well (8×2 treated pine), so the whole area looks quite neat now.
The total cost was $30 for the drain and $6 for the bag of pre-mix concrete. I could’ve got a smaller plastic drain for about $10, but I decided to go with the metal one instead since it looks nicer and will probably last longer.
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