
Developing Sustainable Drainage (SuDs)
More and more legislation has led to local planning authorities and specifiers putting further steps in place to implement sustainable drainage systems (SuDs) in the need to prevent flooding and related issues. Additionally, there has become more emphasis on houses being responsible for their own water run off and not passing the issue downstream.
This has all led to better techniques that are now being used to alleviate these problems and one of them is decreasing the flow rates to the watercourses.
In basic terms attenuation means to temporarily storing stormwater for and then releasing it back into the waterway, but at a controlled rate. The stormwater is collected and routed in the same way as a normal drainage system, but uses flow controls (discharge control points) to release a set volume of water into the waterway. During a heavy rainfall, the rest of this excess water, is fed into the soakaway crate system where it is held until it is ready to be fed back into the main system through the flow control when ready.
Allowing a Safe Downstream Discharge
When the levels of flow water are at their highest, the controlled discharge device holds back the water and releases it at a carefully controlled rate. There are several devices on the market used for this function.
To find out more about how soakaways can be used for attenuation, check out our soakway crates for attenuation article.
Commercial Soakaways for Infiltration & Recycling
Large tanks can still be used for infiltration and recycling. Whilst modern soakaway crates are most commonly used for infiltration, where rainwater feeds into the soakaway structure and slowly filters back into the surrounding soil, they can also be used for rainwater recycling. This is a simple, environmentally friendly way to reduce water use whilst at the same time saving costs.
Soakaway Sizes & Designs
Our soakaway sets come flat-packed to save on delivery as well as save space on site. The crates are really easy to assemble without the needed for heavy machinery and come in the following sizes:
- 5 Cubic Metre
- 10 Cubic Metre
- 20 Cubic Metre
- 50 Cubic Metre
You can opt for a shallow, double or triple soakaway so the depth of your soakaway can be suited to meet your need.
We also have Nero Cell and Nero Pave in 12, 24 & 50 square metres which can be used as permeable surfaces to assist with reducing stormwater run off.