Surface Water On Site

Halloween_Head

Hi,

New user here. Been looking into self building for a while now and Boards has been a wealth of information so far so thanks everyone for their input.

I visited a site over the weekend and despite there having been little rain in the past few weeks I observed a not insignificant amount of surface water on it.

The site isn't currently listed for sale and has crop in it. Anywhere a tractor had been on the site the tyres had carved out furrows some of which were filled with water. Other bare areas appeared dry and cracked.

There was also a ditch along the road frontage of the site filled with water. It didn't appear to be flowing.

Should alarm bells be ringing or is this something that could be addressed.

_Brian

What's the surrounding land like and topography??

Is this land just poorly looked after or is it in a dish with nowhere to run a drain to ??

If there's a fall away somewhere then it can be drained.

Halloween_Head

_Brian wrote: »

What's the surrounding land like and topography??

Is this land just poorly looked after or is it in a dish with nowhere to run a drain to ??

If there's a fall away somewhere then it can be drained.

Hi Brian,

I don't believe it's in a hollow of any sort. There are agricultural lands to the North and East of the site. Road and ditch on the South side with an established site and house on the opposite side of the road and an established site and house adjoining on the West side. The adjoining house is located on the far side of their site so I suspect a percolation area my border the site.

I would guess that where the ditch drains to is blocked. Will need to look in the surrounding area to try and work out where the drainage should be going.

Is there somewhere I can look this type of thing up? I don't see drainage detailed on the County Council development plan.

Victor

By "topography" _Brian mean is the site sloping or flat or in a glen, etc.

Halloween_Head

Victor wrote: »

By "topography" _Brian mean is the site sloping or flat or in a glen, etc.

Possibly a slight downward gradient from West to East.

I don't see anything in the surrounding area that would suggest water collecting at the site.

I think I'll need to revisit it with a different set of eyes so to speak.

T-Maxx

I assume you qualify for PP?

Halloween_Head

T-Maxx wrote: »

I assume you qualify for PP?

From a local needs perspective? Yes, we should.

T-Maxx

Yeah I just thought it strange that you'd be looking at a site that's not for sale.

Halloween_Head

T-Maxx wrote: »

Yeah I just thought it strange that you'd be looking at a site that's not for sale.

Considering approaching the owner so would like to be armed with as much info as possible if we do. Would be somewhat plucking a figure out of the sky if we were to make an offer.

cocoman

If there's a lot of water on the surface it might indicate poor soil drainage. This may cause problems for wastewater disposal (septic tank, etc) assuming the site isn't adjacent to a public sewer. This could in turn lead to a refusal of planning permission.

If there's any newish houses close to the site then you may be ok. Any purchase of the site should be subject to planning permission being obtained.

With regards works that could be done it may be possible to install land drains to dry the site.

tabby aspreme

Take a look online at the planning conditions for recently built nearby houses. If surface water is evident at the moment it must be a wet site , the weather this past winter and spring has been fairly dry, wells around here went dry last December and we haven't had much rain since