Monday 25 March 2013

Attenuation Tank Tedium

This for me is very very dull but I feel obliged to write about it briefly as it's been quite a big annoying issue for us;
During the design stage, planning and working with our code assessor no mention was ever made to us that we would need an attenuation tank to reduce the flow of rain water into the public sewers. It was not included in the plans, costed or quoted for but when our builder met with our code assessor it was brought up as being a mandatory requirement! Why it was never mentioned by our architect I don't think we'll ever know - during the design stage we had paid for a report to be done to calculate the rain water run off and apparently this tank is necessary for the one in one hundred year storm so that our house doesn't cause excessive strain on the the sewers.
The short of it is we now have to set a tank in the garden approx 4 metres long by 1metre deep. sounds simple but in fact it necessitates extra drains and quite serious digging, layers of various materials etc etc- yes I feel like going to sleep talking about it too!!!
We've been quoted £11k for this very dull thing - money I would have much preferred to spend elsewhere on something I can actually see and enjoy - as if we haven't sunk enough money in the ground already.

Due to the mammoth cost our builders are now trying to get quotes from specialist drainage companies to see if they can do it any cheaper - watch this space!!!!!

3 comments:

  1. Hi Alison,

    I just wanted to congratulate you on a brilliant self build blog. It's been a thoroughly interesting and informative read and a pleasure to witness the progression of such an exciting project.

    I enjoyed the read so much, I decided to feature you in a Top 5 Inspirational Self Build Blogs post that I've just published:

    http://www.kensyard.co.uk/blog/2013/top-5-inspirational-self-build-blogs/

    Please do have a read and let me know your thoughts.

    How is the project coming along?

    Best wishes,

    Nadia Tariq
    Freelance blogger and copywriter

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  2. HI Nadia

    Thank you for your kind words - I feel honoured to be featured on your site!

    I've had a little look at the other blogs which has been fun and interesting to see others' experiences.

    You're quite right about the 'sporadic' nature of my blog and you've made me realise that I really must get back on to it. What you wrote is great other than we're building in Whitstable, not Whitby & my name's Alison not Alice!

    Thank you again



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  3. Alison, I'm so embarrassed. I wish I could blame the spellchecker on that one! What can I say, I had Dracula and Lewis Carroll on the mind.

    I look forward to reading the rest of your blog as it progresses and all the best once again :)

    Nadia x

    ReplyDelete