FAQ

Whilst some councils do recommend soakwells, other councils have no recommendation regarding soakwells, such as the City of Joondalup regarding residential properties.

By law, in Western Australia home owners have a legal obligation to confine any stormwater run-off within the boundaries of their property so if the water is contained, such orders could not be written, soakwells or not. However, if a stormwater drainage system is not installed, it becomes difficult to protect your home against flooding, soil erosion and rain damage. It also becomes more challenging to prevent your water from flowing into neighbouring properties. It is best to consult your specific property and building plans as well as your council recommendations to determine your appropriate stormwater drainage system for your budget. There’s no point spending $3000 + dollars if you can only afford $1500 as you can still get a very good system.

Although they are strong they are certainly not the most efficient, but they do have their place.

Most polypropylene soakwells are fully trafficable unlike PVC, and installed correctly will take 20 plus tonnes of direct pressure per square metre.

BUYER BEWARE some installers offer 10% cheaper, the downside of this is you end up with 30% less of a soakwell as they are using smaller tanks. Ask for tank specifications.

This statement is false and uneducated. If your property does not have a drainage system, then any additional stormwater implementation would be beneficial, regardless of size, volume or material. Additionally, the adequacy of one soakwell per downpipe can only be determined by the size of the soakwell, the soil type and amount of water expected to be flowing down the particular downpipe. A general rule of thumb is that a single 130 litre soakwell services an estimated 10 sqm of impermeable area in sandy soil.

This statement is untrue as polypropylene soakwells drain 50% more efficiently than a concrete soakwell of the same size and can be infinite in size. i.e. 200,000 litre polypropylene soakwell installed at Bunnings in Belmont. Most councils do not specify materials, only volumes.

“With regards to poly tanks, we installed several of them when they first hit the market a few years ago, but we found them very difficult to make. They are a great idea, but in practice, you have to dig a large hole, then lay a huge membrane which surrounds the tanks as you build them. That is a great theory and would work well in clay, but not in sand as often the walls of the hole are collapsing as you are trying to assemble the tanks; the collapsed sand then covers the membrane, and you are back to square one. To be honest it really was difficult to install them. The concrete ones can literally be dug down, so when the sand is collapsing as it does on most jobs in the summer, it doesn’t matter, because the excavator simply digs inside the soakwell, and it gradually drops to the desired level. The slots in them face down at a 60 degree angle ,(It still gets in unless it is wrapped in a geo-textile fabric) so the only way sand could enter the soakwell is if it were able to climb uphill, which of course it cannot. (Vacuum effect of receding water will cause sand to be sucked in) As we offer a 10 year warranty on all our products, we have to install something we can rely on, hence concrete.” NO IDEA! Beware of uninformed installers who attempt scare tactics on the trusting client.