DIY rainwater soakaway for under €50! Will it work? | Living in the Loire

Brook sorts out the rainwater drainage for the house by creating a soakaway for less than €50!
This will deal with all of the rainwater from the front of the house. We discovered there was nothing in place before so hopefully this will help eliminate damp issues at the front of the building.
#diysoakaway #rainwaterdrainage #farmhouserenovation #diyrenovation
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Welcome to Living in the Loire, we are a young family in rural France, renovating previously poorly converted barns. We aim to do most of the work ourselves, being as frugal and as eco as possible! We are learning on the job and we hope to share the skills we pick up along the way. As well as the house we will be transforming the garden, bringing part of it back to its previous use as a potager. This is our dream and one of the main reasons of leaving the city to move to the countryside in France.
Join us on our journey!
Instagram: / livingintheloire

[@janeblandford852]

What a fabulous idea and very ingenious of you to come up with this idea that is very affordable. Well done and hope it works out for you! Great to see the wall being pointed as it will make everything look finished and neat. You guys are amazing and really enjoy watching your vlogs!! Thank you!

[@LivingintheLoire]

Thank you as always Jane for such kind and enthusiastic comments. It really gives us a boost! Recently we found out about the ‘buyer-archy of needs’ First on the pyramid is using what you have to hand. We’ll do a video on it one day. 😊

[@juliekerr1530]

Great work, everything is coming together and looking good 😁

[@patriciamilnes4793]

Great idea re drainage...love how you manage a solution with little cost. You have some great ideas. Veg patch coming on amazingly. Keep planting for succession!

[@LivingintheLoire]

Thanks Patricia. Always lots of ideas but often no idea on how to execute them. But getting better every year.

[@wakajawaka44]

One torrential downpour and those lids will pop off like champagne corks! But at least the water is we’ll away from the house. Nice channel! Thank you for uploading. SW France

[@brendaloera8406]

We had to do a similar set up with perforated 4 inch pvc pipe leading to a stone filled ‘well’ to get rain fall away and out of our courtyard! Good work you!!

[@AfricanSouthernCross]

Wow, doing really really well considering you are fairly green to all that you took on, 8m really impressed as well as how positive you always seem, of course their will always be “issues” but it’s very refreshing to witness your attitude, great, you are living the life my friend !

[@lisawherry8966]

Thanks to your time and effort sharing all you do! You get me through the down times xox

[@LivingintheLoire]

Just watching and commenting is more than sufficient Lisa. Thank you.💛💛

[@rampadma]

Thumbs up if you had come here more excited about Sri Lanka cricket training shirt in rural France more so than the DIY 🦁

[@banksiasong]

Check annually for roots invading the pipe and soak-wells. Lovely job, both of you.

[@LivingintheLoire]

We believe the tree is now dead, I cut out a massive root the went across the pipe. Fingers crossed!

[@sue7190]

If you check out French Farmhouse Diaries last week they showed a neat way of making hoops for cloches using blue water pipe with cut metal legs (rebar). It was cheap and you can create hoops exactly to the size you want . He also used a cable tie system to allow the netting to be opened and closed easily to harvest. Love your videos.

[@lwest5686]

Getting loads of work done wow! Your salad looked great and is a such a reward. Your lettuce sounds nice and crunchy - may I ask what kind? I am growing a butterhead also known as buttercrunch but not much crunch. Big congrats on passing 2K 🎉. That's exciting!!!

[@LivingintheLoire]

I've never heard of a butterhead lettuce! To be honest, I actually don't know what type our lettuce is. I'm pretty sure it's the same as one you can get in the supermarket so I'll have a look the next time I'm there and see if I can find out as I'd definitely like to grow it again. As we sort of explained, we bought this one as plugs from the market, we didn't sow from seed (so I can't just check the seed packet annoyingly) but it was worth the investment. Thanks - it is exciting! 😊

[@LivingintheLoire]

I think it can be called Muir head or Summer crisp. Stays crunchy in hot weather.

[@lwest5686]

Oh thank you - I will look for it here in Canada.

[@suzieq2958]

That drone moment really shows how far you have come with your lovely garden! Hope you have a before/after drone clip at some point 😀 Have you tried asking Tree Fella Nick if he has any advice on Mulberry roots? You must be so proud of yourselves!!! 💜

[@jennistevenson796]

Brassicas will break your heart. X

[@veronicasmith1147]

Good vid thanks🥰

[@AfricanSouthernCross]

Another option to spread out the water from the roof would be to have multiple pipes with holes in them spread out in a fan formation, obviously with a slight gradient away from your buildings, they do this in the UK on cricket fields to get the majority of the rain away from the bowling pitch, but this would be way more work and more expensive, just me trying to sound intelligent 😂

[@LivingintheLoire]

Well Brook would love to turn one bit of the garden into a cricket pitch...😂

[@timsager6153]

Better start feeding that boy protein, he needs that for his hard work

[@truth3358]

Hi you should off put some stones under pipe and made some small holes in pipe Great video

[@LivingintheLoire]

Yes that’s a good idea in retrospect.

[@Susan.I]

Mulberry trees obviously have strong roots!!!

[@coby6417]

🌟👍🍀💐

[@Susan.I]

A gutter went through the house! Ridiculous!!

[@Susan.I]

I’d run water through before covering it all up!

[@LivingintheLoire]

We did 😊

[@douglasharre7156]

@@LivingintheLoire would hjave been good to see that - given that you said "I dont know if it's going to work or not..."

[@LivingintheLoire]

Less than a minute after I put a hose down the tube but you were too busy commenting clearly.

[@douglasharre7156]

@@LivingintheLoire Yes I saw the little dribble @8.20, didnt realise that constituted a test, so apologies. Was thinking more that you would fill up the barrel with water and then see how long it took to drain away - being as how thats the real test of the soak pit (as opposed to testing the fall of the pipe). Never mind, and you hopefully feel better after your reply to me.

[@LivingintheLoire]

Yeah I feel a lot better. Now go dig a hole.

[@JonathanMonkhouse]

I'll be doing my own soakaways, but using plastic bottle crates wrapped in mesh. no need to spend £100 on a "proper soakaway" crate

[@chazzyb8660]

Cisterns, get cisterns, big concrete agricultural cisterns, we are going to be needing all the rain water we can get in future years. Probably. And you can keep a few fish in them to keep down the mosquitoes!

[@LivingintheLoire]

We will need something for sure. We will harvest the rainwater from the barn roof this winter and if we feel we need more, we will add some IBC's next to the down pipes.

[@chazzyb8660]

Given that you are growing food on site it may be worth talking to your Mairie or your local co-op to see if there are grants available. My dad lived in France for nearly forty years and we were constantly surprised how helpful the 'authorities' could be. Binge watching and enjoying your channel.