What is a BRE365 Soakage Test and why might you need one for your construction project?

BRE365 Soakage tests are sometimes referred to as

-Infiltration Testing

-Percolation Testing

-Permeability Testing

-Soakage Testing

In the old days people would dispose of surface water from their properties just by sending it through an underground drainage pipe into a pit filled with rubble, and this acted as a soakaway. Water infiltrates the ground and literally soaks away. This happened without the understanding of the rate at which water infiltrated and soaked away which is a recipe for flood risk on or off site.

Nowadays, infiltration is still held at the top of the sustainable drainage systems hierarchy for disposing of surface water. However, current flood risk management guidance and best practice requires that any new building or development that seeks to dispose of surface water by infiltration, carries out a soakage test in accordance with the Building Research Establishment Digest 365, commonly known as BRE365 soakage test.

Any residential or commercial client who wants to gain planning approval for their construction project has to go through the planning process. Depending on the size of the build or development, the Local Planning Authority (LPA) will consult with their Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA) or their Drainage Officer (DO) on matters of flood risk and drainage. The LLFA or DO may advise the LPA that the client organises BRE365 soakage test to be carried out as part of their planning submission. If this test is not carried out according to the BRE365 guidance, the LLFA or DO would normally advise against the build and therefore on this basis the LPA would normally not grant planning permission.

This test is evidently a crucial aspect of engineering design for any construction project that intends to use infiltration as a way of managing surface water on site, regardless of whether the site already uses old style rubble soakaways that “works”.

Why should you choose us to plan, carry out and analyse your BRE365 soakage test?

In summary;

• Quality – we pride ourselves in providing high quality services for our clients
• Cost – we try to minimise costs as far as possible for our clients
• Time – we aim to work flexibly with our clients to meet their timescales

Quality

At HGC we strive to offer clients excellence by ensuring that we get it right the first time. We will carry out the test at the correct location and depth as per design requirements, preventing the need for repeated testing due to the test not being carried out properly and consequently causing the client increased costs and delays.

As a drainage design engineer with proven theoretical knowledge and experience from both a Masters Degree in Civil Engineering and working in the industry for a number of years, our interpretation of the test results is based on critical engineering and mathematical principles. This interpretation is crucial in determining the feasibility of a project that intends to utilise infiltration for the disposal of surface water.

In other words, even with a correctly carried out soakage test, an incorrect interpretation of the test results can hinder the planning application.

Cost

Our prices our competitive and in line with industry, we understand that the requirement and cost for this test can sometimes come as a surprise and so we aim to keep costs as low as possible always being transparent with our clients.

With proven understanding of theoretical principles of the BRE365, HGC is able to find cost-effective and innovative solutions that may otherwise be overlooked by third parties solely based on the results of the soakage test which can be crucial, especially in projects where surface water infiltration may be the only viable option.

Time

HGC are independent and so are able to work flexibly with our clients in order to get the test done as soon as possible rather than lengthy timescales which often occur when only working with specific providers.