Garden waterlogging advice

[ColchesterFC]

I'm working on completely revamping our garden. I've been digging out flower beds and laying turf. The garden slopes gently away from the house towards the bottom of the garden. The problem I've come up against is that we have a patio and path that leads down from the house to the garden. When it rains the water runs off the patio and path onto the top of the lawn and it becomes waterlogged as the soil is high in clay. I've looked into the possibility of digging a soakaway but the recommendation is to dig down 1.5m and there's no way that will be possible as there's no access for a digger and I won't be able to dig that deep by hand into the clay.




Has anyone got any thoughts/ideas/suggestions for how I might be able to solve the problem? Thanks.

(P.S. The patio is being re-laid as I just put the slabs down in a hurry for a rabbit hutch to go on, but as the rabbit has now gone I will be relaying it properly).

 

[splashtryagain]

You say it all slopes away from the house? What does the garden back onto? Do you have access to any waste pipes?

 

[Mandofred]

Could you put in a couple of French drains? Putting a couple of small ones in has helped our back lawn. Water goes where if you can drain it to the end of the property? Neighbour might not like it.

 

[ColchesterFC]

You say it all slopes away from the house? What does the garden back onto? Do you have access to any waste pipes?

Our garden backs onto the garden of the bungalow behind us. No waste/water pipes run between us and them.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Theres not any guttering downpipes running into adjacent gardens?

 

[Old Colner]

If you are relaying the patio why not slope it all towards the house into a new drain installed at the foot of the house wall (like the ones the use in front of garages when the drive slopes towards the property).

 

[Tashyboy]

Top left picture shows end of a building/ extension. What guttering do you have on that re down pipes.

 

[ColchesterFC]

If you are relaying the patio why not slope it all towards the house into a new drain installed at the foot of the house wall (like the ones the use in front of garages when the drive slopes towards the property).

Patio slopes by about a foot from the house towards the garden. Would be prohibitively expensive to build up the bottom of the patio to slope it back towards the house, and all materials having to be hand carried down the side of the house into the back garden.

 

[ColchesterFC]

Top left picture shows end of a building/ extension. What guttering do you have on that re down pipes.

The downpipe from that is at the other end of the building which is two steps up from the level of the lawn.

 

[SteveJay]

Could you put in a couple of French drains? Putting a couple of small ones in has helped our back lawn. Water goes where if you can drain it to the end of the property? Neighbour might not like it.

I have successfully installed a french drain to solve a similar problem in our green, which also slopes away from the house but used to end up waterlogged in a gravel area at the lowest point. However, I am lucky enough to have some waste ground behind our fence with a ditch, albeit dry in summer.
I could put a pipe under the fence to drain into the ditch.
Installing a french drain which drains into a neighbours property is asking for trouble and, I believe, would constitute an offence.

 

[Hobbit]

A PM to @upsidedown might be worth a try.

If the water logging isn’t too bad, a long tined fork or better still a hollow tiner that looks like a garden fork. Spike the lawn and dress with coarse sand - Edit, washed sand. You’ll probably find you’ll need to do it every few years.

Another option, if the water logging is excessive, is to put in herringbone drainage. You don’t need the industrial diameter pipework you’d see being used on a fairway but you can buy flexible PVC pipework.

 

[Robster59]

Our garden has an artifical lawn, but it also suffered from waterlogging due to the original one being badly laid with no draininge. We had two drains put in about 0.5m down which drained to the downpipe drain on the house. Problem solved.

 

[Tashyboy]

Our garden has an artifical lawn, but it also suffered from waterlogging due to the original one being badly laid with no draininge. We had two drains put in about 0.5m down which drained to the downpipe drain on the house. Problem solved.

OOI Robster, does the down pipe go into a soak away or the main drains.The reason I say that, front garden goes into a soak away. The back garden goes into the drains as it was nigh impossible to get the soak away dug out. The architect did say that if you cannot get into a soak away or mains you could have a water butt. I would need one the size of a swimming pool now.

 

[Robster59]

OOI Robster, does the down pipe go into a soak away or the main drains.The reason I say that, front garden goes into a soak away. The back garden goes into the drains as it was nigh impossible to get the soak away dug out. The architect did say that if you cannot get into a soak away or mains you could have a water butt. I would need one the size of a swimming pool now.

Not 100% sure, but I am pretty certain it goes into the main drain. They put one drain across the front nearest the house, and the other from corner to corner. Lifted the slabs to the downpipe and expanded the drain to there and then put everything back in place. I have to say they did a great job.