Hi, need advice on water-logged clay area *pictures*

Hello, first post here. My dad extended the back of his house and had to dig up some of the sloping garden.

He's having an issue of late where the dug up part outside the extension, is getting water logged. This is due to the rainy weather and having clay under the soil and also there is an old ceramic pipe (we attatched a white plastic pipe to) sticking out which we assume is an old pipe connected to a spring when the garden was farmland before the 1920's.

So I was wondering what would be the best course of action? At the moment the dug out area is sloping to the right which is why there is more water there. I'm just concerned about all the water being so close to the extension and eventually making the foundations unstable. Also to note there is a drain just around the corner, though it is newly installed and rises quite high.

Any advice would be appreciated

 

Welcome to GC
Eeeek! I'd suggest putting in a French drain asap, but it would need a fall on it and would need to connect to an existing drain or soak-away, possibly wherever the downpipe in pic 1 leads to? Or around the side and then into a storm drain?
https://www.spab.org.uk/advice/technical-qas/technical-qa-19-french-drains/
This link might help.....

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner

I'd agree with Noisette, here's one I installed a few years back,

 

Wow! Thanks for the immediate and very helpful advice and images guys I will forward this on to my dad. In the meantime any other advise is much appreciated. Thanks!

 

Drains. Nothing else will work (in particular "water loving plants" won't grow big enough, soon enough, to drink it - and they won't drink enough in Winter when we have most rain)

This may help:
www.pavingexpert.com/drain

Sorry, wrong link, should have been this one:
www.pavingexpert.com/drain03.htm

 

Hello and welcome.

I think if it was me, and bearing in mind I'm not an expert on drains and buildings and such, I think I'd be out there with my spade at the first opportunity digging a big hole for the water to drain into, very short term, until proper drains can be put in. Its just basic physics that its going to fill up with water. There will be a huge amount of water in the soil under the lawn, and water always takes the path of least resistance, which in this case is out the side of the newly exposed soil, onto the dug out area. Following that logic, I'd have a trench along close to the bottom edge of the soil for the water to drain into. Won't help with new rainfall much but it might slow down the water ingress long enough to get something more proper put in.

 

Thanks for the replies guys yeah I think for now with all the constant rainfall its too difficult to do any major work until the weather gets a bit dryer. So indeed the best thing is to dig up a temporary trench for the water to go and keep draining it. As long as its away from the house and foundations thats all that matters for now. I saw a program where some ones waste water pipe was leaking and it weakened the foundations causing half the house to slightly sink and the walls cracked :O scary stuff!
Been reading up more on the perforated drain pipe in trench techniques, definitely the way to go

 

Do you actually mean a 'glazed' finish non-porous pipe, or a porous clay field drain pipe? It appears to be rather small a diameter for the former, and if the latter could be only a single residual lateral draining a very localised area.

Have you got any drain rods to shove up that pipe and check whether it's also draining a neighbour's garden?

 

I'm not sure what it is. My dad says every now and then lots of running water would suddenly spurt out of it then eventually stop. I think we will have to eventually lead the water from that pipe into the drain as blocking it might backfire :D