Another waterlogged garden topic

I know it probably feels a bit unfair but I'd say (for what it's worth) that doing as much as you can yourself will end up giving you a sense of satisfaction which will be far better than risking the negative feelings if your vendor won't help and you still have to do it anyway so I'd bite the bullet and go for the positive action.

 

If you have legal expenses cover with your household insurance/mortgage/etc. then it shouldn't cost you a penny to pursue the costs of dealing with this flooding. At the very least your (free) solicitors will probably commission some professional advice/costings to determine how much to claim from the vendors. Don't forget you will be in their boots when/if you sell and complete the same form. Imagine what your buyers would make of it if they saw this thread!

 

Yep, I have legal expenses cover, and the free legal advice line that I have access to (a work benefit) tells me I have a case against the sellers.

I have got my facts straight now, it has flooded to 6 inches deep 4 times in 2 years, twice when it snowed (and thawed) and twice when there was heavy rain. It has been 6 inches deep for a week now.

Just been out pricking the affected area with a garden fork, and to have another close look. The 3 surrounding gardens are definitely 6-8 inches higher on all sides of my garden.A walk around confirms that the 30 odd gardens on my terrace are all the same height either side of the fence, and are not retaining any water.

I still think raising the level of the paths and the garden is the be way forward, I'm not happy my garden being lower than the 30 or so around it.

I may dig a soakaway too, but don't want to be the drainage service for all of my adjacent neighbours. There is also the issue of not being able to build one within 5m of my shed, which is a bit of a problem since that is the exact area I have the problem.

Thanks all for letting me vent.

 

There

There maybe a reason why they are all higher, the all used to flood. Unfortunatly it seems the previous vendors past havnt raised your garden. The water would still be there, but 6 inches underneath the soil.
I think the soak away is the answer. If it doesnt work, what have you lost ? A day's graft, thats all. If it does work, great. If it doesnt that the only answer is a proper land drain, yes it wont be all of your water but water flows mate, the water in your garden could be yours or it could be water rained half a mile away.
Bite the bullet and get digging

 

With respect, I'm not sure that is true. With my garden being lower, water is inclined to come in from the 3 neighbouring gardens. If they are all the same height, there is nothing to encourage the neighbouring water into my garden.

I would only have to handle the water that fell into my property, not mine and the 3 neighbouring ones.

I would love to dig one (love digging!) but wary of digging it close to the shed because of the drainage codes saying it should be dug 5m away.
I suppose I could dig it away from the shed, and run a french drain from the affected area to it.

 

As I've mentioned above, I would have been furious if someone had knowingingly sold me a house where much of the garden is known to flood periodically. You could have erected a greenhouse/veggie beds in the area liable to flooding, that would have been ruined.

And I'd love a shed like yours, but would worry that any raising of ground levels around it would cause problems.

But if the previous owners knew of the problem, denied it and mis-led their purchaser, then they should "bite the bullet" - not steve_f, and they should pay the digging costs.

Even if the cause of the flooding problem is entirely self contained within steve_f's garden, the liabilty for the reinbursement of redial works still appears to remain with the vendor, who didn't disclose that existing problem.

 

Even on ground that is flat, there is always water flow, not always on the surface but in the sub soil. Water from the whole area could be flowing into your garden. Nobody's fault. Its just how land works.

Why are all the other gardens higher than yours ? They maybe higher as over the years they have raised their levels to try and get away from this water problem. Not curing it but trying to get away from it. This 5m rule, i thought it was from habitable buildings only ? Either way, dig a hole 5m away then, and run a trench from the effected area.
To be honest i dont know why your concerned about being a drain for the local area. The water has to go somewhere. I dont think any of the others would club in to rectify the problem as it seens your garden is the only seriously effected area and their patch seems (relativly) ok.
In my garden, my neighbour at the bottom put land drains into the whole of his small garden as it flooded regulary. Nobody's fault, just how our gardens are (wet at the back of mine and wet of the front of his). He wasnt concerned that he was acting as a drain for surrounding gardens, even though it helped my west facing border. He was just interested in rectifying his problem in his garden.

Bite the bullet and get that shovel out

 

Again it all depends on your definition i suppose. Steve has already stated that its got like this 4 times in 2 years. Thats twice a year. The weather we have had i think over the past 2 weeks since the drought announcment has been fairly extreme. Some say 2 months worth of rain in 2 weeks. To me that may not constitute a flood.
For example, I have a family member that is a nurse in Ethiopa with the red cross. An area dry and arid with droughts often. Twice a year even though its usually bone dry and dusty, it rains and floods due to the wet season. Would you say that part of Enthiopa has a flood problem ? I would say the opposite.

Look, end of the day, pursue the previous owner, but i just think that it could be all be sorted with a days digging. Legal disputes can be long and cause a lot of stress.

regards
G

 

steve-f did you buy your house from Mr Grinch?

 

No need for that.
Im just trying to help.

G

 

I think some times we are inclined to take things a bit too personally on this forum.
But for what its worth, I agree with Mr Grinch.
I also thought the 5m rule means from the main house, not any "outbuilding"

 

You said way back that you could pump the water to your rainwater drain by the house ...why is it not possible to trench to that drain ,and lay a perferated plastic land drain from and through the flooded area ..Once the water has somewhere to flow the problem will be solved ...

 

To give an update, I have had a professional landscaper (reference provided from a golf club) who has quoted me £3000 to do the following:

Raise garden by 150mm.
5 tonnes of 10mm shingle laid first, then 5 tonnes of sharp sand, then 10 tonnes of topsoil, then a new lawn laid on that.

This will being me level with the neighbours gardens, and the layered approach should prevent the water from sitting directly below the lawn in the topsoil.
That's the theory at least.

 

As always, professional landscapers tend to charge a lot more. Many years ago I needed a large gravel (pit) soakaway dug in my garden because the house I lived in didn't have a sewer main. This was done by a a firm of Groundworkers, which left the job after completion very tidy including the turf that had to be replaced.

I thought perhaps you might like to try quotes from a different 'area' to reduce the price.

 

I know some areas are deeper than other and I'm taking averages, but those amounts would mean approx. 75mm of sand/shingle with only 75mm of topsoil over and I wonder what a lawn planted/sown on top of that would look like in a hot, dry summer - we often get those in case anybody's forgotten this year. Is there a minimum depth of topsoil cover to the shingle/sand fill in the specification?

What about that brick built outhouse at the bottom of the garden? If the surrounding ground is raised it will be sitting in a sump.

P.S. I would have thought that 20 tonnes of fill would have covered well over 100 square metres at a depth of 150mm, but from looking at your photos the area affected by ponding (nett of paving & outbuilding) only appears to be about half that.