Flooded Garden

Before the summer a patch of our garden was always flooded whenever it rained, we aerated it but still flooded. Over the summer it dried out so we thought about digging it up and putting decorative stones down to break up so much grass.

However with the amount of rain this week so far that is also flooded now and water is above the stones.

Before laying to stones, the ground was firm, we ran over it with an aerator and then put weed control down and stones on top.

Any ideas on what I can do to stop it flooding, my next option might be to take all the stones and put drainage pipe down to take water away when raining.

Thanks

 

Hi and welcome to the forum, it's difficult to say what the problem could be but I would suggest when it's possible to investigate further dig a hole at the deepest point if you can a foot square or more and a foot or two deep to give you an idea of the soil structure or other potential problems, at the very least it might help with drainage.

 

Hi David, instead of fighting it why not work with it. If you separate the area off ( perhaps with bricks or with the stones you've laid over the area ) why not make a bog garden or plant it up with plants that will take the moisture away.

 

Before we started we dug down 30cm and it was all firm and didn't seem to be any problems, the stones are down to max depth of 15cm.

I have a slight incline at the rear of the garden some 35ft away from the back door, that is covered under trees, rest of the garden is level. The problem area is about 10ft from the back door.

If this wasn't so close to the house (within 10ft) then I might have done this, it was done to stop the dog from ripping the grass up at back of garden as there is a fence just after the stones. Having a border collie who is active doesn't help the grass so it was separated to help it and stones put down.

 

You might have a blocked land drain hence tthe flooding when it rains. Or it may be a spring. Weve got 2 in our lawn. When it rains the springs flow with water from the big hills above the village.

 

Or it could be a soakaway receivingvsurface water drainage that's inadequate or silted up.

Drive a steel rod down to check if there's and hardcore/granular material fill under the ground, but not so hard it might damage a drain pipe.

 

Sorry for the late reply, i dont think its a spring as we live on a flat part of the city, the water takes 3 days to drain when dry but abput 30mins of heavy rain to fill up,

The rest of the grass has little surface water but this section holds loads

The area is about 20foot wide 5 foot depth and 15cm deep

 

When i put tje fence up i dug about 30cm down and hit some stone not loads but a big one if anoyher place hit nothing so unless it is further down do not know, there are no pipes in the garden as we back onto a road all pipes go under the house

 

Discharging water onto the highway is an offence:

Highways Act 1980 Section 100

Highways Act 1980 Section 163

 

Hi,

As mentioned earlier a photo of the area would really help, it would show the land levels and other things like are there any visible drain pipes on that side of the house, like gutter drain pipes or sink drain pipes etc.

What might be worth doing once we have some dry weather and the area affected has dried out, is the turn the hose pipe on to it and see how readily it floods with just the hose.

That might indicate if its just that bit of land that cannot drain or if its due to water from else where that adding to the problem, eg a blocked/cracked drain or rain water from other areas collecting there.

 

I will try and get a picture, I have no drains at the back of the house as kitchen is at the front, it would mean removing the patio down the side of the house to the nearest drain which is by the gate to side of the house.

I just think the garden is crap as it takes an age to dry even with little rain.

 

Unless you have an older property from the days of mixed sytems, waste water from kitchens (and bathrooms which are normally above kitchens) is kept seperate from rainwater disposal.

So you don't actually have any roof drainage to the rear roof slopes, such as gutters with rainwater downpipes at the rear of your/adjacent neighbour's properties? (or hipped ends with guttering connecting to the the front gutter)

P.S. Is this a newbuild property?