Help me plan my new "drier" garden - Advice required for drainage

[petesky]

My garden's lowest point seems to be the lowest point for my "corner" of the housing estate. The soil is like mud 24/7 and it has large amounts of surface water at the best of times - even after weeks of dry weather my small soak-away always has water.

To help illustrate, the link below shows that my back garden is sittting lower that my neighbours' gardens (look at the gradient of the garden fences) and their rain-water water is draining into mine. [url=http:////www.peterd.e7even.com/garden/Image_80.jpg]Back garden overview[/url].


On closer inspection of the lowest point of my garden you can see that water definitely gathers in the soak-away (only 30" deep) but does not go away.
[url=http:////www.peterd.e7even.com/garden/Image_76.jpg]Soak-away close-up[/url]


I have had enough.
I want to hire a JCB and removed all the soil/clay down to about 2 metres and lay field drains into a larger, deeper soakaway but I want to be sure that the water will dissipate in this new arrangement. How can I tell? What can I do to make sure the water goes away without wasting my time and money?

If I get the JCB to dig even further down will it eventually get to the stage where the water will always soak-away or will the water table cause this to have no effect?

Sorry to ask plenty of questions. I'm at the end of my tether and want this fixed for the summer.
I'm well prepared to pay someone to come round and advise or coordinate - I just want it done!

Peter

[TheRobster]

I'm not sure that any sort of soakaway is going to be effective in this situation. It sounds to me as though the ground isn't really suitable for infiltration in the first place if, as you say, the current soakaway never empties. Clay soils are notoriously bad for drainage so even if you build a huge soakaway there is no guarantee that it would make any difference. There's a good chance it would just fill with water and remain that way.

One possibility is that (if you are lucky) the layer of clay will not be very deep and may have a more permeable material underneath it. If you can dig through the clay and get to the permeable material, then a soakaway system may be viable.

[flowjoe]

Save yourself some digging and hire a Hand Auger, you may get down 4/5mtrs depending on the ground type.