Recently bought a semi with a large back garden. The house is lower than the road by about 2m and the garden is on a slope going from R to L (looking at the house from the back if you see what I mean) . A 4mx4m area beyond the patio is soaked through and through - and while it dries slightly when no rain is theer, there is standing water immediately after. The area beyond it looks to be alright. Have had Thames water to look at drains etc.- all seem ok. They said there might be a new spring underground! The soil is clay. I currently have builders in the house and hence getting some digging etc. done won't be a big deal. Any suggestions - have been suggested everything from soakaways to french drains. The drainage system is accesible from very close to this area - can I drain the water into that somehow?
Help!!!
Soaking garden - Drainage
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Tony McC
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Aaaaarrgggh! The 'waterlogged on clay' question - never a week goes past at this time of year without someone asking the exact same question, convinced that no-one else will ever have suffered as they are suffering, and far too busy to check the archives or use the search tool. 
Soakways, french drains, land drains - none of them work on waterlogged clay. Ask yourself: what do these structures do with all that water to make it magically disappear? Answer: they can't make it disappear because of basic physics and the principle of conservation of matter. You can't make stuff just disappear: it has to go somewhere, and for soakaways and land drains, that somewhere is the ground itself. But, if the ground is already "full" with water (which is more or less the definition of "waterlogged") they can onlly hold on to it until they overflow.
All this is explained on the soakaways page which you'll find on the main website, as suggested at the top of every single page. And while you're there, have a look at the land drainage page. You might be pleasantly surprised!
Soakways, french drains, land drains - none of them work on waterlogged clay. Ask yourself: what do these structures do with all that water to make it magically disappear? Answer: they can't make it disappear because of basic physics and the principle of conservation of matter. You can't make stuff just disappear: it has to go somewhere, and for soakaways and land drains, that somewhere is the ground itself. But, if the ground is already "full" with water (which is more or less the definition of "waterlogged") they can onlly hold on to it until they overflow.
All this is explained on the soakaways page which you'll find on the main website, as suggested at the top of every single page. And while you're there, have a look at the land drainage page. You might be pleasantly surprised!
Site Agent - Pavingexpert
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newbie
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Dear Tony,
Can understand your frustration ! I did spend a lot of time going over your excellent archives and the site. Unfortunately, given all the discussion, have ended up quite confused! I can see the piece about the soil already being waterlogged - perhaps I shoud mentioned that the soggy patch is only at the front part of a large garden - the rest of it looks perfectly alright and drains / dries quite ok. Hence I'm hoping there might be some options on drains/soakaways etc. diverting the water to other parts of the garden. My big worry is I don't know the source of the problem hence can't figure out whether the problem is small or could become bigger.
best
Can understand your frustration ! I did spend a lot of time going over your excellent archives and the site. Unfortunately, given all the discussion, have ended up quite confused! I can see the piece about the soil already being waterlogged - perhaps I shoud mentioned that the soggy patch is only at the front part of a large garden - the rest of it looks perfectly alright and drains / dries quite ok. Hence I'm hoping there might be some options on drains/soakaways etc. diverting the water to other parts of the garden. My big worry is I don't know the source of the problem hence can't figure out whether the problem is small or could become bigger.
best
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TheRobster
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- Location: Leeds, UK
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markwatson.uk
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- Location: Teesside
Hi, this is my first post to this site, so please stick with me!
Ive spent a couple of hours tonight reading through the FAQ archives and have began to realise that the problem I have isnt new and is shared by many - This is good news to begin with as it gives me some hope!!!
Tonight, I spent an hour... in the rain digging away at a hole at the bottom end of my garden, around about the area which suffers (badly) from water logging. I went to about 12-14 inches down, with a diameter of about 12 inches. Ive bagged the 'material' and disposed of it. The purpose of the excavation was to get an idea of how dense the material was, it seems to be thick, dark heavy clay. After I stopped digging, I checked the hole. It had began to fill up with water . As per the experience of many many people who have posted to this site.
The lie of the land in the garden seems to run from the house, down a slight gradient which means that I end up with a band of water across the garden, around 20-22 feet from the back of the house. One idea that came to mind was to pump any excessive stading water away from water logged area, into a nearby drain (rain water drain). But I dont know where to look for a water pump and dont know anyting about that subject. Any experience in this area ?
I had this idea that by creating a large hole and filling it with 20mm gravel, this might in someway help things, but Im not so convinced of that now, after reading the material on this site!
The other part of my 'project', once I get somewhere with the waterlogging issue is to renew a patio area. We currently have a patio area, at the bottom of the garden, but its an awkward shape and basically doesnt make much use of the space. At the left hand side and at the rear, there was a 30" gravel border with a few over grown trees. The trees have now gone. I intend to pave over the top of the old patio, as it seems solid and level (to be confirmed by a tradesman, as I dont feel confident to tackle the area [77no x 450mm slabs]).
I am currently in the process of digging down a few inches aound the gravel border in order to remove old roots, remove some of the 'clay' and put some balast down, with some gravel to get a level start point.. Does this sound feasible? ?
I will go back to the archives and do some more reading for now as there are several leads I want to follow up on.. Thanks for a great site. ... .
Ive spent a couple of hours tonight reading through the FAQ archives and have began to realise that the problem I have isnt new and is shared by many - This is good news to begin with as it gives me some hope!!!
Tonight, I spent an hour... in the rain digging away at a hole at the bottom end of my garden, around about the area which suffers (badly) from water logging. I went to about 12-14 inches down, with a diameter of about 12 inches. Ive bagged the 'material' and disposed of it. The purpose of the excavation was to get an idea of how dense the material was, it seems to be thick, dark heavy clay. After I stopped digging, I checked the hole. It had began to fill up with water . As per the experience of many many people who have posted to this site.
The lie of the land in the garden seems to run from the house, down a slight gradient which means that I end up with a band of water across the garden, around 20-22 feet from the back of the house. One idea that came to mind was to pump any excessive stading water away from water logged area, into a nearby drain (rain water drain). But I dont know where to look for a water pump and dont know anyting about that subject. Any experience in this area ?
I had this idea that by creating a large hole and filling it with 20mm gravel, this might in someway help things, but Im not so convinced of that now, after reading the material on this site!
The other part of my 'project', once I get somewhere with the waterlogging issue is to renew a patio area. We currently have a patio area, at the bottom of the garden, but its an awkward shape and basically doesnt make much use of the space. At the left hand side and at the rear, there was a 30" gravel border with a few over grown trees. The trees have now gone. I intend to pave over the top of the old patio, as it seems solid and level (to be confirmed by a tradesman, as I dont feel confident to tackle the area [77no x 450mm slabs]).
I am currently in the process of digging down a few inches aound the gravel border in order to remove old roots, remove some of the 'clay' and put some balast down, with some gravel to get a level start point.. Does this sound feasible? ?
I will go back to the archives and do some more reading for now as there are several leads I want to follow up on.. Thanks for a great site. ... .
Mark Watson-New DIY project
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danensis
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The way Thames water are going I'm surprised they haven't been round with a bucket!
Its important to understand the geology of springs. What you have in a spring is a sponge cake effect, with a layer of water bearing rock (sand, gravel or coal) trapped between two impervious layers. However, in many cases someone hasn't put the plate down flat, and the cake slopes. Where the cream filling comes to the surface is called the line of basseting, and if the slope is upwards towards the line of basseting, (i.e the strata slope downwards from the spring) then digging a hole "uphill" from the spring should reveal the water bearing layer somewhat lower than the spring.
Tony, any chance of a diagram?
Its important to understand the geology of springs. What you have in a spring is a sponge cake effect, with a layer of water bearing rock (sand, gravel or coal) trapped between two impervious layers. However, in many cases someone hasn't put the plate down flat, and the cake slopes. Where the cream filling comes to the surface is called the line of basseting, and if the slope is upwards towards the line of basseting, (i.e the strata slope downwards from the spring) then digging a hole "uphill" from the spring should reveal the water bearing layer somewhat lower than the spring.
Tony, any chance of a diagram?