I recently started digging out for a patio, our house is lower than the garden and had a 3ft wide path across the back, so I'm pushing this out to give us a bit more space.
The problem I have is that I shifted an awful lot of soil before hitting clay and then the trouble started. I ran out of time to get it graded off properly that weekend and since then we've just had rain, rain and more rain and I can't put the digger on it as it just makes it worse and it's so tough I'll be here for weeks by hand. I don't really want to leave this too long as I fear it will just get worse.
How do I move forward from here, should I just have to dig out more than I need by hand and fill it with MOT ?
The Plan is to build a retaining wall with some sleepers, tanked at the back with some DPC membrane and gravel behind and then run some aco drain at the foot of the retaining wall and run it back to an existing surface drain at the side of the house that drained the path off from a gulley that was there before I started digging out. I'll obviously slope the paving away from the house too.
For my money i would play a waiting game if it drys out then go ahead but could you have hit the water table? Once you retain that garden and weepholes are fitted in the wall its clear that proper and efficient drainage of the patio area is going to be very important
the only thing I could suggest is scratch out a couple of holes to collect water so you can bail it out then just bite the bullet and get the digger in there and clean it up. Do you have a better bucket you'll need a wide toothless one to make a half decent go at it and you can sit on the drier area by the house to load it out. As soon as it's cleaned up get some stone in over geotextile to give you a surface to work off and put the sleepers in.
I've got a ditching bucket, you can just see it in front of the oil tank that's what I used to drag it all out with. It is just surface water but it's so saturated from all the rain the thing just churns it up too much at the moment. I guess it's just the waiting game then, could be a while the way this year has been !
