Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 1:35 pm
Hi all
My/my neighbours gardens and the valley between our roofs drain into a soakaway. I noticed recently that the gardens were getting very soggy and so have begun to investigate the current (apparently very old, full of large rocks and rubble) soakaway -- using Soakaways (main site) as a guide. I've dug about 600mm down so far (around the where pipes enter the soakaway); it is very very silty and, unsurprisingly, very wet -- when I dig I can see streams of water coming in from the rest of the soakaway.
Being 600mm down and digging with all that water isn't too easy up against a fence. When it rains, water collects but does not drain. I've got a submersible pump to make life a bit easier.
I'm getting a bit disheartened; we do have 'clayey' soil. I'm hoping that it's just the siltyness of the old soakaway which is stopping the water from going. Water does drain from the rest of the garden on the whole but nearer the soakway less so.
Could it be just the crud in the existing soakaway causing the water not to drain? Is it worth me continuing to dig down in this old soakaway?
Thanks in advance all!
My/my neighbours gardens and the valley between our roofs drain into a soakaway. I noticed recently that the gardens were getting very soggy and so have begun to investigate the current (apparently very old, full of large rocks and rubble) soakaway -- using Soakaways (main site) as a guide. I've dug about 600mm down so far (around the where pipes enter the soakaway); it is very very silty and, unsurprisingly, very wet -- when I dig I can see streams of water coming in from the rest of the soakaway.
Being 600mm down and digging with all that water isn't too easy up against a fence. When it rains, water collects but does not drain. I've got a submersible pump to make life a bit easier.
I'm getting a bit disheartened; we do have 'clayey' soil. I'm hoping that it's just the siltyness of the old soakaway which is stopping the water from going. Water does drain from the rest of the garden on the whole but nearer the soakway less so.
Could it be just the crud in the existing soakaway causing the water not to drain? Is it worth me continuing to dig down in this old soakaway?
Thanks in advance all!