Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2014 5:31 pm
Hello guys,
First I must apologise in that I am a total novice and have just come across the site. I am new to all of this, as such I may not be able to provide the best answers to any resulting queries you may have. The following may be quite lengthy, but I'm trying to give as much detail as i can in my laymans terms - I have attached a picture to try and help
The rear garden of our house slopes towards the house (the house is built on a mild downwards slope). The garden itself has always been grassed since we moved in a few years ago. During even moderate rain-fall, although the turf would not water log (there would be no puddling of water or anything that severe) it would end up retaining water close to the surface and any foot traffic would churn the garden up. It would often take a few days of clear weather to dry out fully.
The only area that remained solid under foot was a small area of gravelling by the back patio doors that the previous owner had put in. As such I recently decided I would gravel over the area we most from the back door to the garden shed.
I started skimming the surface vegetation and discovered the garden soil comprises about an inch of top soil and beneath that clay, which explains the issues with the soil churning up easily. When lifting the existing old gravel I found that it had simply been poured out to a depth of no more than 2 inches over weed membrane laid over clay soil.
I spoke with a friend who had done some gravelling in his garden and he recommended "putting a layer of aggregate down as a sub base and whacker plate it first" to make a more solid and better draining gravel area. Given that the old "gravel on membrane" seemed to have held up okay, this seemed like good advice to me in making the job a bit sturdier
As such, thus far I have dug out the relevant area down to about about six inches in total (still clay at this point). I have laid out a border between the lawn and proposed gravel area using old house bricks that has been cemented in place. I have then laid out geo-textile landscaping fabric and yesterday took delivery of about 3.5 tonnes of Type 1 Aggregate.
Yesterday I was able to barrow about a tonne of this out over the landscape fabric, covering the whole area. Thus far I haven't levelled it out or anything as I still have loads left to barrow in and was going to level it prior to compressing it with a whacker plate. As such, at present some parts have about 2-3 inches while others have minimal coverage and there area quite a few dips and delves in the surface.
It has rained moderately pretty much throughout the day and at first, things held up fine, however now I am starting to see puddles forming in the dips and delves in the surface of the Type 1 which has led to me wonder about drainage.
I had planned on having about three and a half inches of compacted Type 1 with one - one and a half inches of decorative gravel laid over the top and assumed the materials involved would absorb/percolate rainfall and at that depth would be sufficient to avoid any risk of flooding? Am I right - am i just seeing puddles due to the lack of a uniform level or should I stop what I am doing and consider digging some drains?
Thanks for your help, and please bear with me!
Picture:
http://i1179.photobucket.com/albums....p3y.jpg
First I must apologise in that I am a total novice and have just come across the site. I am new to all of this, as such I may not be able to provide the best answers to any resulting queries you may have. The following may be quite lengthy, but I'm trying to give as much detail as i can in my laymans terms - I have attached a picture to try and help
The rear garden of our house slopes towards the house (the house is built on a mild downwards slope). The garden itself has always been grassed since we moved in a few years ago. During even moderate rain-fall, although the turf would not water log (there would be no puddling of water or anything that severe) it would end up retaining water close to the surface and any foot traffic would churn the garden up. It would often take a few days of clear weather to dry out fully.
The only area that remained solid under foot was a small area of gravelling by the back patio doors that the previous owner had put in. As such I recently decided I would gravel over the area we most from the back door to the garden shed.
I started skimming the surface vegetation and discovered the garden soil comprises about an inch of top soil and beneath that clay, which explains the issues with the soil churning up easily. When lifting the existing old gravel I found that it had simply been poured out to a depth of no more than 2 inches over weed membrane laid over clay soil.
I spoke with a friend who had done some gravelling in his garden and he recommended "putting a layer of aggregate down as a sub base and whacker plate it first" to make a more solid and better draining gravel area. Given that the old "gravel on membrane" seemed to have held up okay, this seemed like good advice to me in making the job a bit sturdier
As such, thus far I have dug out the relevant area down to about about six inches in total (still clay at this point). I have laid out a border between the lawn and proposed gravel area using old house bricks that has been cemented in place. I have then laid out geo-textile landscaping fabric and yesterday took delivery of about 3.5 tonnes of Type 1 Aggregate.
Yesterday I was able to barrow about a tonne of this out over the landscape fabric, covering the whole area. Thus far I haven't levelled it out or anything as I still have loads left to barrow in and was going to level it prior to compressing it with a whacker plate. As such, at present some parts have about 2-3 inches while others have minimal coverage and there area quite a few dips and delves in the surface.
It has rained moderately pretty much throughout the day and at first, things held up fine, however now I am starting to see puddles forming in the dips and delves in the surface of the Type 1 which has led to me wonder about drainage.
I had planned on having about three and a half inches of compacted Type 1 with one - one and a half inches of decorative gravel laid over the top and assumed the materials involved would absorb/percolate rainfall and at that depth would be sufficient to avoid any risk of flooding? Am I right - am i just seeing puddles due to the lack of a uniform level or should I stop what I am doing and consider digging some drains?
Thanks for your help, and please bear with me!
Picture:
http://i1179.photobucket.com/albums....p3y.jpg
