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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2015 2:18 pm
by DNgroundworks
Been racking my brains over this but i cant work it out.
Got a problem at my mates equestrian place, he had some drainage done - 4 x lengths of 150mm perf pipe about 80 mtrs long joined into bigger drain along the edge of the field.
For some reason they didnt work at all, a huge 100ft square lake appeared right over the top of the drain runs.
I couldnt work it out, so i dug down where i could see the trenches, to the gravel on all four drain runs and dug channels back to the artificial pond and low and behold all the water drained.
Why is it not draining through the top soil capping? in some places the soil is around 2ft deep but mostly around a foot?
And the outfall, a few hundred metres away is around 6ft lower than the field?
Cheers.
Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2015 3:52 pm
by mickg
this seems to cover issues of soil drainage
sports turf drainage
Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2015 4:17 pm
by montygti
Sounds just like our stables fields, What we ended up doing was using a thing that makes slits in the top soil(cant remember what its called) and then added sand just using a fertilizer spreader and the used the chain harrow to basically move the sand into the slits that has been created. Did it a couple of times and did the trick. We put it down to heavy clay soil.
Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2015 1:27 pm
by DNgroundworks
Cheers Mick, but i am none the wiser!
According to that website, im going to have to put in a complicated system.....i dont even know what heavy loam soil is!
I might email the Boss, or, if he reads this, id love to know what he thinks.
Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2015 6:08 pm
by lutonlagerlout
patently the water is not getting through the topsoil
are the pipes wrapped in teram?
what type of gravel was used?
I have seen similar done in clay and the water scoots through it
LLL
Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2015 6:12 pm
by lemoncurd1702
Mole plough or subsoiler run at 45 or 90 (not sure which) to your land drains. This will break up the compacted soil similar to what montygi suggests but at a greater depth.
An Agricultural contractor would have the correct implements and maybe able to advise further.
Good luck
Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2015 7:05 pm
by msh paving
the horses have trod the ground hard, as lemoncurd said a mole plough or a farmer with a pan buster with flat lifters to get ground open and free, might even pay to pan bust whole paddock and reseed MSH 
Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2015 9:18 am
by ajmoore1
As said the soil has compacted after having horses running over it over years. Bet the ground hasn't been ploughed for years.
Get a pan buster or mole plough and go at 90 degrees to the drains you put in. Hopefully your drains will be below the depth of pan bust/mole plough. If drains aren't deep enough an aerator would work but would need doing more often.
Good agricultural contractor would be able to tackle it no problem
Regards
Jon
Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2015 7:42 am
by GB_Groundworks
We've got mole ploughs that'll do 1 metre deep but need big hp and good ground, or a verti drainer that spikes the ground or a blec slitter that you then use to sand band, both need a big tractor preferable on lgp tyres. We do the rugby club pitches every Year with these to break the compaction of all the big lads running around
Alternatively what we do to top out the drains in bad ground like this is bring the stone to the surface, using 40-100 clean or better but trickier solution gravel upto 8" of the service then Terram then we use a mix of loamy soil and course sand to make a free draining soil up mix it up with machine 1 bucket of each
Edited By GB_Groundworks on 1423554382
Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2015 7:44 am
by GB_Groundworks
If you need some to do it give James a call at Pugh-Lewis he's got all the kit does a lot of work on the sports pitches etc real knowledgable guy.
Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2015 8:29 am
by GB_Groundworks
heres james blec ground breaker he lends us slitting our pitches pro to 80 tons sports sand per pitch being top dressed into the holes this makes, it can also have a hopper attached directly
you could also use the gravel bander http://www.blec.co.uk/gravel-bander
Edited By GB_Groundworks on 1423556990
Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2015 11:37 am
by GB_Groundworks
Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2015 7:06 pm
by DNgroundworks
Wow, Cheers Giles.
Ive got plan, let me know what you think.
Upon further inspection two of the four drains are a bit naff tbh out fall in the wrong place etc. So what im thinking is soil strip the paddock, re-profile the clay to suit (levels are all over the place at the minute) install new drains. Put soil back mixed with a suitable sand, power harrow and re-seed?
Its not a huge field, not even a field just a small paddock. so i think rather than trying to make good...im just going to start from scratch.