Garden Drainage: Start to finish

delly wrote: »

wetgarden, i have just checked the first post in the thread and all the pictures appear to be there, perhaps your internet settings are note allowing you to see them?

I can see them.

Hey Guys,

I remember this thread from ages ago and thought it was so good that I'd give it a try myself. I will post pictures along the way as the work progresses in a fashion similar to Dellys! (Fingers crossed it works out!)

The garden is very level but the soil and grass quality is extremely poor.

As you can see from the attachment, I have very wet and soggy back garden and decided that I need to drain it or improve the soil.

I have two test areas dug at the moment to a level of about a foot. The area to the right is showing a bit of pooling from the rain lastnight so i know this may be a good area to dig a soakpit, but the ground is full of stone from the builders and hard going.

However, to the rear of the garden. the clay is very soft and managable and it was easy enough to dig down to and is also showing slight pooling.

Question #1: Given that the surface is very even with no natural roll, which area would you suggest I use as a soakpit?

Question #2: What depth should the french drains be?

Question #3: When I have rotivated the garden and have all the rubbish and stones thrown away, would you recomend a mix / ratio of top soil and lawn sand and if so, could someone in the know, recommend the volumes of top soil and sand needed to cover a lawn 11metres x 7 metres to a recomended height?

Heres to a few months hard work ahead of me!

It would be far quicker, easier and a much more effective (cost and efficency) to run land drain(s) from problem area within garden area and connect to nearest AJ with storm drain/grey water.

Land drains are best put in at 900 mm depth and set in 300mm gravel and slits should be on sides to avoid any silting up before backfilling. Soak pits should be a min of 9 cu feet. In a small garden expect smaller soak pit to fill quickly and simply result in moving the excess water around.

A word of caution, running land drains with falls to neighbouring properties could also lead to more complex problems with neighbouring sites. I would be reluctant to recommend that anyone diverts run-off to potentially 'flood' a neighbours garden!

I’m currently looking to get rid of all grass from my back garden and am intending to slab 45m^2 and gravel 85m^2. Should drainage be something I should concerned about? I never had any problems before with the grass.
I will be looking for a gardener to do this work as I am absolutely clueless.

Sonnenblumen wrote: »

It shouldn't be but much will depend on direction of the run-off from patio, area isn't that large, but as a precaution you could dig a deeper trench 300mm/12" along patio perimeter and back fill with hardcore/gravel, this will allow run-off to dissipate quickly without creating any marshy spots.

Stone gardens can look very good, and providing well finished can be easy to maintain. But as a matter of interest, did you consider using synthetic grass for part of the area?

Easy Maintain is the key for me. I never heard of synthetic grass, sounds expensive. Cheers.

Hi, I have about 50 Meters of 80 mm drainage pipe left after doing up my garden. If anyone is interested let me know. I'm In Dublin 11.

Here is a few more shots of the drainage at the back of the gaff.


full 50m roll of drainage pipe used , about 3 ton of stone, used a lot of the topssoil under the new lawn , graded it down towards the soak holes and laid the new lawn , that instant lawn rocks, got it from a company in enniscorthy for 160 quid delivered, down and finished in about 6 hours, plenty of watering and its finished. the decking area came out really well, just need to cement down the capping stones and its finished, well pleased with all the work, started in jan, finished about july/august.

used a cedar coloured oil on both decking areas, they did come out a different shade alright but sure it cant be helped, although i did powerwash the decking along the back of the house first and then 2 good coats of decking oil, same on the new area.

treesireland wrote: »

well done , great effort. my coment will make you cross , but i do not meen any ofince. your garden will benafit from your diging , you could hav achived the same result by spending the price of a box of grass seed, the plants growing in the garden told the thru storey, the soil was good , the hool you dug proved this , the only thing the garden needed was to be dug over and reseeded, but for such good effort i wood let you into my garden any day,

Based on the water in the second photo I would have to disagree.
My garden has taken a ridiculous amount of water of the last months and has never looked like that.

There was definitely a drainage issue here.
Excellent job OP, lovely wall also.

Folks

Typical Dublin housing estate garden- water logged in winter and usually dry in the summer when there is good weather but it can take a good while to dry out when it rains.

WE have a dog though and it makes it hard on the drying as he runs up and down the garden. currently the 5 foot at the bottom of the garden is just in muck, all the grass is gone. Result is he drags in the muck into the house which isn't good for hygiene with a young baby crawling around.

There is also a drain cover in the middle of the garden- think its a sewer that's underneath

Now I reckon there is a drainage issue of some sort, I don't have the time, or the skill to build this French drain solution myself and think that grass might be a no no anyway with the dog.
So a few questions:

1. If I went for the drainage with the French drains is there some ultra tough wearing grass that could tolerate a dog? Typically how much would this cost to get a landscaper or gardener to do ( garden is probably 18 feet by 30 feet) ? Any recommendations in Dublin?

2. Is there another option of putting down gravel or some sort of loose pebble in the garden that would get us over the drainage issue without having to dig the drains? Would I have to dig up the grass, put down some sort of membrane over the soil before putting down gravel? How much would this cost? Any recommendations?

Sorry for the 20 questions but I need a solution that isn't mad expensive and that I can get done in the next few weeks.

W.B. Yeats wrote: »

Folks

Typical Dublin housing estate garden- water logged in winter and usually dry in the summer when there is good weather but it can take a good while to dry out when it rains.

WE have a dog though and it makes it hard on the drying as he runs up and down the garden. currently the 5 foot at the bottom of the garden is just in muck, all the grass is gone. Result is he drags in the muck into the house which isn't good for hygiene with a young baby crawling around.

There is also a drain cover in the middle of the garden- think its a sewer that's underneath

Now I reckon there is a drainage issue of some sort, I don't have the time, or the skill to build this French drain solution myself and think that grass might be a no no anyway with the dog.
So a few questions:

1. If I went for the drainage with the French drains is there some ultra tough wearing grass that could tolerate a dog? Typically how much would this cost to get a landscaper or gardener to do ( garden is probably 18 feet by 30 feet) ? Any recommendations in Dublin?

2. Is there another option of putting down gravel or some sort of loose pebble in the garden that would get us over the drainage issue without having to dig the drains? Would I have to dig up the grass, put down some sort of membrane over the soil before putting down gravel? How much would this cost? Any recommendations?

Sorry for the 20 questions but I need a solution that isn't mad expensive and that I can get done in the next few weeks.

I don't think french drains and/or mini soak pits are feasible solutions for small urban gardens or gravel gardens are practical for young children etc etc. A far better but long lasting option would be to replace grass with synthetic lawn. Ground prep similar to installing a patio and you will have a grass like durable finish that would be both weather and dog proof all year round, plus a nice soft green surface on which the younfg baby etc can sit on etc.

Just wanna say, a really informative and fantastic thread. This is exactly what needs to be done to sort out the garden of our new house.

Thanks OP!