garden drainage problem ..help!!

Sheam

I have had a member of the LandscaperS Association of Ireland undertake work in my garden last Autumn which resulted in creating a huge drainage problem. He has vowed to rectify it and at my request has, after seven weeks, eventually submitted his written proposals for this work. He is now looking for my agreement to proceed. I desperately need an expert independent second opinion on the effectiveness of his proposals to give me confidence in letting him go ahead as I am not qualified to judge that. I need to avoid having to have to revisit this matter again if his proposals fail to work. I have contacted the ALCI who cannot be of help unless there is a dispute...which there isn't. Anyone with this experience who could suggest my best move here? I have thought of a Civil Engineer but cant afford that expense. The landscaper says its not necessary but if I want one it must be at my expense!!!!!
I am living with hardcore at front and back after a rogue builder left me in the lurch after refurbishing and I just can't cope with another long running issue!!! HELP

antoinolachtnai

You really should get expert advice. If you can't afford expert advice, you're just going to have to work with what you have.

It is certainly a good thing that your landscaper is prepared to stand over his work.

If you told us what the problem is and what the landscaper's proposed solution is, maybe someone can give you an idea of whether it's going to work or not. How big is the garden, how is the land sloped, what natural drainage there is, where the water is accumulating and so on.

godtabh

send me a pm and I'll have a quick look at it

Sheam

I agree, I really do need expert advice. Anybody able to recommend one they have used in a similar situation?

antoinolachtnai

Well, if you know absolutely nothing about drainage, ideally you would get a civil engineer, but I can understand if money is an issue.

This is probably not that big a deal to fix. If your garden drained before the works were done, it shouldn't be that difficult to get it to drain again.

I would pm back the other poster and see if he/she might be able to help.

Sheam

godtabh wrote: »

send me a pm and I'll have a quick look at it

Great....but am new to Boards. How do I send a pm to you?

Sheam

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

Well, if you know absolutely nothing about drainage, ideally you would get a civil engineer, but I can understand if money is an issue.

This is probably not that big a deal to fix. If your garden drained before the works were done, it shouldn't be that difficult to get it to drain again.

I would pm back the other poster and see if he/she might be able to help.

Thats comforting tks. As you can see I am trying to do that!

antoinolachtnai

Sheam wrote: »

Great....but am new to Boards. How do I send a pm to you?

Assuming you are on a desktop, click on the username to the left of the post and it should give you a list of options including sending a private message.

Sheam

Tks found it!!

Sheam

As requested, some details. So just to give the full picture:

The total outside area is L shaped and bordering my newly built 10metre open plan kitchen/dining/living extension. Total outside surface area was left by the builder in hardcore and its to the rear of my small bungalow.

For garden design purposes I divided the area into two distinct areas (patio and garden) as I want to use a different surface on both. The upper "foot " of the L measures 8' wide with french Doors opening onto it, and an AJ nearby. It is 27' 6''lengthwise with two french Doors opening onto that side. This will be my patio area. The remainder of the L "foot" measures 20'4'' to the rear wall in length and,same a upper area, is 8' wide. There is no door in this section but there is two floor to ceiling windows wrapping around the corner of the L shape. There is no AJ at the corner window or anywhere else in this area.

The upright area of the of L (starting from the corner of L and changing direction at 90 degs) measures 16'4'' long to side wall X 12'3''wide. There is a wooden garden shed in this area measuring 8'x6'. These latter two areas combined comprise the "garden" area. There is no AJ here and it opens onto a concrete side passage measuring 3' wide. I hope you can follow those measurements....would be easier on a sketch!!

To further define both areas, I wanted to break up patio and garden areas visually. In order to do this I wanted a stepped drop in level from upper patio into a lower garden area (through a rose arch) as per measurements above.

In Autumn 16,my Landscaper dropped the level 6'', exported the hardcore,imported topsoil and seeded it. His final level now appears to be 5'' below the original .This dropped area is where the drainage problem is. It was waterlogged all winter and then "baked" and cracked in the hot conditions we experienced in mid June. I was at no time advised that this work might result in a drainage problem.

The Landscapers proposals are to leave the area already dropped at this new level and and install a perforated pipe connected to my "storm water drain". This AJ is situated 12'6'' distance from the garden in the concrete side passage. The passage falls towards the garden with 4'' step down to current garden level. He intends to break out a strip of concrete from garden to AJ to facilitate this.

He proposes to test the drainage by"putting a running hose on it to see the water being carried away into the storm water drain". At this point he proposes seeking my approval of the works before re-concreting the strip of concrete in side passage. I don't feel confident or informed enough in giving my opinion and know once I do, this will most likely be the matter concluded from his point of view....even if I do have a problem in Winter. Would this test be reliable? I feel the only acid test would be continuous wet winter conditions?

I would clearly like to retain the two levels but I cant see these proposals working with my garden at its current level. It appears to me that water would have to do the impossible and drain uphill?? If this is the case, would there possibly be any other way around this that would allow me to keep my two levels? If it has to been raised again to its original level then so be it. I will just have to do whatever will rectify it. No point in having a pretty garden that is waterlogged.

I insisted on my Landscapers proposals in writing and despite numerous emails, have waited 7-8 weeks before finally receiving them yesterday!! Now he's looking for the green light from me to go ahead with his proposals and book him in. Clearly its decision time for me as after waiting so long for his proposals I naturally don't want to sit on it. In addition I need to get this work done in dry Summer conditions (estimated 3 days). I will of course seek a written (two year?) guarantee but obviously want to avoid having it revisited a third time, which, I am guessing he may not do anyway. Secondly if a problem emerged in Winter, the patio area will hopefully already have be already tiled and in real danger of being damaged by any further remedial works. Thirdly I just couldn't take the pain of it especially after my rogue builder!!!

The patio work will not be done him (competent person is next problem under research!) not only because he doesn't do tiling but mainly due to my experience with my resulting lack of confidence in his work. Hence I just MUST get this drainage right now as I see myself as only having only one shot at it.

How exactly the patio area should be drained feeds into this whole picture too as I don't want one area to cause a problem in another. Ideally the drainage solution in the lower garden area here should service the patio also and I imagine this is the right time to take a holistic approach to drainage in the total area????

All advice, opinion, experiences etc. no matter how small would be much appreciated. Many thanks.

Sheam

See more detailed description of the problem posted now. Many thanks for your help. Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

CeilingFly

I'm no expert but had major drainage issue in a holiday home I have in the west. The house was at bottom of a hill and it got a massive amount of rain and all came into the garden.

Perforated piping going into storm drain was the solution - we did use over 100m of it, but it worked perfectly.

A civil engineer won't be expensive to look over an issue - €250 would probably do it.

Sheam

CeilingFly wrote: »

I'm no expert but had major drainage issue in a holiday home I have in the west. The house was at bottom of a hill and it got a massive amount of rain and all came into the garden.

Perforated piping going into storm drain was the solution - we did use over 100m of it, but it worked perfectly.

A civil engineer won't be expensive to look over an issue - €250 would probably do it.

Encouraging to hear it worked for you. Thanks for your response.

antoinolachtnai

You are right that a hosepipe isn't the same as a deluge of rain. However, assuming the storm drain is lower than the level of the lower garden then there is no reason it wouldn't work. For peace of mind getting someone to look at it might make good sense.

Sheam

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

You are right that a hosepipe isn't the same as a deluge of rain. However, assuming the storm drain is lower than the level of the lower garden then there is no reason it wouldn't work. For peace of mind getting someone to look at it might make good sense.

The surface level of the Aj is higher but perhaps he can connect in at a lower level.

Agree, do need somebody qualified to look at it to give me peace of mind. Thanks so much for your help.

antoinolachtnai

It is worth taking the time to get an understanding of what it is all about.

Lift the top off the AJ yourself and use a stick to check how deep it is.

You are talking about paving slabs rather than tiles?

If so, I would ask the guy who is going to do the paving slabs to 'check the levels' before the work begins on the drainage.

Sheam

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

It is worth taking the time to get an understanding of what it is all about.

Lift the top off the AJ yourself and use a stick to check how deep it is.

You are talking about paving slabs rather than tiles?

If so, I would ask the guy who is going to do the paving slabs to 'check the levels' before the work begins on the drainage.

Thanks for that. There are 4 ajs along my side passage starting . So starting at the garden level, which is 10cms below the side passage concrete level I lifted the four of them. What I measured was the distance from the concrete top surface to the water level. Was that correct or should I have been measuring to where a dipstick hits the floor of the pipe. This might make more sense as as the water level was different in all four!! 19cms at no. (nearest to garden) 34cms at no. 2, 63cms at no 3 and 39cms at no 4 (nearest to front of house) ???