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Garden Drainage: Start to finish

  • 30-05-2006 10:40am
    #1
    Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 7,638 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    Ok, I’ve mentioned that I had been sorting my garden out on the odd thread here and there, and last weekend I finally finished. So the following is what I did from start to finish. I’m not saying it will work for everybody, but it may give people a direction to start from.

    The garden is 9m wide by 7m long, with a large wall to the back as the house behind me is on higher ground. I got the house in December 2004 and it was pretty clear from the first time I went into the garden that the drainage would be a problem. I was quoted €3,000 to have the garden sorted, so I decided to have a go myself

    13/06/05
    384799.jpg
    This pic shows the garden before I did any major work. The previous owner had cut some railway sleepers up and had used them as steps to the shed which I have filled in. The shed itself was surrounded by some trellis which was held in place by 2x4 steaks which had been concreted in.

    13/06/05
    384800.jpg
    This gives a better look at the holes left after I had dug the concrete out. The hole in the bottom right was from two concrete posts that I merged together to form my soakaway hole. As I dug this hole, after about .4 of a metre, I had to use a pick axe to make any progress as the clay was too hard. After a metre, the muck turned into regular soft muck which was no problem. In the end the depth is about 1.4 metres. Note the water in the hole on the left, this is from rain from over a week previous, whereas over the Winter the big hole filled up a few times with heavy rain, but drained off after a number of days.

    21/07/05
    384801.jpg
    I have cleared the grass at this stage, rotivated it and have started on the trenches which will lead to the big hole. Looking back I may have got a couple of the directions wrong, as the slopes are not the best.

    4/03/06
    384802.jpg
    After my Winter break I got stuck in and made some good progress. This is just before the pipes stage

    5/03/06
    384803.jpg
    The piping which I used was made by Wavin and is perforated with about a 10cm diameter. At the join points I cut the end of the joining part in two, and tie wrapped it to the main pipe in the middle.

    5/03/06
    384805.jpg
    This shows how I laid the pipes a bit better. On the base of the trench I placed the same type of material to stop weeds growing in flowerbeds, as it will stop the soil getting into the stones, but will allow water to flow threw. I’m told that this material will degrade over a number of years, but I think it’s the only thing that can be used to stop the two mixing. The stones I used are 20mm in size and come in 20KG bags.

    11/03/06
    384806.jpg
    This shows the main hole being filled up with the rougher type rubble at the bottom. As I got to the top, I mixed in the smaller stones. You can just make out some chicken wire around the edge as well; I used this on top of the porous material to give a stable and flat surface to finish.

    9/04/06
    384807.jpg
    I’ve started to fill in the holes at this stage, and have used topsoil which I got in 30kg bags which I got from the local garden centre. In the end I used about 40 bags, and would have been much better getting it delivered in bulk at the start.

    25/05/06
    384808.jpg
    This was just before I laid out the new grass. I had thought about planting seed, but the ground is still very hard in areas, and I don’t think that seed would take that well.

    26/05/06
    384809.jpg
    This was my day of triumph after nearly a years wait. Laying the sods was hard enough work as they had been rain soaked and pretty heavy, but was nothing compared to the last years digging etc. I got them from http://www.summerhilllawns.ie

    I would roughly make up my costs as the following:
    Piping €150
    Stones €250
    Top soil €230
    Grass €240
    Tools €80
    TOTAL = €950

    I have some of the piping left for sale (free) over on the FS section if anybody is interested.
    http://www.adverts.ie/showproduct.php?product=861

    Feel free to ask any questions as I have been pretty brief in what I have done and have probably missed some info.


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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 22,734 ✭✭✭✭The Hill Billy


    Well done Delly!

    It is very nice to see the outcome of your hard work.
    Too often do posters ask for advice - receive responses & we never hear of the final outcome.


  • Registered Users Posts: 624 ✭✭✭beolight


    well done excellent job and very informative post

    a few comments you could also have bought drainage stone for 40/50 euros a tonne delivered in tonne bag(they will charge for the bag 10 euros) ask at your local builders providers where is best place to buy bulk delivered stones, this will work out much ceaper than bags. you also get a bag to put all the rubbish and orange clay which can at a later date be lifted into a squip.

    same applies to topsoil as you realised

    land drainage pipes: there are actually joiner pieces that can be used if you are seeking perfection


  • Registered Users Posts: 26,960 ✭✭✭✭GreeBo


    nice job.
    Ive done a lot of work in my house back/garden (not as "basic" as that) and I wish I had taken photos so I could compare the "then" and "now"
    when you see it everyday you forget how bad it was.

    Let us know how it handles a shed load of rain i.e is it draining!


  • Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 7,638 Mod ✭✭✭✭delly


    Thanks for the kind words people, thanks also to anybody who helped me along the way.

    In relation to the drainage now, before I put the grass down there was a massive rainfall a couple of weeks ago. While a lot of surface water built up during the rain, it had cleared the following day. I suppose time will tell how effective it will be when the grass takes.


  • Registered Users Posts: 267 ✭✭AdrianR


    a few comments you could also have bought drainage stone for 40/50 euros a tonne delivered in tonne bag

    Ouch! It's €12 a tonne for loose drainage stones down here, incl delivery.


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  • Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 7,638 Mod ✭✭✭✭delly


    As I was doing it bit by bit, I only got stuff as I needed it, and I don't think i'd have been in the good books if I had a few tonne bags hanging around the driveway for a while ;).


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,472 ✭✭✭tred


    delly wrote:
    As I was doing it bit by bit, I only got stuff as I needed it, and I don't think i'd have been in the good books if I had a few tonne bags hanging around the driveway for a while ;).



    Fair play to you. Best DIY Job I have seen in a while. a lot of work went into, keep us posted on how u get on during the winter. Well done.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,222 ✭✭✭\m/_(>_<)_\m/


    well done.... great job.
    looks like a lot of work, but obviously payed off...
    you will have many a long evening supping on beer admiring your work..
    well done again.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,343 ✭✭✭JohnBoy


    just update the thread in a couple of weeks to let us know how the lawn took


  • Registered Users Posts: 22,231 ✭✭✭✭Sparky


    That pipe is excellent stuff, we done a massive garden of lights and used that pipe as we didnt want them to full up with water over time.
    The owners of the house said after we installed all cables, where once the back garden would be waterlogged in the middle, its now dry.
    We used 100mtrs of the stuff.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,064 ✭✭✭Gurgle


    delly wrote:
    I have some of the piping left for sale over on the FS section if anybody is interested.
    http://www.adverts.ie/showproduct.php?product=861
    Goddamnit, I've had 40-50m of that stuff rolled up behind my shed for the last 5 years since I did the same job.

    Haven't been able to give it away.


  • Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 7,638 Mod ✭✭✭✭delly


    Gurgle wrote:
    Goddamnit, I've had 40-50m of that stuff rolled up behind my shed for the last 5 years since I did the same job.

    Haven't been able to give it away.
    Maybe your piping could do with a friend ;)


  • Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 7,638 Mod ✭✭✭✭delly


    Just a quick update with a picture after the first cut.
    dscf24988dy.jpg


  • Registered Users Posts: 26,960 ✭✭✭✭GreeBo


    Nice...looks like you have some nice water pressure there...lucky fecker


  • Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 7,638 Mod ✭✭✭✭delly


    GreeBo wrote:
    Nice...looks like you have some nice water pressure there...lucky fecker
    The council are good for at least one thing...


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9 gardenlily


    You really did a good job delly ;)


  • Registered Users Posts: 715 ✭✭✭bubonicus


    Hi Delly,

    I think I can figure out what estate you live in from those pics. And from the problem you had. Don't want to say just incase!;)

    I also had/have(not sure if it's fixed until it rains heavy) the same problem now for the last 4 years in my back garden.

    Just had a landscaper in two day's ago to do something similer, plus extra stuff in the front garden(stone border etc..) for a total of 1200 euros. :eek:

    Didn't go for fresh lawn. Lanscape guy put down seed and high grade feed and weed they use on football pitches.

    So hopefully we will have bog free gardens this winter:D


  • Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 7,638 Mod ✭✭✭✭delly


    I don't think we are the first or will be the last to have that problem here. Its a bit of a waiting game all right, hopefully it will be ok in the Winter though. I reckon if I had originally got a quote of €1200 I would have gone with it, but the quote I did get was a 'Feck off, i'm not interested' one.


  • Registered Users Posts: 87 ✭✭damiand


    Well done Dell.

    Thats the best drainage job I have ever seen. A gardner of which I used to be one would never do such a precise job as that, in fact I had to do you own garden a few years ago and I wasnt as precise as you were.

    Congrats.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,064 ✭✭✭Gurgle


    damiand wrote:
    Well done Dell.

    Thats the best drainage job I have ever seen. A gardner of which I used to be one would never do such a precise job as that, in fact I had to do you own garden a few years ago and I wasnt as precise as you were.
    I second that.

    And, tbh, turn those pictures into a brochure and drop them into letterboxes in any new estates you can find, you could make a great living out of that work. ;)


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  • Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 7,638 Mod ✭✭✭✭delly


    Thanks for the kind words people, but I reckon at one garden a year, I wouldn't make too much money. Oh, and i'd probably be divorced :(.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,028 ✭✭✭FrankGrimes


    Great job on the drainage Delly, and good guide to how to do it aswell.

    Seeing this thread as a sticky though reminds me of something I've been meaning to suggest for a while: there are plenty of key posts on key topics floating around this forum but its not always easy to find them. I think a single Key Posts sticky linked to several different key posts would be a great help. They do it over on Askaboutmoney.com and when people dig up an old topic like, say, insulation, its easy to direct them to the Key Post on it where they should add new posts instead of starting separate threads.

    I think its a great idea and would help users get to relevant information quicker and reduce regurgitation of issues that have already been dealt with.

    Identifying suggestions for Key Posts could be made by anyone but you could make the final call? This would also help capture and reuse much of the incredibly useful information that rooferPete and Kadman have made down through the years which would otherwise dwindle into the hit and miss zone that is the search feature.


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 10,427 Mod ✭✭✭✭Mr Magnolia


    Great job on the drainage Delly, and good guide to how to do it aswell.

    Seeing this thread as a sticky though reminds me of something I've been meaning to suggest for a while: there are plenty of key posts on key topics floating around this forum but its not always easy to find them. I think a single Key Posts sticky linked to several different key posts would be a great help. They do it over on Askaboutmoney.com and when people dig up an old topic like, say, insulation, its easy to direct them to the Key Post on it where they should add new posts instead of starting separate threads.



    Agreed, see Delly's post above.
    Dellly wrote:
    Its hoped that similar projects from other users can be stickyed as well.

    Informative project Delly, I'll have to tackle my own garden later this summer too


  • Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 7,638 Mod ✭✭✭✭delly


    The key post feature is a sticky that I have had on my mind for a while all right, along with cleaning up the links sticky as well. I must check out that list over on askaboutmoney and see how it works as like you say, there is tonnes of info along the line that could be put to good use.


  • Registered Users Posts: 267 ✭✭AdrianR


    Delly wrote:
    I would roughly make up my costs as the following:
    Piping €150
    Stones €250
    Top soil €230
    Grass €240
    Tools €80
    TOTAL = €950

    Just a tip for anyone else preparing to do something similar, shop around for the piping, I bought 100M of 3" piping for €58 last week, you will probably get it cheaper in Agricultural stores (In most small towns) than in the DIY sheds (B&Q, Homebase etc). 2" piping will be cheaper per metre but it tends to come in 200M rolls and 4" is a lot more expensive than 3".


  • Registered Users Posts: 20,099 ✭✭✭✭WhiteWashMan


    As a suggestion towards the topic of stickie threads etc, and what should be stickied, something we did on the work forum, was to get a list of all the great threads that have been about, and list of links etc, and put them all onto a single stickie.

    a sort of index of useful threads that have been on the forum.

    that way you dont end up with 17 stickies at the top of a page, but that the information can be easily found without having to do a 3 hour trawl back through a forum.

    just a suggestion.

    perhaps patrickolee can be mod of stickies from now on.
    the power of the stickie ahoy!


  • Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 7,638 Mod ✭✭✭✭delly


    Indeed, I think a sticky of key threads is the way to go.

    Oh, and patrickolee for President!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 890 ✭✭✭patrickolee


    I better be really careful here with what I say, or I might get banned and have to create a new user name!! :eek: . Just like poor rooferpete. Guess if this is to be stickied, at least his memory will live on here! You remember Pete right? ... the guy who used to answer all the questions here, before Delly got his _little_ bit of power!

    Whitewashman, I actually agree a single sticky with links to useful previous threads is a good idea. My concern with our new mod stickying his pet project was that if he ever lifted a shovel again we'd all get rsi from scrolling through his stickies!


  • Registered Users Posts: 20,099 ✭✭✭✭WhiteWashMan


    I better be really careful here with what I say, or I might get banned and have to create a new user name!! :eek: . Just like poor rooferpete. Guess if this is to be stickied, at least his memory will live on here! You remember Pete right? ... the guy who used to answer all the questions here, before Delly got his _little_ bit of power!

    Whitewashman, I actually agree a single sticky with links to useful previous threads is a good idea. My concern with our new mod stickying his pet project was that if he ever lifted a shovel again we'd all get rsi from scrolling through his stickies!


    give it a rest.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 638 ✭✭✭theTinker


    very nice work delly, was very informative, im a fan of DIY stff just not very good, i see your lawn was gettting fuller comparing the first and second pics, im very envious, ive a seeded lawn and from day 1 ive been fighting a losing battle against, weeds, moss, clovers, sum wierd things and yello grasss. etc


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