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New build house 2015, concrete or boulder underneath, waterlogged garden and moss growing

yannessyanness Posts: 6
in Problem solving
Hi everyone,

I have bought a new built house with the garden facing west but with a shade area on the left side near the fence when it's sunny.

Since I have bought the house in May 2017,  I am struggling with the grass in the garden. The previous owner apparently was struggling as well to keep it decent. I fought with 10 inch weeds and moss for a good 4 months before winter arrived. When winter came it looked like I haven't done much to keep the moss away. They were coming back at a fast rate.

When it rains the garden squelches and doesn't drain properly. When I tried to fix it, I spoke to a gardener in a garden shop and he advised me to check underneath the garden to see if anything is stopping the water from draining naturally. When I dug a few inches down in two separate holes I found concrete. I don't know how big or large is it but I am really struggling to understand how the builders could leave a garden like that. Even the two near neighbors to the left have moss growing as well.

So I want to fight it, I want to speak to the company which built the house and ask then to sort it out since it is a new build. What do you think? Or do you have other solutions and may be cost as well?

I have some pictures attached but I couldn't attach a couple videos where you could actually hear the concrete when I was knocking on it.

Thanks for your help

Yanness



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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
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  • David WDavid W Posts: 84
    edited April 2018
    Look at section 10.2.9 of the NHBC Standards 2018 which is available by an internet search. You would have to check the standards for the year the house was built as the current rules have changed from the 2011 standards Freddie’s Dad has pointed to.

    This covers garden areas within 20m of the house and states old foundations, concrete bases and similar obstructions within 300mm of the finished ground surface should be removed and that at least 100mm of topsoil be provided amongst other things.

    well worth looking into though I suspect it could be a battle,

    good luck
  • hogweedhogweed Posts: 4,053
    David W said:
     that at least 100mm of topsoil be provided amongst other things.

    Surely you mean more than 100mm which is a scant 4 inches!!

    I think the builders have just been a bit haphazard with the concrete footing for the fence posts and have been a bit overgenerous.
    If the left hand side is always in shade then it will get mossy. My back garden although facing NW is open and has sun in it almost all day, home of the famous free draining loam, still gets moss every year, and every year I treat it. Unfortunately a fact of life.

    The only two options you have are either work with what you've got or go to a great deal of time, trouble and expense turning it into what you want. Only you will know which path to choose. 
    'Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement' - Helen Keller
  • yannessyanness Posts: 6
    hogweed said:

    If the left hand side is always in shade then it will get mossy. My back garden still gets moss every year, and every year I treat it. Unfortunately a fact of life.
    How and what do you treat the moss with?
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited April 2018
    We garden on free draining loam but our west facing front lawn, part of which gets shade for half the day even in summer, gets moss every year.  We've bought an electric rake which takes most of it out without too much trouble.  Before I grew older and developed joint problems I used to rake it out by hand with a spring tine lawn rake (cheaper than the gym and you get fresh air too).  

    You can get moss killer for the lawn but it's all too easy to apply too much and burn the grass and end up with an even worse problem, and anyway all that does is turn the moss black, you still have to rake it out.  

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • David WDavid W Posts: 84
    Hi hogweed,

    No the NHBC spec is for a measly 100 mm.

    The house we moved into 4 years ago was built in 2004, we are lucky in places to get 1 to 2 inches with the added bonus of builders waste that they are supposed to remove off site.


  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    In a garden that small, I would not bother with a grass lawn as you will always have a struggle to keep it nice.  Kill it all off, lay a good quality membrane over it and a thick layer of gravel or pave it right over and have pots of plants.  If you want to, you could then grow some ornamental grasses and/or other perennials through the membrane/gravel layer.  Look at Beth Chatto's famous gravel garden pics for inspiration. 
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • yannessyanness Posts: 6
    Thank you everyone for your advice. Hopefully I will be able to sort it out :).
  • yannessyanness Posts: 6
    What do you guys think of my soil? It is quite bad isn't it? It look like clay type of soil to me. I live in Somerset near the river Parrett.
  • pr1mr0sepr1mr0se Posts: 1,193
    Yannes - that looks pretty difficult stuff to work with.  But located as you are near the River Parret, you are in an area that is underlain with the soft, sticky clays of the Jurassic lower Lias, which are inter-bedded with thin limestones.  This is always going to be difficult, and the builder has made it even harder by leaving builders' rubble and concrete there.  The advice to try to break up the concrete to aid drainage may help, but it may be that, instead of fighting it, you adopt a different strategy of gravels and pots as suggested upthread.  The Somerset Levels are natural wetlands, and you may be "on a hiding to nothing" as they say if you try to go against nature!
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