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Flooded Lawn

gbroadleygbroadley Posts: 11
edited January 2021 in Problem solving
I need some serious help here!

My garden floods very easily. The flooding can be two or three inches deep virtually across my entire 70 foot long lawn and can take days to go down. I have clay soil. Interestingly, My two neighbours either side have no flooding problems whatsoever. As far as I can tell I have no underground stream running through my garden either. 

Early this year, during the lockdown, I extracted a depth of 18 inches of my clay soil across a six meter section of the garden and replaced it with top soil. Drainage seemed much better in that area until it rained really heavily, then it flooded again. I guess the extracted section is still surrounded by clay soil either side so I am assuming it can only hold so much before it must flood like the rest of the garden.

I am getting desperate here and need advice from people who know how to resolve this kind of problem.

What should I do:

1) Dig up all (the entire length 70 length) my clay soil (18 inches deep) and replace it with good soil, and if so which soil is best?

2) Raise my lawn by 4 inches?

3) Do both 1) and 2) above?

4) Give up and have a french drainage system professional installed (not cheap!)?

5) Any other solutions?

I attach a photo of my sodden garden. And this is on a good winter's day!







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Posts

  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    This a problem and you have my sympathy. Before you do anything else, I think you should chat to your neighbours and ask if they had a problem and what they did about it. After that you need to think about where the excess water could be drained before you undertake heavy and expensive work. If the flooding is very frequent, you may well need professional advice.
  • rachelQrtJHBjbrachelQrtJHBjb Posts: 819
    Could it be that your garden is lower than the surrounding ones (either to the sides or at the back) and the surface water drains into yours as it sits at the lowest point? I've seen this before in a residential garden where the neighbour had a downpipe that emptied onto their grass just the other side of the fence and all the water travelled underneath and filled the lady's garden. 
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Where does the rainwater from the paved patio drain to?


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





  • gbroadleygbroadley Posts: 11
    Posy said:
    This a problem and you have my sympathy. Before you do anything else, I think you should chat to your neighbours and ask if they had a problem and what they did about it. After that you need to think about where the excess water could be drained before you undertake heavy and expensive work. If the flooding is very frequent, you may well need professional advice.
    The neighbours, who have been there before we moved in, have never had drainage problems. This problem is a real mystery!
  • gbroadleygbroadley Posts: 11
    rachelQrtJHBjb said:
    Could it be that your garden is lower than the surrounding ones (either to the sides or at the back) and the surface water drains into yours as it sits at the lowest point? I've seen this before in a residential garden where the neighbour had a downpipe that emptied onto their grass just the other side of the fence and all the water travelled underneath and filled the lady's garden. 
    The surrounding gardens are the same height and in any case separated by firmly installed gravel boards with no gaps for water to pour through. So I have ruled this one out.
  • gbroadleygbroadley Posts: 11
    Dovefromabove said:
    Where does the rainwater from the paved patio drain to?

    Good question. The block paving was installed before I moved in. It is raised about 8 inches above the lawn and, as you probably know, block paving drains well. There is a drain next to my patio and I assume excess water drains into there also.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited January 2021
    It’s worth checking how much water from the patio goes down the drain ... go out there with a brolly in heavy rain and look to see what’s happening. 

    Also, where does the drain drain to? Could it go to a soak away under the lawn which would mean that surrounding area is becoming waterlogged?

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





  • gbroadleygbroadley Posts: 11
    Dovefromabove said:
    It’s worth checking how much water from the patio goes down the drain ... go out there with a brolly in heavy rain and look to see what’s happening. 

    Also, where does the drain drain to? Could it go to a soak away under the lawn which would mean that surrounding area is becoming waterlogged?
    It drains in to a main drain that leads out into drainage system in the street. So it can take pretty much anything. If I were to install a drainage system under my lawn, this is where I would lead it to. Trouble is that would take a lot of excavation and not a little expertise so I am exploring what other options might be out there.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    I'm not sure if it's permitted to run land drains into the mains drainage system ... I think @raisingirl might be able to advise on that one.  

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





  • rachelQrtJHBjbrachelQrtJHBjb Posts: 819
    Is that an outbuilding in the neighbouring garden to the left? Does it have gutters or does the water simply come off the roof into your garden? Just a thought.
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