Before assuming this is all down to compacted soil (and possibly builder's rubble), I see you have houses round about so have any of your near neighbours experienced this sort of thing in the last few months? There has been a lot of rain in some areas this year and also more storms than usual. How far above sea level are you?
I got the builders to not bury rubble (they wanted to)
Neighbours gardens seem ok grass wise. Some of them were previously more prone to flooding than we were, ie I previously saw surface water in some of them but not in our lawn. I think we're lightly higher than the adjacent houses.
As I say the annoying thing was the previous house/garden was fine. We actually had several hundreds of m2 of tarmac around the previous house whereas now there is no hard surfaces so I would have hoped drainage would be better than before!
I think the tarmac might have a lot to do with this. Rainwater flows off tarmac into the drains and it is no longer doing that so your garden is absorbing what previously flowed away.
To break up the compaction the subsoil should have been ripped before they laid the topsoil. The best way is to use a single tine ripper to a depth of at least 400mm at 500mm centres, then lightly level and firm with the back of an excavator bucket. The work should be carried out when the soil is dry and friable.
To do the job now you could consider using an air spade to break up the soil at a deep level while note making a total mess of the lawn.
This is assuming that the ground below the compaction is free draining. Obviously if it's waterlogged none of the above will really help much!
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".
@Loxley An Air Spade wow that looks like an amazing bit of kit!
If it is a water table issue the words 'very expensive to resolve come to mind'. A friend had the same problem years ago but resolved over the years. A TPO was placed on an ash tree in the garden and it became huge. Over time the lawn changed from a mud bath to a useable space. Could trees help at all or is the wait just too long?
I have worked as a Gardener for 24 years. My latest garden is a new build garden on heavy clay.
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Neighbours gardens seem ok grass wise. Some of them were previously more prone to flooding than we were, ie I previously saw surface water in some of them but not in our lawn. I think we're lightly higher than the adjacent houses.
As I say the annoying thing was the previous house/garden was fine. We actually had several hundreds of m2 of tarmac around the previous house whereas now there is no hard surfaces so I would have hoped drainage would be better than before!
To do the job now you could consider using an air spade to break up the soil at a deep level while note making a total mess of the lawn.
This is assuming that the ground below the compaction is free draining. Obviously if it's waterlogged none of the above will really help much!
If it is a water table issue the words 'very expensive to resolve come to mind'. A friend had the same problem years ago but resolved over the years. A TPO was placed on an ash tree in the garden and it became huge. Over time the lawn changed from a mud bath to a useable space.
Could trees help at all or is the wait just too long?