Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 May 30, 2011 7:46 am I have no drainage at the moment in my backyard. Clay soil and it is still soggy a week after in rains.. the water has no where to go.. The backyard is basically a U shape; one long side on the laundry side of the house about 2 meters wide doesn't get much sun so it takes even longer to dry. The other long side is 3.5 wide and has roughly a meter slope to the footpath. The back has been filled by the builder to slope TOWARDS the house so they dug a channel towards the slope and foot path to help. I am waiting to get the laundry side and part of the pack concreted but I would really like to sort out the drainage issue if I can do it myself. Does any one know what to do? I wouldn't know where to start! Thanks in advance! Re: Terrible drainage in backyard - Help! 2May 30, 2011 7:54 am You won't be doing it yourself. Need a dingo, ag piping, soak well, crushed rock and sand. Process will take about a week. First clay is trenched and mixed with sand to make permeable. Ag piping layed and sloped towards storm water pipe with soak well in line. Crushed rock over ag pipe. Mixed soil replaced. Excess soil removed. About $2500 worth of work. Re: Terrible drainage in backyard - Help! 3May 31, 2011 7:17 am Eve Dweller You won't be doing it yourself. Need a dingo, ag piping, soak well, crushed rock and sand. Process will take about a week. First clay is trenched and mixed with sand to make permeable. Ag piping layed and sloped towards storm water pipe with soak well in line. Crushed rock over ag pipe. Mixed soil replaced. Excess soil removed. About $2500 worth of work. Thanks Eve Dweller, thought it was pretty hard.. well that's more money I need to find :sigh: Re: Terrible drainage in backyard - Help! 4May 31, 2011 8:54 am Victoria_g06 I have no drainage at the moment in my backyard. Clay soil and it is still soggy a week after in rains.. the water has no where to go.. The backyard is basically a U shape; one long side on the laundry side of the house about 2 meters wide doesn't get much sun so it takes even longer to dry. The other long side is 3.5 wide and has roughly a meter slope to the footpath. The back has been filled by the builder to slope TOWARDS the house so they dug a channel towards the slope and foot path to help. I am waiting to get the laundry side and part of the pack concreted but I would really like to sort out the drainage issue if I can do it myself. Does any one know what to do? I wouldn't know where to start! Thanks in advance! A question to both Victoria and Eve. Victoria, how far from the house is that channel? Does it help when it rains? Is that foot path right along the house, or ... (I can't really picture this side at all, and where is the 1m slope??) Do you have water actually sitting in/around the channel when it rains heavily? Eve, you mentioned a soak well. How big it needs to be? A Bunnings size (they are only small, maybe 300 x 300)? Or much bigger? To me any soak well (unless triple that size at least) looks like a toy when I think of the typical downpours - how can they possibly help - they can barely hold 10 or 20 litres of water! . My (amateurish) thinking is that the way to go is to provide a waterway of channels (carved into tiny dips in soil, so that soil slopes towards the channels). For downpours, I would definitely use surface drains. Which brings me to my next question - do we still need to use subsoil drains (ag pipe) for downpours ?? Wouldn't surface drains work better than ag pipes? Or, do we still need both?? My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Terrible drainage in backyard - Help! 5May 31, 2011 10:43 am Lex A question to both Victoria and Eve. Victoria, how far from the house is that channel? The channel is probably a meter from the house back door. Does it help when it rains? It does help actually because it leaves the water away from the house Do you have water actually sitting in/around the channel when it rains heavily? Yes it does and it takes forever to dry, the ground is stil wet/ boggy from rains a week ago Is that foot path right along the house, or ... (I can't really picture this side at all, and where is the 1m slope??) the footpath is 3.5 -4 meters away from the house I will post pictures tonight to make it clearer Eve, you mentioned a soak well. How big it needs to be? A Bunnings size (they are only small, maybe 300 x 300)? Or much bigger? To me any soak well (unless triple that size at least) looks like a toy when I think of the typical downpours - how can they possibly help - they can barely hold 10 or 20 litres of water! . My (amateurish) thinking is that the way to go is to provide a waterway of channels (carved into tiny dips in soil, so that soil slopes towards the channels). For downpours, I would definitely use surface drains. Which brings me to my next question - do we still need to use subsoil drains (ag pipe) for downpours ?? Wouldn't surface drains work better than ag pipes? Or, do we still need both?? Re: Terrible drainage in backyard - Help! 6May 31, 2011 11:48 am if you design everything properly then the water should drain away to the street. Only go down the path of installing pipes and drains if it is physically blocked. This is why it is important to have the backyard a bit higher. This is what i did with my house. Yes it rain and get wet but never floods and dries quickly because the lowest point is at the road level. Re: Terrible drainage in backyard - Help! 7May 31, 2011 11:48 am if you design everything properly then the water should drain away to the street. Only go down the path of installing pipes and drains if it is physically blocked. This is why it is important to have the backyard a bit higher. This is what i did with my house. Yes it rain and get wet but never floods and dries quickly because the lowest point is at the road level. Re: Terrible drainage in backyard - Help! 8May 31, 2011 12:58 pm B STAR if you design everything properly then the water should drain away to the street. Only go down the path of installing pipes and drains if it is physically blocked. This is why it is important to have the backyard a bit higher. This is what i did with my house. Yes it rain and get wet but never floods and dries quickly because the lowest point is at the road level. I'm not sure how to let it go to the street, do you just have a pipe sticking out from the fence? I would love to see pictures if I can .. Anything to help and not spend a fortune! Re: Terrible drainage in backyard - Help! 10Jun 05, 2011 11:18 pm Add perlite and zeolite to the soil as well as sand. That will allow it to drain and dry faster but also absorb or rewet faster in summer. They also prevent nutrient leaching which happens easily when soils become water logged or watered often. Waiting for the interest rates to go down is also waiting for the building prices to go up, you will likely lose. Perhaps you can get the builder to lock up stage, but… 4 3682 DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair That laser level looks lovely! We bought one for less than a quarter of that price off eBay. It worked really well for us and it's still going now, five years later. After… 1 16717 It's possible but a soak well is usually much larger. Your 'soak well' only holds 424 litres when full. What is your soil type? Soak wells need sandy soils. 10 9017 |