Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Aug 21, 2013 8:57 am Hi all, A bit of back story first. My partner and I recently finished building our home at the foot of the Dandenong's in Victoria. The neighbour to our right is set higher up, and the neighbour to our left is lower then us. Our front yard slopes away from the house down to the road, the house is built on a flat surface of the land, and our backyard has a bit of a slope to it as well. There's a large retaining wall along the right hand side of our property. The issue I have is that the area outside our alfresco is heavy clay soil, and when it rains the water doesn't drain away, it just sits there. When we first moved in we had an excavator in to do some work at the rear of the property, which I think has played a part in the water sitting on top of the surface. It's basically flattened out the land and now the water just pools in that area as you can see from the photos below. I've read through the forum and originally was going to install some drainage and ag pipes that drained the water towards the front of the property and down the front slope towards the road, but now I'm not sure whether I need to change the soil as per Fu's guidelines? The plan eventually will be to deck most of the area that is flooded but that won't be for at least 6 mths due to financial issues. I've attached photo's below so there's a better understanding of what I'm talking about. The area down the right side of the house in front of the retaining wall is approx 15m x 2m, while the area at the back is approx 10m x 2m. I'm new to all this so any help would be appreciated! Thanks. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Clay soil & backyard drainage problems (Photos included) 2Aug 21, 2013 9:18 am Hi Ben+Emily You have a downpipe and stormwater drain within 1M of the flooded area Why don't you just cut into the drain and install a small pit at the lowest point (you can get them at Bunnings) Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Clay soil & backyard drainage problems (Photos included) 3Aug 21, 2013 9:21 am I would hire a rotary hoe and till through some perlite to reintroduce some air into the soil and improve the quality, and then install some drainage. Re: Clay soil & backyard drainage problems (Photos included) 4Aug 21, 2013 10:01 am As building expert suggested. Although i would grade the clay so it slopes to the pit so all yhe water is directed to it. If you want the soil not to be boggy you will need to replace the top 10cm of clay with a sandy loam. But you still have to grade the clay to the drainage pit then put the sandy soil on top as a layer. Also decking over the top won't fix this issue and could cause issues with the footings of the deck. You will need to fix the drainage either way. I've dug some footings to embed a post anchor into. My holes are around 450mm deep which I'll put a 200mm stirrup into. The bottom of these holes seem firm enough. … 0 3300 hey there! π so, itβs kinda common for standard drawer depths to be around 500mm since most cabinets use this size to fit the usual runners… 3 20890 I am not a brick expert, but rendering would be 1 option, it would be costly to do the entire house though.... 2 6673 |