Drainage on clay

[Harry Bloomfield]

Surface rain water drainage is a constant wet weather problem here, we have a few inches of soil, then heavy clay everywhere. I'm wondering if there is an easy way, without digging, to get an idea just how thick the clay layer might be? If not too thick, I was thinking an auger to make a drainage hole, then fill the hole with gravel.

 

[George_engineer]

Check BGS maps and any nearby borehole records. Clay will often be many metres or even hundreds of metres deep. Best best is to build a soakaway but have an overflow to a drain or elsewhere.

 

[Murdochcat]

We have a lot of clay and this winter the standing water has been an issue that we’ve not had in the 10 years we’ve lived here.

I just accept it’s there And then it goes away - which it has now.

Not sure I could be bothered to improve the situation

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Check BGS maps and any nearby borehole records. Clay will often be many metres or even hundreds of metres deep. Best best is to build a soakaway but have an overflow to a drain or elsewhere.

There are a cluster of boreholes, a couple of hundred yards away, all marked 'confidential', then a couple 400 yards away, which I could actually open and read. These suggest 2m down, below mixed rubble, they hit grey mudstone, with soft yellow brown clay, which then extended for 2.23m. Below that, weathered shale. The report suggests they hit water, at 4m depth, so just below the clay....

That seems to suggest if I were to drill through the clay of my garden, that I would hit water, 2.23m down