French Drain - Soakaway Crate - Clay Soil

[Transfixed]

Good morning,

I recently had my garden leveled from quite a steep slope that previously had water streaming towards the house.

The problem is we have a retaining wall that encloses the garden on 3 sides, with the house and garden path being on the 4th and a layer of clay soil on top.
A lovely murky swimming pool is provided when it rains, however, I was thinking a garden would be nicer in the long run

So, I'm wondering if there are any drawbacks or issues with the following, and any/all advice is welcome and appreciated.

1. Regrading the garden slightly to have the water run down to one side.
2. Digging in a french drain with perforated pipe along the side of the garden
3. Digging in a 1m3 soakaway using a soakaway crate near the center back of the garden (at least 5m away from the house and 2.5m away from the garden wall).

Questions:

1. Has anyone used the soakaway crates before as an outlet for a French Drain?
2. Any issues with them or connecting the perforated pipe into them?
3. What distance from the retaining wall foundations should I place a french drain, so as not to cause any issues in the long term?
4. Anything I should think about well in advance or plan for with regards to the above?

Little bit Extra:

We do have gutters that drain into rainwater outlets at the side of our house, but since there is a garden path there I can't burry a pipe from the french drain to them (unless I break up a trench in the path and relay which I am keen to avoid).
Although also not sure about the legality of running extra stormwater from a french drain into them and a little nervous about pushing all the runoff towards the house.​

Thanks and have a nice day,

Curtis

 

[John D v2.0]

My thought would be, if it's really clay then will it down away into the ground?