Big hole in garden, full of water?

[greenmug]

I've dug out quite a lot of clay to make way for decking. Its approx 5 meters wide, by 3 meters. Its rained a lot over the last few weeks and now its full of water, about 25-30cm in places. I need to bring the level back up a little, probably about 15cm ready for the decking frame.

Can anyone suggest what I could do to get rid of the water and what I can fill the hole with? Hardcore? or some sort of soil that will help improve the soil drainage in the future?

cheers

 

[htgeng]

Can anyone suggest what I could do to get rid of the water and what I can fill the hole with? Hardcore? or some sort of soil that will help improve the soil drainage in the future?

cheers

A sump pump? Out of curiousity, why did you dig the hole to only cover it with decking? Sounds like the sort of job a miserable old so d would give an apprentice to keep him busy for a day or so.

 

[JohnD]

An Aquavac will do it for a modest hole, but yours sounds very big..

the hole will be soft and muddy.

Putting something in it will not improve the draininage, it will just lie on the puddled clay underneath and make a bog

I wouldn't use hardcore as you (or someone else) might want to turn it back into a garden one day.

Maybe dig one corner deeper, and lead the water away in a french drain or something, especially if you are on a hill?

 

[greenmug]

changed our mind, we were going to pave it, but decided on decking and thats a little higher than paving. Also wanted to get rid of much of the clay as possible and improve soil quality to assist in drainage. In retrospect, I should have created drainage holes rather than digging all the clay out.