New Lawn- Drainage, French Drains ETC ETC

[Chrisbarham]

Hi,

currently in the process of renovating my back garden to include a lawn.

it is not a huge area.. the total garden is 41' (12.50m) x 14' (4.27m), and i guess the lawn area will be around 8mx4m.

Now i think i may need some drainage as i live in london and much of the ground is clay based. I am thinking of installing a few under ground pipes etc (french drains) how ever i have no place of exiting the water as i am surrounded on all sides by brick walls... so my question is where can i get rid of the water.. do i need to build a soakaway..

 

[r896neo]

A soakaway in clay soil is useless. Taking it into a removable centre bottle gulley to act as a silt trap and then on through a Y into a rainwater gulley is probably your best option.

However whilst this is the proper way to do it i'm not sure that it is technically allowed, but it certainly is done frequently. Maybe someone on here can tell you for certain what is permitted in your area.

 

[masona]

Have a look at the plastic soakaway boxes, maybe french drain to the boxes, have fitted these for my roof rainwater as my old brick/hardcore type soakaway clogged up therefore couldn't cope with the water demand, will need to cover the plastic with geotextile sheet which filtered the water out and stop it clogging up with clay/mud, bought mine from Jewson


http://www.plasticdrainage.co.uk/soakaway

 

[Jim77]

My garden was really very waterlogged and I had to redesign the whole thing.

First job was installing French drains but could not use a soakaway as soil is clay and water level is high.

Dug a trench same as for a soakaway and cemented in two large tanks - first tank as filter feeding second tank fitted with dirty water pump with 25mm id pipe along underside of fence to the main storm water drain 10metres away.

Very very effective but costly and time consuming as I also had to fit weatherproof electrics for pump. Have not regretted doing it, though.

HTH
Jim

 

[masona]

As pointed out by Jim77, forgotten to add, should find out the water table level first

more details here http://www.pavingexpert.com/drain08.html


http://www.pavingexpert.com/drain13.htm

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

very effective

and illegal!

 

[Jim77]

and illegal!

You sure?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

When you say 'main storm water drain' did you mean you drained your garden into the mains belonging to the Water Company?