Patio flooding

[Michaelsf90]

I'm guessing this will come up a lot with the recent weather. When we get heavy rainfall our patio starts to flood in one corner. The patio slops to that one corner

Anyway a couple of years ago I put pea gravel down the edge between the flags and lawn. Probably a foot wide all the way down. In the corner where it's worse I dug about 1 metre by half a meter by I'd say a good 2 or 3 foot deep and filled that with pea gravel. A do it myself soakaway

Now this has helped but not eliminated it. It doesnt help the soil is quite clay heavy. I'm at a loss with what to do. I can put an aco drain down the edge but what do I do with the corner seeing as that's where it would all drain. It's like that would make it worse. I cant drain to my drain on the house as the patio slopes away so it would run uphill

 

[geebs]

Ive been doing a fair bit of reading on this kind of thing. I have a related drainage dilemma myself. Not really the same as yours.

The clay soil saturates very quickly and in a prolonged spell of rain the surface run off builds up fast.

Maybe it’s possible to install the drainage but it could involve a fair amount of work laying a pipe under the patio so the aco drain could link to your surface drains??

 

[williamglossop]

My garden was the same. I put a sump at the bottom of garden and put a submersible pump in that has a float switch attached to it. When it fills, the pump activates and the water is pumped to an appropriate drain.

 

[Michaelsf90]

With how the patio slops I cant possibly run it into the drain. You know after a while of being in a house and all the things you pick up on and avoidable problems you find and you think why do it like that. The slope of the patio takes water away from the drain. A corner on the far edge of the patio but the water has nowhere to go once the ground is so saturated

I dont know if this sounds good but my plan is to aco drain down the edge of the patio. Then in the corner where it builds up run a land drain/french drain from the aco drain down a trench on the edge of the garden to the far end of the garden. Then dig another soakaway pit and fill with gravel. That way it is drained to the other end of the garden. The land drain will lose water through holes in the pipe as well as in two soakaway pits at either end. It has to be better than what it is now and itll probably cost me about £150 in materials as well as a lot of hard work

 

[williamglossop]

Problem with clay soil is whatever soak away u dig, it will fill with water and just sit there. U need a way to get the water to one point and then pump it to a suitable drain.

 

[Michaelsf90]

I agree but surely by digging a trench and another pit at the end of the garden it will help. I dont expect a miracle. Just to alleviate the problem. We are planning on having an extension at some point so the drainage issue will get completely sorted then when the ground is dug up for foundations etc

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Bigger the soakaway available, the more water it will take, and the longer it has to disperse. Aco drain or simply lay some perforated plastic pipe in a trench along the edge of your patio, cover with 20mm gravel, and run as described, down the garden.

 

[Michaelsf90]

And the land drain will also help disperse water over a bigger surface area?

 

[williamglossop]

U can assess the permeability of your soil before digging a huge soakaway. Dig a trial hole, fill it with water and leave it 24 hours. See after that how much the level has dropped. If it hasn't changed, a bigger soakaway won't really help - its just a characteristic of clay soil.

 

[Ian H]

Use aquacells instead of gravel, your soakaway will be able to hold much more water so give more time to empty.

You can go against the flow of the patio if you wanted to put a connection onto an actual drain.

 

[Ian H]

My daughter has just bought a house that has a flooded back garden because it’s in a low spot.

I was thinking to burry a full row of aquacells up the centre and simply have a gravel path on the top of them, then an overflow from them into the house surface water drain. I would hope the overflow would never be used but it would be there just in case.

 

[Michaelsf90]

How can I go against the flow of the patio without putting a pump in? The patio corner is lower than the drain gully. Is aquacell a proper plastic soakaway?

 

[Nige F]

My daughter has just bought a house that has a flooded back garden because it’s in a low spot.

I was thinking to bury a full row of aquacells up the centre , then an overflow from them into the house surface water drain. I would hope the overflow would never be used

That's what I've got - a soakaway under a surface water drain run . Honest, it's a massive one with the drain running over it - in a mini chamber

 

[Ian H]

How can I go against the flow of the patio without putting a pump in? The patio corner is lower than the drain gully. Is aquacell a proper plastic soakaway?

If you put a pipe under the patio to take the water to a drain you need a fall on the pipe, regardless of which way the patio slopes.

The drain will be deeper after the gully.

 

[Michaelsf90]

Its if the drain runs that way. The drain may run towards the front of the house. If it does then theirs no way I can pick the drain up. Its just a pain