Dave,

More information please. If you visit the doctor for a $50 office call,
you will not expect him to help you if you provide little more information
than "my stomach hurts; I tried some Tums; my stomach still hurts."

You are seeking advice for a problem which is much bigger than a $50
issue. I'm willing to offer advice and I'm certain that others will also,
but you need to take the effort to give us some details.

Please describe you problems and describe the terrain: Standing water,
poorly graded lawn, wet basement, saturated soil (clay), estimated depth
of topsoil (if any!), estimated depth of surface clay (until you hit hardpan),
runoff from adjacent properties, natural springs in your area, etc. ? You
don't have to answer all issues, but the more the better.

Describe you attempted fix: DIY "soak away" system or a "professionally
installed system", type and size of aggregate used, type and diameter of
drain pipe, installed using civil engineering transit/level/tape/leveling rod
or just hillbilly guess & dig approach, pitch of terrain, pitch of drainage
system, distance between laterals, specifics on the "soak aways" (dry
basins), depth of laterals, etc. Once again, it is best if we aren't guessing
about your specifics.

From my experience, 90% of subsurface drainage systems are improperly
installed. About 50% of them fail to work adequately in the first year,
another 25% eventually fail as the poorly installed systems degrade, and
the other 25% work moderately well to extremely well, based upon blind
luck rather than the skill of the installer. I know professional sports turf
builders (golf course builders in particular) who can't understand why the
exact same drainage design worked in situation #1 but not in situation #2.
Their method of installation is quit simple:
"That's the way we've always done it."

The more you tell us, the more we can help.

FYI: If you are attempted to correct poor drainage in a large area with
extremely high clay content, you are usually wasting your effort unless
you have laterals spaced at 3' or less. Yes, that sucks, but that is the
reality of trying to make clay "soil" behave nicely. Even with 3' laterals,
you need to have a reasonably good understanding of some soil engineering
principals. Also, that pretty white crushed stone that everybody uses
is one of the worst choices for aggregrate. It works fine for a while, but
ultimately degrades as it shifts, compacts, and fills with clay.

Good luck,
Gideon

================

dave wrote in message ...

I have a problem with poor drainage from my lawn. I have dug a soak away
but still the rain water does not go away. The house & surrounding area
is built on clay which is very deep, I know this from the amount of
digging I have done in it. Does anyone have any idea's ?