Hi,

My back garden is approximately 60' x 25' and slopes from front to
back and slighly from left to right. The house is in North London and
as is typical for the area the soil has a clay consistency resulting
in drainage problems.

Someone has advised me that I should dig a hole about 2mx1m by 1m deep
in the lowest point of the garden (which is the bottom right) and fill
it with bricks stones etc. Is this actualy a good option?

I've looked in Google and I have seen references to this being done so
I suppose it is not a bad idea. Where the hole will be dug is an
unused part of the garden so it will not be a big problem.

One reference I saw on Google seemed to indicate that the rubble
should be clean which I took to mean it should not have loads of
cement. Last years project was to tear down our old patio and build a
new one so I have a lot of rubble left over from the old demolished
patio can I use this?

Thanks
Andy

"Andy Coleman" wrote in message
om...
Hi,

My back garden is approximately 60' x 25' and slopes from front to
back and slighly from left to right. The house is in North London and
as is typical for the area the soil has a clay consistency resulting
in drainage problems.

Someone has advised me that I should dig a hole about 2mx1m by 1m deep
in the lowest point of the garden (which is the bottom right) and fill
it with bricks stones etc. Is this actualy a good option?

I've looked in Google and I have seen references to this being done so
I suppose it is not a bad idea. Where the hole will be dug is an
unused part of the garden so it will not be a big problem.

One reference I saw on Google seemed to indicate that the rubble
should be clean which I took to mean it should not have loads of
cement. Last years project was to tear down our old patio and build a
new one so I have a lot of rubble left over from the old demolished
patio can I use this?


When we moved into our, North London Victorian Terraced house, the garden
sloped upwards from left to right as we live on a hill. My husband levelled
the garden.

We then discovered that the bottom right corner is a lot wetter than the
rest of the garden. Our answer was to dig out a pond and have a bog area.
It has been very successful.

Natalie

The message
from (Andy Coleman) contains these words:

Hi,

My back garden is approximately 60' x 25' and slopes from front to
back and slighly from left to right. The house is in North London and
as is typical for the area the soil has a clay consistency resulting
in drainage problems.

Someone has advised me that I should dig a hole about 2mx1m by 1m deep
in the lowest point of the garden (which is the bottom right) and fill
it with bricks stones etc. Is this actualy a good option?

Read what cormaic (of urg) says at www.pavingexpert.com...full
explanation and instructions on every kind of drainage solutions,
including your idea, by a professional in terms the layman can follow.

Janet.

"Andy Coleman" wrote in message
om...
Hi,

My back garden is approximately 60' x 25' and slopes from front to
back and slighly from left to right. The house is in North London and
as is typical for the area the soil has a clay consistency resulting
in drainage problems.

Someone has advised me that I should dig a hole about 2mx1m by 1m deep
in the lowest point of the garden (which is the bottom right) and fill
it with bricks stones etc. Is this actualy a good option?

It's called a soakaway. The idea is that the water will drain quickly into
the hole and then slowly out again. This should reduce surface water. If the
surrounding soil is really bad though you'll just end up with a smelly hole
full of water. I guess the fact that you don't actually have a natural pond
there means that there is some drainage so it may work. I can't imagine why
the rubble should need to be clean though.

Martin

"Andy Coleman" wrote in message
om...
Hi,

My back garden is approximately 60' x 25' and slopes from front to
back and slighly from left to right. The house is in North London and
as is typical for the area the soil has a clay consistency resulting
in drainage problems.

Someone has advised me that I should dig a hole about 2mx1m by 1m deep
in the lowest point of the garden (which is the bottom right) and fill
it with bricks stones etc. Is this actualy a good option?

A soakaway has to be at least 5m from any building or structure. If you can
manage that, a lot will depend on where the water table is. The idea is that
the soakway is a large hole that will take a lot of water quickly and allow
it to soak into the ground over time. If the water table is so high that the
hole starts off nearly full of water, it will not do a lot of good. The
easist way to check the water table height is to dig a deep hole and then to
see if it fills up, even without rain. If it does, the water level it
settles to will show you where the water table is. If a 1m deep hole stays
dry, then a sokaway ought to work well.

.....
One reference I saw on Google seemed to indicate that the rubble
should be clean which I took to mean it should not have loads of
cement.

It means it should not have lots of dust and small rubbish in it, which can
clog the gaps between the rubble and make the soakaway less effective. For
the same reason, a good soakway will be surrounded with either graded gravel
or one of the modern membranes, to stop soil washing into the gaps.

Last years project was to tear down our old patio and build a
new one so I have a lot of rubble left over from the old demolished
patio can I use this?

Bricks work better than concrete, because bricks are porous and a full-sized
brick can hold a pint of water. However, concrete will work.

Colin Bignell

nightjar wrote in message ...
A soakaway has to be at least 5m from any building or structure.

I was intending to put the soakaway at the bottom of the garden which
is about 18m from the house and as the lowest part of the garden is
the wettest.

manage that, a lot will depend on where the water table is. The idea is that
the soakway is a large hole that will take a lot of water quickly and allow
it to soak into the ground over time. If the water table is so high that the
hole starts off nearly full of water, it will not do a lot of good. The
easist way to check the water table height is to dig a deep hole and then to
see if it fills up, even without rain. If it does, the water level it
settles to will show you where the water table is. If a 1m deep hole stays
dry, then a sokaway ought to work well.

Sounds like a good idea. I can dig a 1m hole and just expand it out if
the hole stays dry.

Bricks work better than concrete, because bricks are porous and a full-sized
brick can hold a pint of water. However, concrete will work.

Thats what I thought. How big should the bricks be. Can I put a whole
brick in or should I break it up? If I do not break the bricks up then
there would be bigger gaps between the bricks - would that be a good
or bad thing?

Thanks for your help.
Andy

"Natalie" wrote in message ...
"Andy Coleman" wrote in message
om...

When we moved into our, North London Victorian Terraced house, the garden
sloped upwards from left to right as we live on a hill. My husband levelled
the garden.
Due to the size of the garden and the amount of slope leveling would
be quite a big task. I leveled out a garden in my previous house which
was 20'x20' in size and that was quite a job.


We then discovered that the bottom right corner is a lot wetter than the
rest of the garden. Our answer was to dig out a pond and have a bog area.
It has been very successful.

Natalie

I did think of this but we have a lot of small children around and I
would be worried about them near a pond.

Thanks
Andy

"Andy Coleman" wrote in message
om...
nightjar wrote in message
...
A soakaway has to be at least 5m from any building or structure.

I was intending to put the soakaway at the bottom of the garden which
is about 18m from the house and as the lowest part of the garden is
the wettest.

You also need to take into account whether there is something like a garage
in a neighbour's garden. A soakway can cause subsidence if built too close
to foundations. There does not seem to be any planning requirement with
regard to its proximity to boundary walls or garden sheds.

.....
Thats what I thought. How big should the bricks be. Can I put a whole
brick in or should I break it up? If I do not break the bricks up then
there would be bigger gaps between the bricks - would that be a good
or bad thing?

The best is to build a chamber with honeycomb brick walls, fit a solid roof
that will withstand years of walking over, for example 100mm of reinforced
concrete laid onto a temporary corrugated iron roof, and have nothing in the
chamber at all. That will give maximum capacity, but you need to be sure
that the side walls are strong enough to hold back the soil around them.

If you have enough full house bricks, it would be easier to fill the hole
with layers of bricks, but with successive layers running in different
directions, so that there is a sort of three dimensional bond, to keep the
structure stable. Largish gaps around each brick are essential to allow the
water to flow between them. The usual way that a soakaway is built is to run
the drain pipes into the centre, then fill the hole with whatever rubble
happens to be to hand. That can need a bigger hole to have the same effect,
but is a good way of getting rid of unwanted rubble.

It depends on what you have to hand and how much effort you want to put into
making the soakway. Whatever you do, you will extend the useful life of the
soakway by surrounding it with a permeable membrane, made for the job, that
keeps the gaps from filling with washed-in soil. Of course, you also need to
work out what you are going to do with a couple of cubic metres of sub-soil.

Have fun.

Colin Bignell

"Andy Coleman" wrote in message
om...
"Natalie" wrote in message
...
"Andy Coleman" wrote in message
om...

When we moved into our, North London Victorian Terraced house, the
garden
sloped upwards from left to right as we live on a hill. My husband
levelled
the garden.
Due to the size of the garden and the amount of slope leveling would
be quite a big task. I leveled out a garden in my previous house which
was 20'x20' in size and that was quite a job.


We then discovered that the bottom right corner is a lot wetter than the
rest of the garden. Our answer was to dig out a pond and have a bog
area.
It has been very successful.

Natalie

I did think of this but we have a lot of small children around and I
would be worried about them near a pond.

Thanks
Andy


Why not just make a bog garden then? There are a lot of plants that enjoy
having there feet damp all the time ;-)

Natalie

Thus spake "Natalie"



"Andy Coleman" wrote in message
om...
"Natalie" wrote in message
...
"Andy Coleman" wrote in message
om...

When we moved into our, North London Victorian Terraced house, the
garden

I did think of this but we have a lot of small children around and I
would be worried about them near a pond.

Thanks
Andy


Why not just make a bog garden then? There are a lot of plants that enjoy
having there feet damp all the time ;-)

Maybe they don't want the pitter-patter of small, damp, muddy feet
tramping through they house?

Kids inevitably end up playing ball games, which will chew up any wet garden.

--
Helen D. Vecht:
Edgware.

"
Why not just make a bog garden then? There are a lot of plants that
enjoy
having there feet damp all the time ;-)

Maybe they don't want the pitter-patter of small, damp, muddy feet
tramping through they house?

Kids inevitably end up playing ball games, which will chew up any wet
garden.


I was only suggesting one corner of the garden being turned into a bog
garden...not the whole of it. Also, I didn't have any problem with my pond
and bog garden when my children were young.

Natalie