Clay Soil

A question about : Clay Soil

Looking out this morning, were faced with this. The snow has melted, and now the garden is soaked with water in the centre, its been raining which has not helped things.

Currently, the water from the Grass is coming onto the concrete, and therefore sitting in a nice little puddle. The short term solution is to brush it to the drain, as it does not naturally fall to that location.

I am considering a trip to town, pick up a Ј40 Dirty Water Suction Pump (Similar to Hippo) and run a hose to the drain, then move the pump around the garden until some form of normality is restored to the garden.

That lead us onto the idea of possibility building some form of soak away at the bottom of the garden, then use the pump (when required) to remove the excess water.

The Clay could be removed, however I think its going to be a lot...

Ideas?

Flooded -
Today. About 11:30am.

Normal -
Well September 2014 a few days after purchase.

Best answers:

• I also moved house last year and my new garden is not only solid clay but also due to sun movement and trees doesnt get a great deal of sun. last year i concentrated on 'sunny side'and carted 3 ton of sand and topsoil through house. Its made a slight diff but not huge. The 'dark side ' of the gardn got so bad last year that I had to dig a drainage channel from top of garden to house (which is the way the garden slopes) and this was constntly full of water till about june. I also havenext door higher garden draining into mine.
  when had some footings dug last year the clay was totally solid up to three foot down so no way can it be dug out.
  sump pump may be an option as long as you can drain it somewhere but not too sure how noisy they are. I was going to dig a big pit and put a plastic box in with holes in so it fills up and put pump into there but i decided against this lst year.
  if your garden is like mine digging it out would be ipossible-not only to get rid of it but it goes on forever.they do say to spike the lawn and fill holes with sharp sand but that would also take ages
  let me know how the pump goes if you get one as would be interested to know
• My garden makeover required drainage pipes going in - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....php?t=4656921
  OP, your garden would ideal for a 'fishtail' layout of pipes feeding to a central drain. You may need to lay 10cm of grit then returf to get a decent lawn, although with those trees it may not be worth the bother.
  Local authorities are a bit sniffy about garden water being piped into the drains, but realistically a dry-well needs to be of hefty size to cope with run-off and allow water to seep away even if you can get below the clay band.
• Hopefully when the fixed mortgage is through, we can take another Ј10k for a conservatory on the rear. This will fix the patio area and hopefully that side of things are sorted.
  The garden will just be grass, I have 3 children, 2 rabbits and a dog. I can dig down at the rear happily as this is the remains of the previous owners dumping ground with various overgrown bushes/trees. The plan is to somehow stop the surface water, as its not draining very well.
  I could strip the centre patch of the grass, which appears to be lower than either side and run pipes to the rear, unsure on the soakaway side of things but I guess it will need to be big and wide. I imagine everyone has the same problems, and maybe a soak away with an option to pump in flooding times is the answer.
  The house does have a tide mark, so at some point the water pooled. Recently the street has been dug up for more flooding defences.
  How big does a soakaway need to be? How deep and wide? How far down?
• Also, I dug a hole where it was pooling onto the patio, the water level did not rise once mud/clay bundles removed. I was hoping it would, and I could insert an old loft water tank and pump from there.
  Maybe the clay is saturated, and holding the water. I guess the next few days will tell. I did fork the grass areas, its soaked.
• A bit of a tiny update...
  I dug a hole, and put an old recycling tub into the ground (with a few holes in it) to collect any water. I purchased a Dirty Water pump on the weekend.
  Tuesday - I returned home to find the garden flooded still, it had been snowing and the tub was full of water. The water level was enough to take it over the lip onto the Patio. Water was touching the brickwork, however below the damp course. I pumped the tub out..
  Today - Returned home again, tub full again. Might be something regular now, but I cannot leave the pump in the water in-case it freezes/or dog chews it. Once the tub was empty, I made the hole bigger.
  The garden does drain off, we had noticed that it has been wet in the past, but solid a few days later. I spoke to people about the area, and a large Soakaway might be the answer. I guess when its dryer, i can dig a 1x1x1 hole and see what the soil is like. Locally, there is a man with a digger for rent, therefore a possible solution.
  I could go with the 1x1x1 crate idea, then have a gravel based soakway/French drain tree coming from it. I think i am knocking on Ј500 alone for the crate/gravel/digger/turf....
  I guess, if i dig any clay out, i should put clay free toil soil back.
• My garden always looks like this! I always thought you were stuck with whatever soil you've got, so I'm interested to see these ideas thanks!
• Well the rain has stopped, the garden is drying up nicely. We have recently had a quote to have a surface drain run across the concrete patio (Ј950) and leaving a blanked off 4" pipe just inside the grass..
  This blanked pipe is to go to the garage downpipe, but what if I used the wrong pipes... (ie the ones with slots in them) and they sat on a gravel base, with weed control/silt control fabric wrapped around them...
  of course, in addition to a crate soakaway...
• and...
  Clay Soil... is it best to remove the top layer of clay, then put down 2" (5.04cm) of new top soil to allow drainage, or just get a tiller and till it in with compost etc?
• Also ash is good for breaking up clay soil but takes time.
• Purchased a Hollow Aerator. Going to attempt to remove some cores, and insert some sharp sand.
  See what the next few weeks brings.