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To Soakpit or not to Soakpit?

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  • 03-01-2010 12:06pm
    #1
    LucyB
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5 ✭


    My garden floods.
    Badly.

    I'm only in the house 1.5 years and have cut down a pyracanta (sp!) hedge. There are also three very large tree stumps that must have been removed before I had the house.

    The garden slopes down the back. The rainwater drain is beside the house (approx 2ft higher than back of garden).

    I'm getting conflicting advice. Should I put a soakpit in? Will it help if there is nowhere for it to drain to?


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    #2
    LucyB
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5 ✭LucyB


    Also meant to add that I will be getting the front driveway done so was going to put the topsoil in the back garden to raise the level - will this help?


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    #3
    Sonnenblumen
    Registered Users Posts: 5,834 ✭✭✭Sonnenblumen


    LucyB wrote: »
    My garden floods.
    Badly.

    I'm only in the house 1.5 years and have cut down a pyracanta (sp!) hedge. There are also three very large tree stumps that must have been removed before I had the house.

    The garden slopes down the back. The rainwater drain is beside the house (approx 2ft higher than back of garden).

    I'm getting conflicting advice. Should I put a soakpit in? Will it help if there is nowhere for it to drain to?

    Presumably thje water is lodging at the bac end but given the level variance it's hard to see what or why you would require a soak pit? soak pit is only useful if it has capacity and also time to allow the water drain away. In an urban garden, the areas can sometimes be too limiting to build a soak pit. Some have installed land drains but again these can also have limited benefits especially if there is only a small or no soak pit.

    I would check the soil conditions at the end of the garden, explore if there is any obstacle (debris) preventing the watewr draining away. I would back fill 75% of area with drainage gravel/pea gravel and top dress with soil. If the flooding is severe you will need to examine best methods for dealing with excess water. There are various solutions.


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    #4
    LucyB
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5 ✭LucyB


    Thanks,

    Urban house, neighbours get flooded but not as bad - my garden is lower.

    There are the large old tree stumps at back of garden.

    Once conditions improve I will try to dig the soil through to see if it being compacted has caused the problem. I haven't dug it at all yet and I don't believe it was worked previously at all. How deep should I dig?


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    #5
    wreckless
    Registered Users Posts: 702 ✭✭✭wreckless


    hi, post up some pictures as its so much easier to advise when we can see what your referring to. heres an old thread, ive put some photos of soakpits (2) i put in my back garden. worked a treat

    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054939061&page=5


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