Problem With Garden

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add27

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Our garden is turning into a marsh!
We are 6months into a new house in an Estate. With the wet weather over thae last few months, it is apparent that there is no soakage in our large back garden, with the rain water just sitting on it. I have had a landscaper look at it, and the issue is that the garden is just heavy 'chalky' soil, that will not soak anything up, and that proper topsoil should have been laid down. To get to somewhat drain is going to cost around 1700Euro. I will be getting other prices also.

I know from talking to other household in the estate that thye have the same problems, and are in the house maybe up to a year before us?

Question: Does anyone know if there is any comeback from the builder, if he didn't use proper materials for the garden??
 
I doubt you've any come back. Get a second opinion on whether you need to install drainage. If the problem is just with the soil it may be enough to improve the soil. If the area is prone to flooding or the soil is very very dense clay you may need the drainage. But once in you should be pretty happy.
The soil is clay which means it is made up of tiny particles too small to let water drain through. The opposite is sandy soil which obviously is free draining. Sand and organic matter (compost and manure) make the soil particles bigger which lets the water through. There's a good chance your builder removed all the top soil to lay the foundations of the house. The top soil contains the most organic matter and improves drainage. Under the top soil is subsoil which is basically top soil without the organic matter. If the soil looks kinda pale then it's probably subsoil . It's very hard then it's compacted which would make it even harder for water to drain through. So you may be able to improve the soil by digging it up and adding well rotted manure and sharp sand. You'd need to wait until the soil warms up as it's basically frozen at the moment.
 
What the land scaper plaaned was to dig a hole in the centre of tha garden, about 5-6ft deep, fill in the first couple of feet with stone, then a foot of samlled stones or peeble then sand and finally topsoil.

Channels would lead into this hole from the rest of the garden, with drainage pipes and filled in again with stone and topsoil.Its seems on paper to be effective on paper.

It's not so much of the cost of it annoys me, it that the builder screwed it up so much, and if I don't get it done, then our young kids won't get to use the garden.
 
add27 said:
It's not so much of the cost of it annoys me, it that the builder screwed it up so much, and if I don't get it done, then our young kids won't get to use the garden.
Click to expand...
Its common procedure for house builders unfortunately. Its just not a priority. What your landscaper suggested is the only real solution - even though theres a lot of work involved - but thats the only real way to get its sorted.
There are many threads on this forum about similar issues that people have experienced - and also over on boards.ie
In fact, on boards.ie in the gardening section theres a key post on this problem. It includes pics of how someone went through the process of solving this problem by way of soak pits and drainage channels. Worth checking out.
 
I'm afraid half the country would be sueing their builders about the state of their new gardens if they could.
 
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