New Build Garden

[Bon]

Hi guys.

I have recently bought a new build house. Being the generous housebuilders that they are, we were left with a mound of earth as a back garden.

We have set a Landscape Gardener on to build a 2-level flagged patio and a lawned area as the garden is on a slight slope (down, away from the house).

When the guy came to start a couple of weeks ago, he drove his mini-digger onto the garden, where it promptly sank

It turns out that there was a small lake under the mound of top soil & sand that the builder had just thrown onto our garden.

Naturally, we complained and to be fair, they installed a land drain (in addition to the pile of stones the gardener dug into the lowest point of the garden before leaving with his muddy digger!) to the bottom of the garden. What this consisted of I do not know.

Anywya, during the recent rainfall, the crater left by the digger has filled with rain. THe problem is it doesn't seem to be draining. The gardener came back today, had a poke around and promptly left saying there wasn't much he could do.

My questions therefore are this,

1 - Should the pool of water be draining away relatively quickly? (obviously as a flat surface I wouldn't expect the water would collect so easily therefore it may be the shape rather than poor drainage that is contributing to the problem.)

2 - What type of drain should have been installed or should I be looking at to resolve the problem?

Thanks in advance for any help!!

 

[BigRobCanUFixIt]

was a soak away dug and does the land drain carry the excess water to it?

im only a DIYer so hopefully a pro will have proper anwers

sounds like a bodge to me though.

 

[Bon]

I think that a new drain has been put in at the bottom of the garden that runs all the way down the rear of the other houses on my street. (I'm relying on what the wife tells me as I was at work when it was done!)

The gardener dug out a hole in the bottom corner of the garden and fille dit with stones.

The problem to me is that the area they have dug up to put the drain in falls short of the area where the water is now collecting so I can't see how it would ever drain away.

I'm getting annoyed with just looking at it now as I wanted to have the garden sorted before the cold weather sets in and I've got a feeling we've missed our chance! I'm also getting annoyed with the gardener shrugging his shoulders and leaving and the builders just not doing much to help!

 

[r896neo]

From the gardeners point of view i can understand why he is walking away, trying to do a professional job that will last is so difficult when the builders have left such a terrible starting point. Any kind of paving would be doomed to sink without going to major expense and digging it all out so you can be sure what's there.

That said it doesn't exactly help you to shrug his shoulders and not great service.

I would not be surprised if the land drain put in by the builders goes nowhere and is effectively just a large soakaway. You say the landscaper also put in some sort of soakaway? A land drain needs to go somewhere and if the ground is clay a soakaway is useless so draining to somewhere else would be needed.

 

[Bon]

I'll get some pics in the morning.

I believe the ground was contaminated and and the developers had to dig all of that out. It looks as if they've just tiped a load of sand and soil back in.

As I said, I just want someone to tell me what needs doing in order to get it sorted. I'm very concious that the weather is getting colder everyday and I'm wary of leaving it much longer as I know it's not ideal to lay turf in cold weather.

 

[Bodgeitandleggit]

Dont blame the landscaper as he cant polish a turd but he could of give you a explananation ..but as it is a new build the developer has the responsibility and maybe they thought they have solved it...get back in touch with them and if they cannot resolve it they will probably refer it to you water utility company to locate the underlying problem.

 

[Bon]

My mrs tried to get hold of the Site Manager on Friday afternoon (they're still on site) but he'd left so we'll try again on Monday.

Like you said though, they think that they have solved the issue.

I've just taken a photo.

This is what we're dealing with.

The piece of board at the back corner is where the gardener dug in a load of stones. The break in the weed growth at the very rear is where the builders put their land drain in, the puddle is where the digger did a swan dive!!

 

[r896neo]

I imagine a large part of the problem may be the sand. It appears as if the area the digger sank into is all sand, If its building sand just dumped in to fill a hole this would hold water really badly and anything vibrating like a digger would just quick-sand into it.

It's very hard to recommend the best thing to do as obviously in a new build garden you have no idea what you might find. Really the only sure fire way to resolve it is to put in a series of land-drains like this http://venusdriveways.co.uk/communities/7/004/007/332/247/images/4529811728_pre.jpg

This will drain the whole garden but will only work if you have somewhere to drain it to or a soakaway depending on ground conditions. It's not going to be cheap though.

 

[Bon]

Would you agree that the Builder has an obligation to provide us with a somewhere near sound base for a garden??

Would digging out the sand be practical, or is that just a daft idea??

 

[skotl]

I was wondering the same thing, re digging out the sand. Getting a builder (or the original builders) in with a mini digger should make short work of it.

At a complete guess, I wouldn't have thought it would go more than 4 or 5 ft down (unless they used the sand to level out a slope, or fill in a serious hole).

Defo start with the original builders and tell them you want all the sand removed, and earth left in its place.

 

[r896neo]

Whilst that seems reasonable, I imagine its more a case of trying to see what you can get out of them. They should have diggers and dumpers around on site if they are still working there so it may not be a major job for them to dig it out and get rid of it.

I would get them to dig out all the sand and as much of the other ground you want removed as they are up for and then you can have a blank canvas and know what you put back in is suitable.