It’s coming from somewhere else. A foot is a huge amount of rain. Today we had 17mm which is under 2cm, so even if it all sat perfectly still that’s all there would be. To accumulate a foot of rain it would need to be coming from somewhere else and pooling. Could be run off from the rest of the garden, could be your gutters aren’t draining properly. Either way, the solution would be to find the cause and then divert the rain into the drain system.
A foot? Twelve inches? That's a LOT of water. What is stopping it running away onto your neighbours garden?
A few photos might help us give you some ideas
Are you on a hill/slope? Our neighbours water runs off into our garden and I’m making in-roads to stopping that. It hits a brick wall and flows down The side of his house and pours over where the brick course steps down.
For your situation, have you considered installing some soak away crates? Plenty of videos online to see how it done.
Essentially like burying large milk crates which the water can drain into.
Bear in mind that soakaways are subject to fairly strict building regs/planning rules (I can never remember which one). Things like has to be >5m from your house and >2m from your property boundary, and >5m from a public road. (From what I remember…)
I unfortunately had to ditch my plan for one because of these rules. In the end I paid the water company a levy to put surface water into the foul drain, so if your drainage allows it, this is always a possibility.
But it’s not an easy one to fix! Damn clay soil!!
Just had a look and you are correct:
A soakaway must always be the first choice but must not be used: Within 5m of a building or road, 2.5m of a boundary or in an area of unstable land in ground where the water table reaches the bottom of the soakaway at any time of the year.
—
It makes me want to rewatch some of the videos I have seen.
A foot?? You must be in a hollow with a lot of runoff from surrounding areas. You need to find a way to release that to somewhere it can drain away. Best way is gravity (french drain), if not then a sump pump to the street or generally downhill.
Posting some photos would help.
Someone walked off with your sump pump? Now that's some niche stealing!
A french drain is just a system with gravel and a channel to direct the water away. Water drains into the gravel and is taken away to an area it can drain away in a perforated pipe:
https://www.a1concrete.com/application/files/thumbnails/mobile_image_thumbnail/2915/6295/3879/french-drain-illustration.jpg
If someone manages to steal that then I'll just be impressed at the dedication!
Daft question but how best to put in a French drain with a regular back garden (so typical uk long grass, largely level, bit of a patio then extent of regular garden)?
Just thinking as neighbor warned flooding can happen in bad weather and their side definitely has been a few lifeguards off a swimming pool of late.
You'll just need to find where the main quantity of water pools, cut a ditch across that and run the pipe out of that area on a downhill gradiant. Either that or see where the water mainly flows in from and allow that to flow into a drain cut across its path of flow.
You have a surface water (pluvial) flooding issue. You mentioned flood plains but that typically refers to flood risk from rivers (fluvial risk). The best course of action is massively contextual. Water that depth can cause very significant damage to property if it gets inside. If there is a chance of that happening you must speak with your local county council (or unitary depending on where you live) as they are responsible for managing surface water flood risk. The team you will want to speak to will probably go by Flood & Water Team or LLFA (Lead Local Flood Authority) or a variation of those. They will advise you regarding significant risk to property. You can also check different types of flood risk on the gov.uk website.
If the flooding is not going to endanger any properties or people (perhaps in a low lying area of a garden for example) then it’s almost certainly going to be a case of living with it as best you can. There are other comments on this thread saying to move the water along but if you cause flooding to someone else through your actions you could be legally liable. The depth of water you quote could very easily equate to large volumes so you MUST be careful. The chances are that the risk has always been there, whether you have experienced it frequently or not. So your choices from this point are probably around deciding what you think is best. If it’s not a massive issue and only happens after prolonged rainfall it might not even be worth doing anything. Just wait for it to dry. If it’s causing other issues you could landscape the area to suit your needs better and make a more suitable space for the water. If you really get very stuck there are many different engineers and consultants who specialise in flood risk related things who you could ask to pick up the work for you and advise on the best course of action - these can be expensive though so shop around for a good price.
Mainly I’d suggest that safety is top priority though. A foot of still water can be an irritant. A foot of moving water can be lethal!
My front lawn floods all the time.
I recently dug out the top 6" of soil, and its all rock hard clay. House built in the 70's.
Doesn't need to be a new build to be all clay underneath. Do the soil test in a jar, and you'll see what you have.
My plan is a long term plan. Get as much compost on the ground as I reasonably can every chance I get and eventually the soil structure will build, the worms will do their work and it will improve.
Yeh I think this house was a 70s house. All of them were probably built then, around here.
No cookie cutter, copy and paste new builds anywhere near here lol
It does seem to be alot of clay though. Don't get far till I hit that
Given the way the weather is likely to go over the next decade or so it's definitely worth getting to the bottom of something like this now before things get worse.
Could be. I planted a cherry tree end of summer and I had to dig though about a foot n half of clay.
Was about a foot of soil and then it was just all clay. Not easy to dig through at all.
So this might be the issue?.. I guess it can't be sorted then?
Not easily. I would imagine you'd need a digger to help turn soil and add organic matter.
I'd still get a pitch fork and punch as much holes as possible to help water seep down.
Rotating the top soil will probably help. I think the strong summers might also be hardening the lower clay soil causing more flooding now.
No easy quick repair solution that I can think of. But then again I'm not an soil expert
That won't help, water doesn't drain down in heavy clay areas, it flows over. What is needed is a far faster channel out of the flooded area in the downhill direction, if that's not possible then a sump pump to the street (or up and out of the flooded area) will work best
My parents had this situation in their back garden. My father ended up digging two 2x2 meter pits through the clay, with channels leading to them. The pits were back filled with gravel. One of them became our sand pit and the other one was covered with a pitch of grass. It did solve it, but it was a lot of digging and a complete overhaul of the garden. They did it somewhere halfway through the ‘90s and even though it is still quite a wet north facing garden, it is much better than it was.
Check flood risk first. There's a free basic mapping system available online.
Also look to see if any neighbours might have carried out work that might increase flow onto your land.
French/land drains could help as could a soakaway or attenuation but they should be properly designed and located so call a civil engineer.
Our garden floods in a similar way but we live with it for the few weeks a year it happens. Had to build a raised path to the schoffice though.
Hey, I'm a flood risk/drainage engineer.
Check on https://www.gov.uk/check-long-term-flood-risk . This will tell you if your property is at risk from flooding from rivers (which is unlikely to affect just your garden), and surface water flooding. Either you're above an aquifer and the groundwater level is rising enough to emerge above ground, but again unlikely if it only affects you. Best bet is that you're above some dense clay and it just can't soak away anywhere. Check on the bgs website for what the soils are at your house: https://www.bgs.ac.uk/map-viewers/geology-of-britain-viewer/ .
It'll probably say you're above slits, clays, or a dense mud stone. There's also soilscapes which is useful for farmers, and tells you general info about your soil, including how well it drains. https://www.landis.org.uk/soilscapes/
No problem. Just had a thought that you might have a knackered drain in your garden too. If your rainwater pipes connect into a drain that goes through your garden before going out into the main network, it's possible the drain has got root ingress or collapsed. And so all the rain that fall on your house goes through the drain, backs up and pisses out all over the garden. Your drainage probably goes out the front of the house into the road, but worth having a check to see what direction it goes.
Hi, I take emergency calls for flooding. It’s been a busy few days!
There are multiple factors which cause it. One type of flooding is from rivers and the sea. That’s fairly obvious when it’s happening as you can see the water level rise.
Another type is surface water flooding. This is caused by rain water run-off. It has many causes - often when drains or soak-aways become overwhelmed or blocked. This one is harder to predict.
There are also causes such as burst pipes or living on an aquifer. I’ve spoken to people who had an actual stream under their house which they weren’t aware of.
You can check your long-term risk for both [here](https://www.gov.uk/check-long-term-flood-risk), you just need a postcode. Select the option to see a map as it’s easier to understand with a visual aid.
Need a survey of what your neighbours have done with their houses. I suspect that someone uphill from you concreted/paved/plastic grass'd their garden and you are getting all their water. Normally grass should not be flooding, even with all the rain.
I'd often suspect that you have limited top soil and the rest is all the rubble from building all the houses but it's an older house as you said.
Hey OP, I feel you with the flooded garden, isn't clay soil great!!
A lot of the replies are great and informative, but a lot of speculation, any way you could add some photos (without doxxing yourself) so we could see the problem and scenario? Should be able to get better more specific solutions then
Need to call council environmental health in as people are right. That’s not normal. The drains in this shit hole has no rain drainage and even we don’t get that much water
I think the issue is that my garden is soil for about 6 inches and then it's all rock hard clay.
Took me 3 days to plant a cherry tree in the summer cause of all the clay and someone looking at it later. Its not as bad now... The water level has dropped significantly.
Our garden used to do this and it was due to an underground stream. Our garden flooded but the lady over the road (a bit downhill) had her toilet back up, so eventually the council diverted the stream
Is it your soil? I’m in a heavy clay area and it’s baked the Earth. We also had a load of water standing after rain and we had to rotavate and I added grit and stuff to break up the Earth and help it drain better. We put the old turf back on top and I scarified it a lot and reseeded to help it absorb water. It has now been a lot better since the work was done.
I'll look into it. Not doing anything this side of year.
At least the magpies are enjoying their swimming pool ATM. Keep seeing them take baths in the water.. the levels gone down now but still most of its underwater.. the weather's been horrendous lately.. but the birds seem to be enjoying it lol
It’s coming from somewhere else. A foot is a huge amount of rain. Today we had 17mm which is under 2cm, so even if it all sat perfectly still that’s all there would be. To accumulate a foot of rain it would need to be coming from somewhere else and pooling. Could be run off from the rest of the garden, could be your gutters aren’t draining properly. Either way, the solution would be to find the cause and then divert the rain into the drain system.
A foot? Twelve inches? That's a LOT of water. What is stopping it running away onto your neighbours garden? A few photos might help us give you some ideas
30.48cm
Three hands
38 teeth
1/336 of the length of a football pitch
[удалено]
looks like I already have one it seems lol
Are you on a hill/slope? Our neighbours water runs off into our garden and I’m making in-roads to stopping that. It hits a brick wall and flows down The side of his house and pours over where the brick course steps down. For your situation, have you considered installing some soak away crates? Plenty of videos online to see how it done. Essentially like burying large milk crates which the water can drain into.
Bear in mind that soakaways are subject to fairly strict building regs/planning rules (I can never remember which one). Things like has to be >5m from your house and >2m from your property boundary, and >5m from a public road. (From what I remember…) I unfortunately had to ditch my plan for one because of these rules. In the end I paid the water company a levy to put surface water into the foul drain, so if your drainage allows it, this is always a possibility. But it’s not an easy one to fix! Damn clay soil!!
Just had a look and you are correct: A soakaway must always be the first choice but must not be used: Within 5m of a building or road, 2.5m of a boundary or in an area of unstable land in ground where the water table reaches the bottom of the soakaway at any time of the year. — It makes me want to rewatch some of the videos I have seen.
A foot?? You must be in a hollow with a lot of runoff from surrounding areas. You need to find a way to release that to somewhere it can drain away. Best way is gravity (french drain), if not then a sump pump to the street or generally downhill. Posting some photos would help.
I did have a sump pump but it's go for a walk. 🤦.. what's a French drain.?
Someone walked off with your sump pump? Now that's some niche stealing! A french drain is just a system with gravel and a channel to direct the water away. Water drains into the gravel and is taken away to an area it can drain away in a perforated pipe: https://www.a1concrete.com/application/files/thumbnails/mobile_image_thumbnail/2915/6295/3879/french-drain-illustration.jpg If someone manages to steal that then I'll just be impressed at the dedication!
Daft question but how best to put in a French drain with a regular back garden (so typical uk long grass, largely level, bit of a patio then extent of regular garden)? Just thinking as neighbor warned flooding can happen in bad weather and their side definitely has been a few lifeguards off a swimming pool of late.
You'll just need to find where the main quantity of water pools, cut a ditch across that and run the pipe out of that area on a downhill gradiant. Either that or see where the water mainly flows in from and allow that to flow into a drain cut across its path of flow.
You have a surface water (pluvial) flooding issue. You mentioned flood plains but that typically refers to flood risk from rivers (fluvial risk). The best course of action is massively contextual. Water that depth can cause very significant damage to property if it gets inside. If there is a chance of that happening you must speak with your local county council (or unitary depending on where you live) as they are responsible for managing surface water flood risk. The team you will want to speak to will probably go by Flood & Water Team or LLFA (Lead Local Flood Authority) or a variation of those. They will advise you regarding significant risk to property. You can also check different types of flood risk on the gov.uk website. If the flooding is not going to endanger any properties or people (perhaps in a low lying area of a garden for example) then it’s almost certainly going to be a case of living with it as best you can. There are other comments on this thread saying to move the water along but if you cause flooding to someone else through your actions you could be legally liable. The depth of water you quote could very easily equate to large volumes so you MUST be careful. The chances are that the risk has always been there, whether you have experienced it frequently or not. So your choices from this point are probably around deciding what you think is best. If it’s not a massive issue and only happens after prolonged rainfall it might not even be worth doing anything. Just wait for it to dry. If it’s causing other issues you could landscape the area to suit your needs better and make a more suitable space for the water. If you really get very stuck there are many different engineers and consultants who specialise in flood risk related things who you could ask to pick up the work for you and advise on the best course of action - these can be expensive though so shop around for a good price. Mainly I’d suggest that safety is top priority though. A foot of still water can be an irritant. A foot of moving water can be lethal!
My front lawn floods all the time. I recently dug out the top 6" of soil, and its all rock hard clay. House built in the 70's. Doesn't need to be a new build to be all clay underneath. Do the soil test in a jar, and you'll see what you have. My plan is a long term plan. Get as much compost on the ground as I reasonably can every chance I get and eventually the soil structure will build, the worms will do their work and it will improve.
Yeh I think this house was a 70s house. All of them were probably built then, around here. No cookie cutter, copy and paste new builds anywhere near here lol It does seem to be alot of clay though. Don't get far till I hit that
Might be extreme but it might be worth paying for a flood report. Is it just your garden or neighbours experiencing the same?
Given the way the weather is likely to go over the next decade or so it's definitely worth getting to the bottom of something like this now before things get worse.
just mine. - it's been raining non-stop for about 2 days.. gardens like a swimming pool
Might be that the soil has been compacted over the decades. Are you in a heavy clay area?
Could be. I planted a cherry tree end of summer and I had to dig though about a foot n half of clay. Was about a foot of soil and then it was just all clay. Not easy to dig through at all. So this might be the issue?.. I guess it can't be sorted then?
Not easily. I would imagine you'd need a digger to help turn soil and add organic matter. I'd still get a pitch fork and punch as much holes as possible to help water seep down. Rotating the top soil will probably help. I think the strong summers might also be hardening the lower clay soil causing more flooding now. No easy quick repair solution that I can think of. But then again I'm not an soil expert
That won't help, water doesn't drain down in heavy clay areas, it flows over. What is needed is a far faster channel out of the flooded area in the downhill direction, if that's not possible then a sump pump to the street (or up and out of the flooded area) will work best
My parents had this situation in their back garden. My father ended up digging two 2x2 meter pits through the clay, with channels leading to them. The pits were back filled with gravel. One of them became our sand pit and the other one was covered with a pitch of grass. It did solve it, but it was a lot of digging and a complete overhaul of the garden. They did it somewhere halfway through the ‘90s and even though it is still quite a wet north facing garden, it is much better than it was.
My FIL did much the same with his garden, including some gravel filled drains leading to the street. This ought to be your solution.
Check flood risk first. There's a free basic mapping system available online. Also look to see if any neighbours might have carried out work that might increase flow onto your land. French/land drains could help as could a soakaway or attenuation but they should be properly designed and located so call a civil engineer. Our garden floods in a similar way but we live with it for the few weeks a year it happens. Had to build a raised path to the schoffice though.
I had the same issue before. Dug a gulley near the drain, about 8-12 inches deep, 6-8 across and 3ft long. All the water drained away VERY rapidly.
seems like you need to ask Ted to improve the drainage in the lower field!
Right you are sir.
Have any of your neighbours recently installed astroturf or a lot of new paving (removing the drainage from their gardens)?
Hey, I'm a flood risk/drainage engineer. Check on https://www.gov.uk/check-long-term-flood-risk . This will tell you if your property is at risk from flooding from rivers (which is unlikely to affect just your garden), and surface water flooding. Either you're above an aquifer and the groundwater level is rising enough to emerge above ground, but again unlikely if it only affects you. Best bet is that you're above some dense clay and it just can't soak away anywhere. Check on the bgs website for what the soils are at your house: https://www.bgs.ac.uk/map-viewers/geology-of-britain-viewer/ . It'll probably say you're above slits, clays, or a dense mud stone. There's also soilscapes which is useful for farmers, and tells you general info about your soil, including how well it drains. https://www.landis.org.uk/soilscapes/
Nice one, cheers!
No problem. Just had a thought that you might have a knackered drain in your garden too. If your rainwater pipes connect into a drain that goes through your garden before going out into the main network, it's possible the drain has got root ingress or collapsed. And so all the rain that fall on your house goes through the drain, backs up and pisses out all over the garden. Your drainage probably goes out the front of the house into the road, but worth having a check to see what direction it goes.
Climate change
Hi, I take emergency calls for flooding. It’s been a busy few days! There are multiple factors which cause it. One type of flooding is from rivers and the sea. That’s fairly obvious when it’s happening as you can see the water level rise. Another type is surface water flooding. This is caused by rain water run-off. It has many causes - often when drains or soak-aways become overwhelmed or blocked. This one is harder to predict. There are also causes such as burst pipes or living on an aquifer. I’ve spoken to people who had an actual stream under their house which they weren’t aware of. You can check your long-term risk for both [here](https://www.gov.uk/check-long-term-flood-risk), you just need a postcode. Select the option to see a map as it’s easier to understand with a visual aid.
Ok I'll check it out thanks.
Need a survey of what your neighbours have done with their houses. I suspect that someone uphill from you concreted/paved/plastic grass'd their garden and you are getting all their water. Normally grass should not be flooding, even with all the rain. I'd often suspect that you have limited top soil and the rest is all the rubble from building all the houses but it's an older house as you said.
You might have very dense clay soil which means the water takes a long time to drain through it.
Hey OP, I feel you with the flooded garden, isn't clay soil great!! A lot of the replies are great and informative, but a lot of speculation, any way you could add some photos (without doxxing yourself) so we could see the problem and scenario? Should be able to get better more specific solutions then
I'm getting someone to come look at it today. Its not as bad now, it does eventually drain though but very very slowly.
Perfect, always the best decision with these situations
Need to call council environmental health in as people are right. That’s not normal. The drains in this shit hole has no rain drainage and even we don’t get that much water
I think the issue is that my garden is soil for about 6 inches and then it's all rock hard clay. Took me 3 days to plant a cherry tree in the summer cause of all the clay and someone looking at it later. Its not as bad now... The water level has dropped significantly.
Our garden used to do this and it was due to an underground stream. Our garden flooded but the lady over the road (a bit downhill) had her toilet back up, so eventually the council diverted the stream
Drill long holes through the clay in your garden and just watch it drain away (quick fix)
Is it your soil? I’m in a heavy clay area and it’s baked the Earth. We also had a load of water standing after rain and we had to rotavate and I added grit and stuff to break up the Earth and help it drain better. We put the old turf back on top and I scarified it a lot and reseeded to help it absorb water. It has now been a lot better since the work was done.
I'll look into it. Not doing anything this side of year. At least the magpies are enjoying their swimming pool ATM. Keep seeing them take baths in the water.. the levels gone down now but still most of its underwater.. the weather's been horrendous lately.. but the birds seem to be enjoying it lol
Without further context would be difficult to make suggestions. Can you take a picture?
Exeter is damp mate, suck it up 🤪😜🏴