Daydream thread continues.....

oldtractor

Soggy soggy soggy here. Horses in. I think the grass will grow though as its to be milder.

rozeepozee

We're starting to regret taking down the wall that we intend to move when the curtilage is extended. It was holding back a lot of water from the top field..... It's now coming up towards the house :eek:

Draining the field is now more of a priority perhaps.... Especially now that we mayn't be refurbing for many months. Does anyone have any views on a French drain? Where you dig a ditch and fill it with gravel? OH seems to think this may be adequate. We don't want to spend a fortune on drainage until any building has been completed as there may need to be heavy plant across this field at some stage so could damage drains. I don't know. I'm hopelessly untechnical about such things!

lostinrates

oldtractor wrote: »

Soggy soggy soggy here. Horses in. I think the grass will grow though as its to be milder.

Our grass has shot up. Trying to decide whether to make hay or sell grass. Making small bales here costs a fortune, a ruddy fortune, otherwise it would be a no brainer. For our use big bales are fine, and cheaper, but then cannot be sold.

Davesnave

rozeepozee wrote: »

Does anyone have any views on a French drain? Where you dig a ditch and fill it with gravel? OH seems to think this may be adequate. We don't want to spend a fortune on drainage until any building has been completed as there may need to be heavy plant across this field at some stage so could damage drains. I don't know. I'm hopelessly untechnical about such things!

Depends on the depth. The best drain would be a perforated drainage pipe, inside gravel, inside a wrapping of geomembrane. Placed at depth, that would survive, tractors & diggers, but not close to the surface in squelchy mud.

A simple digger-dug ditch or two might do, short term.

lostinrates

Gosh rozee. . It is easier to see why sometimes, in different seasons over a couple of years.

I agree with dave, a digger could do a ditch quickly and relatively cheaply.

Itismehonest

Yes, Dave is right.
Eventually you may want to look at a proper drainage layout, rozee, but I'd go with something that costs the minimum & allows you to time to plan out something which will serve its' purpose when everywhere is finished.
We have a fairly complicated system which includes gullies, grates, ponds, streams & perforated drainage systems such as Dave has described.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

LIR i have seen the big round bales on ebay, cant remember the prices.

But i should imagine its more benificial to use all the hay yourself..

The wind has calmed down now, but still raining, but not so heavy...

Rozee i should imagine any sort of drainage is good at the moment to stop any water running off the fields into the bungalow..

Rummer

It is now pouring with rain here.

Davesnave

Rummer wrote: »

It is now pouring with rain here.

Everything comes to (s)he who waits! I think the weather chappie said you'd be free of the next lot before us, if that's any consolation.:)

We're really keen to go up to our old house and cut off the water & electricity to the plot we're selling, but there has to be a dry day for that. Looking forward to being free from the responsibility too. We're due for a letter from the lady at number 13 which will go something like:

"Dear Mr & Mrs Snave,
Once again I must remind you that your boundary hedge is looking very untidy....."

We're not arguing. All the time we lived there, we never really knew whose hedge it was, but we're selling it with the plot now, since she obviously thinks its ours. :rotfl:

rozeepozee

Davesnave wrote: »

Depends on the depth. The best drain would be a perforated drainage pipe, inside gravel, inside a wrapping of geomembrane. Placed at depth, that would survive, tractors & diggers, but not close to the surface in squelchy mud.

A simple digger-dug ditch or two might do, short term.

Hmmm, I don't really know how bad it is. I've not been up there. I'm hoping not that bad, but there's been so much rain here. It's utterly tippling down as we speak.

We took professional advice on whether it was a sound idea to remove the wall. It's perhaps the case that we didn't get great advice.

The thought about a French drain as a temporary measure is that there is a ditch there already where the wall was removed! As someone else mentioned (sorry, it's late), we really need a proper plan if we are going to expend money on drainage and there is a substantial area of land that potentialling needs drainage. We know now from our limited experience of putting in the drainage material for the caravan that its not cheap (I can't believe that certain bits of plastic can cost £50!:eek:) so we don't want what we expend on what we put in to be duplicated or worse still get damaged.

It's amazing how expensive building is. Our total budget is not ungenerous and you could buy two terraced houses for that sort of money where I come from, but once you start talking about putting in new drains, new wiring, new boilers and heating systems, windows, insulating.... A lot of money disappears on very little that can actually be seen. These property refurbishment shows make me laugh. The budgets always seem totally unrealistic and we don't want to be one of those who totally overspend (where do they find the money from when they do this?) Problem is, because our priority is to make the house as energy efficient and economic as possible and in this regard we'll be starting from scratch, an enormous amount of our budget will be going on things that pursue that aim (insulation, double glazed windows, roof insulation). When you add in bills for replumbing and putting in a new heating system and rewiring.... It wouldn't be cheaper to knock it down and start again but I'm not sure why

If we had our time again, as so many of you have suggested, we would move in as it is and observe for a year. Now that we may save 15% VAT if the place is empty for two years, well, it could just make all the "up the garden path" errors worthwhile