Soggy Grass

little_miss_muppet_face

Hi everyone,

We moved to a new house end of last year, the grass out the back along the left hand side was really soggy.. plus its the side that my dog likes to pee which i thought didnt help much.

Anyway, we recently had the whole area returfed.. and we are back to square one, the side is soggy again.. (been about 2 months)..

My husband was speaking to a neighbour about it and he said that he thinks there was a burn that ran around there somewhere as all the people in our row seem to have the same problem.

Is there anything i can do to dry it out.. or could i just dig it all up and lay slabs, stones, bark.. or would they just get ruined with the wet ?

any advise anyone ? Im at a loss as to how we can make it right.

Del_Astra

My first thought was poor drainage.

When the turf went down was any other work done? or was the old turf just lifted and new turf laid? Was there lots of stones / perhaps even bricks / builders rubbish from when the house was built?

I'd be investigating the drainage, however as you have been tipped off about a burn, I'd be trying to find out more about this. I wouldn't slab the area, I wouldn't be doing any work until I knew what was causing the poor drainage, once you put that right then you landscape knowing its been done right.

iwilldoitthistime

Is your house a new build? We had this problem and nagged the builder until they eventually had to put a soakaway in the worst effected place, and it has solved the problem

mrs_baggins

it may also depend on the underlying soil. mine is heavy clay and gets very soggy from september onwards. i was in garden yesterday and on the dark side of garden its sqelchy. not sure hoe to fix your to be fair. if its bad then dont walk on it as this will compact it more. you may need to dig down deep and lay some soakaways but they will have to have somewher eto drain to i think

Hintza

Unfortunately this year is not a great year to judge these things, all the ground has been permanently soaking.

If it is not a new build then I think you will have to sort it yourself. Probably too late to do much this year with the frosts coming in, but it might be worth seeing if the turf will lift.

I spent £1,500 replacing field drains on a piece of ground under an acre and it really isn't any better. When we have some spare cash I will power harrow it and see if that helps.

little_miss_muppet_face

Thanks for the replies.

Might we get off with just slabbing over it and sticking my daughters trampline on it ? or is that a stupid idea ?

little_miss_muppet_face

Sorry, meant to add its not a new build, is around 30 years old, so suspect the problem has always been there...