Walker Group are refusing to look at my water logged garden because it's raining!!

*Kat*

Long story short: I moved into the property in October, it's a new build with Walker Group.

We contacted Walker Group to say that the water in the garden wasn't draining away as expected. They told us they would come out 12th December.

Received a repsonse from them today saying the weather isn't suitable to determine if there is a water logging issue, and that i need to wait until APRIL for them to do anything about it.

WHAT. THE. HELL?! So my garden is pretty much inaccessible until April!! This is a picture of it in November, it is a LOT worse now. It's pretty much a swimming pool. I'm not happy.

It's going to rain EVERY winter, this isn't a one off event. And the water is right up to the back wall of my house! Help please?




My post from December:

Hi all

We moved into our new build in October. We couldn't afford to get turf laid at the time of buying the house, so nothing was done to the garden.

When we moved in, there was a lot of rubble in the garden, bits of fence, white tubes, etc, which we cleared up and rotovated the ground so that we could lay turf ourselves. After we rotovated it, the storm happened and we couldn't lay the turf. (This was end of October'ish).

This is what my garden looks like now. I'm really worried that this could be affecting our foundations. It's been like this a while now and it's not draining away.

I emailed Walker Group. Their response was disappointing.

Garden drainage beyond 3m from the building is not considered by the NHBC, nor ourselves, to be a 'defect' under the warranty given by your new home.

Thoughts please?

wymondham

What are other houses like? Did you see the site before they built on it... wondering if this is a boggy area/flood plain??

freezspirit

Sorry to ask but did they create a soakaway around 3m from the downpipe or is it just into the soil. Can't tell from your photo but is the area worst from that white downpipe compared to the rest of the garden?

*Kat*

wymondham wrote: »

What are other houses like? Did you see the site before they built on it... wondering if this is a boggy area/flood plain??

One of my next door neighbours says that he sinks into his garden (his garden is turfed), the other (un-turfed) is also disputing the state of her garden to Walkers, she has a HUGE puddle where her path meets the garden. I am going to speak to her tonight and see if they gave her the same BS.

Another neighbour down the road said that she slides on her garden (turfed).

*Kat*

freezspirit wrote: »

Sorry to ask but did they create a soakaway around 3m from the downpipe or is it just into the soil. Can't tell from your photo but is the area worst from that white downpipe compared to the rest of the garden?

Nah, its' all over! Even the back of my garden has a huge puddle where my garden fence meets the council property.

G_M

Turn the hose off?

macman

The soil is probably just compacted from having builders and their equipment all over it during the build process, and probably full of chunks of waste masonry and concrete too. My MIL's rear garden is the same after recent heavy rain, and her house is 40 years old. No reason to think that it's damaging the foundations.

*Kat*

macman wrote: »

The soil is probably just compacted from having builders and their equipment all over it during the build process, and probably full of chunks of waste masonry and concrete too. My MIL's rear garden is the same after recent heavy rain, and her house is 40 years old. No reason to think that it's damaging the foundations.

It's just been rotovated. We had it rotovated and had ordered the turf, we had to cancel it because the garden was just too wet

AlexMac

I don't know the contractual position, nor the law in "Somewhere" which I see is where you live if that ain't England, as regards National Housebuilders Council standards re any guarantee you may have, but start by looking at their specification for new builds...
http://nhbccampaigns.co.uk/landingpages/techzone/previous_versions/2010/Part9/section2/sitework.htm
which, at section 9.2 - S6, halfway down the page, says "Garden areas shall be adequately prepared for cultivation Construction rubbish and debris should be removed from garden and other areas around the home. The ground around the home can be compacted by machinery and storage of materials during construction as well as when topsoil is being replaced and this can affect the structure of the soil and its draining capability. Where this occurs within 3m of the home appropriate action should be taken to suitably restore the drainage characteristics of the soil..."

And http://nhbccampaigns.co.uk/landingpages/techzone/previous_versions/2010/Part1/section1/default.htm
And their helplines at http://nhbccampaigns.co.uk/landingpages/techzone/previous_versions/2010/contact.htm
and what they do at
http://www.nhbc.co.uk/Homeowners/

And if those laws don't apply in "somewhere", google the ones that do, or ask your Council trading standards or building control officers to point you at the appropriate standards?

Or dig a land drain as a summer DIY project? (lots on google)

EDIT-
in fact, this google thing is really clever- on looking at 'Walker Group' I see thay are in Scotland but that at http://walkergroup.co.uk/quality-and-workmanship
they say
"Take a look at any Walker Group Home and you’ll see that we put quality first. However, for your peace of mind all properties are covered by a two-year defect warranty and by NHBC's ten-year Buildmark warranty and insurance cover. This offers the highest level of protection for new homeowners. Come and see what sets us apart by visiting one of our show homes."

mark5

My new build had poor drainage in the back garden when I bought it. I dug trenches sloping away from the house from the edge of my patio to the back fence. My gardens about 10-11m wide and I did 3 of these, I now wish I had done a few more though.

Line the trenches with weed fabric and fill them with large washed chippings, wrap the weed fabric over the top and cover with topsoil.
Just turf over the top then.

These trenches will hold a lot of the water when it rains and empty again when the ground dries out.

My lawn is still soft at the moment with all the rain we have had but much better than the bog it was in 2006.

It was 2-3.days work and a few hundred quid in chippings etc but well worth it.

teddysmum

Our house is over 40 years old and our back lawn,where the dogs leave the path,so churn the mud, is boggy like that.


We are on clay soil, which holds water and both back and front lawns are like soggy sponges to walk on...They have been so for several weeks,because of heavy rain.