What to do with a badly draining lawn I Perfect Grass Ltd

We frequently get asked for help from customers on what to do with their badly draining lawn

The solution can sometimes be as simple as making sure good groundworks are installed which will allow water to naturally flow away. On other occasions we have installed a simple soakway to help the lawn drain. Sometimes the drainage issues can be quite complicated and a specialist is needed to help to fix the problem. Here I am going to share with you how a recent customer was able to fix their problem of having an underground spring running through their back garden.

The customer was in the process of completely redesigning their back garden. They had recently renovated an old patio at the top end of the garden and a brand new patio area had been built at the bottom. In the process they had removed some shrubs and other fauna and reshaped some of the garden.

We were asked along to complete the garden by laying the artificial grass. On inspection we noticed the area between the patios was a boggy but we thought a soakaway filled with rubble would solve this.

When we arrived on site to start work there had been heavy rain overnight and there was a lot of surface water in one area where the patios were close together.

We found that the more we dug in this area the more it filled with water. After talking to the neighbours we found out there was a natural underground spring running through both gardens, which had been made worse by the removal of shrubs and the new patio at the back of the garden.

We discussed the drainage situation with the customer and said that before installing our groundworks the drainage problem needed fixing. If it wasn’t their new artificial grass lawn would too become flooded as there was nowhere the excess water could go.

The owner got a drainage expert in who installed a perforated pipe 5 foot down, which emptied into a large sunken tank. The tank would have to be emptied using a powerful pump when the water table was high so the top needed to be accessible.

The area was left for 4 weeks to make sure the drainage problem was fixed. To the delight of the owner it was. We could now begin the installation of the artificial grass. First we put in the groundworks adding extra type 1 around the new drains leaving an area for a hatch around the tank.

We made sure the grass could easily be lifted (using small headed nails in our nail gun) in case of any sinkage around the new pipe and tank.

The result a beautiful “dry’ new lawn which will continue to look good for many years to come.