Drainage in back lawn

christin, Jul 2, 7:58am
Part of my back lawn gets very very mushy in winter. To the point you practically cant walk on it (well you can if you want to sink a few inches).

Thinking of getting a dog, so would love to fix this if possible. Is this a major cost wise? im talking about an area probably 6m wide x at a guess 12 long?

Thanks!
lythande1, Jul 2, 8:07am
How long is a piece of string? It all depends why it's wet.
cantabman1, Jul 2, 8:50am
With that sort of problem, you will need field drains to rid the excess water. Cost wise depends on if you DIY or get someone in.
jan2242, Jul 2, 11:08am
Also where will the water go? If it is to a neighbours they might not like it. Look into drainage to a soak hole, that might work out cheaper.
skin1235, Jul 2, 11:24am
have just finished building a large shed on a property that had a very similar issue, his is the lowest section in the area and gets all the runnoff from the surrounding areas, his solution was to get the surface water away before it soaked in and make the soil too soft to walk on, to do that he sank a bucket below grass level at the lowest point, and uses a 12V bilge pump to pump it to the road gutter, says it can take an hour or two to pump the bucket dry after solid rain, but the ground then dries out and he gets a mowable play area for his kids all year round, a largish bilge pump, and old car battery plugged into a charger and a length of suitable sized hose, dry back section
brightlights60, Jul 2, 12:10pm
We are in Christchurch. Our water table is up since the quakes and our back yard floods all the time. Hubby's solution: Him and plumber mate dig hole after getting the plan for the stormwater drain on the property. Dig a pit (sump hole I think its called) joint a drain pipe to the stormwater and pit gets filled with stones. The water drains down the pit and empties into the stormwater.
christin, Jul 2, 1:14pm
not wanting an exact price. just wanting to know if generally an expensive job, in which case ill put up with it, or under a grand type thing.

and i know its not always the same, but just general boggy lawn due to lack of drainage in winter.

i think it may be clay soil, so a drainage pit or something simlar may work . nothing that goes to the road though as im down a long driveway!
skin1235, Jul 2, 1:53pm
if you can get rid of any rain water then half the job is done, if rain pools anywhere it will soak in and create the problem
your house will have a storm water system, simply pump pooling rainwater to one of the roof downpipe sump, no need to pump it all the way to the street, its stormwater, let it go into the stormwater system
tegretol, Jul 2, 5:47pm
Just a bit more mechanical junk to have to maintain.
maclad, Jul 2, 6:24pm
Put in a gully trap at the lowest point and then pipe the runoff from there to the storm water system. Not really hard to do unless there is a long distance to the storm water pipes. Lots of digging and getting drop right. Will require cutting, tapping into and re joining pipes but not hard to do and you may need specific tools to cut holes in gully trap. I have done several over the years and they were always successful.
timbo69, Jul 2, 8:14pm
Assuming the gully is higher than the drain.
southerngurl, Jul 9, 5:11am
Ours was a mush over winter and we started sprinkling coffee grounds into it. you can get big bags from BP and Z petrol stations. made a huge difference.
finelawns, Jul 9, 8:36am
Is this a new build. Was the property scraped back to clay. Maybe it’s wet clay maybe it’s runoff. Is the section flat or on a slope. If your section is wet from rain You could put 200mm + of GAP 7 then artificial turf ideal if your getting a dog. Maybe you could remove rhe top 500mm of soil ad 200mm of scoria and place 300mm back on top. Are your secti9n is wet from run off from a neighbouring property then it’s drainage. There you go for about 10k you have some options but without seeing the property not sure of the cause. Maybe it’s cheaper to wait tell summer when it’s dry haha. Does the section dry out and crack in summer. We just did a new lawn for a $25m development by using the right soil mix the lawn is dry and walkable right now another contractor also did a bit of a new lawn that is soaking wet and mushy and you can see the clay in the soil. Our work has a beautiful lawn theirs is already dying back because it’s to wet.
christin, Oct 21, 7:15pm
its not a new build. 1920s house so far from it.

its flat section. maybe a minute slope but nothing visible as such.

the section doesnt dry and crack in the summer, if anything it does in the part that doenst get boggy!

there is a big concrete parking area in front of it, but not sure if thats affecting it as it gets boggy all the way up. trying to find a decent photo to show what i mean!